Aztec King Krusade: Krusade Day

After a night where not much sleep was had because of the thundering noise of rain on the cacheMobile roof (would the 13th prove to be an unlucky day?!), we woke to blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  My female slave and I went into energizer HQ and were given a good prognosis for our attempt on The Aztec King; according to mr energizer and the weather service, another small front was coming through but should be over and done with by the time we hit the trail.  Mrs energizer followed the previous night’s gourmet beast feast with a fantastic pancake breakfast – and still the male slave wasn’t up.  We watch some morning telly and chatted and lil miss energizer blew bubbles for me – and still the male slave wasn’t up.

 

  So we went out to ‘check’ in on him – and FINALLY roused him.  He broke his fast, the energizers piled into their cacheMobile and us into ours, and we headed for our first stop, GONE FISHIN!  Mr energizer found it and the cachingdynamo retriever; good thing as I wasn’t allowed in the area, and it was too far for my slaves to hear my instructions.  On wards!Next stop was Fatigue Kills, and being a public holiday, there was a driver reviver station there.  At first I was worried, but with coffee, tea, sausages, and Ellie the energizer’s L-plate guide dog no one was watching a Schnauzer (no matter how stunning) sneak off to find a cache.  Next stop by Rock Trolly – no need to waste GPSr batteries here!  Any cacher worth their salt should be able to find this no problems (and since I’d already scored one set of batteries off the energizers the day before and didn’t need to beg for more, this is probably a good thing!).
Our final stop before hitting the trail SHOULD have been quick, but it somehow took an excruciatingly long time!  All we wanted was to provision ourselves with salad sandwiches, and this took FOREVER!  First my female slave went in and place an order, soon followed by Mrs energizer and Ellie.  After forever, the slave’s sandwiches were handed over, and the female slave left assuming the energizers would only be a minute or two behind (obviously, with the time they’d taken they’d made all the sandwiches – and enough more for a few ruby teams – at the same time and would only need to wrap the others up).  So we waited.  And waited.  I barked sandwich making instructions.  And we waited.  Mrs energizer finally arrived victorious, and we drove the last bit to the start of the walk to The Aztec King.  12.30 – and we were off!

We set off on quite a muddy track, but that was fun for the canine cachers (and ‘tanned’ Mrs energizer’s legs beautifully!). Throughout the track in there was a bit of two-ing and fro-ing as to who was guiding the expedition, the Guide Dog or the Mad Dog! The track was lovely and level, the scenery beautiful! I was a bit worried about how many muggles there were though; there were quite a few vehicles in the car park, and we saw a couple groups going in. What if they’re all hanging around the cache?! We pushed on, then all stopped for lunch at a bench signposted as 20 minutes from the falls (just in case the muggles were congregating!). We arrived at the falls – and wow! That rain certainly ensured we were in for an amazing sight! I ran bravely ran across the bridge with my slaves, then headed back around to what we thought possibly might possibly be GZ (although it was in the opposite direction for where the GPSr thought it might be – no point using it!). The cachingdynamo, Mr energizer, and my slaves hunted and hunted around for the cache (Ellie was guiding the female energizers slowly back – our expedition was not without injuries!!!). Hunted and hunted! Mr energizer finally came up with the goods (and my female slave kept squeaking ‘but I looked there a million trillion times!’), and in the HEAVY mists the log book was signed. Brilliant! We were very wet and getting a bit cold – but it was good! 

       

Looking at my photos now, I can see that when we arrived it was lovely and sunny, but while we were under the spray the weather turned.  We had to get back to Hobart, and I made my slaves say their good byes to the energizers and the cachingdynamo so I could force them back to the cacheMobile double-time – and the sky absolutely opened up just as we were getting to the cacheMobile.

However this can be a good thing. . .it allowed my female slave to score one last find for the trip, Dog Stitt, and my HandsomeMan to change into some dry clothing.
It was quite late for a bunch of cachers who had to get back to Hobart, so no more caching and lots more driving were ahead of us.  We finally got home at 10 pm, exhausted but happy.  Because we love geocaching.