Disa's Day with Dak

A couple weeks ago, dak’s Emu Mob posted a thread in the Tassie section of the forum to warn us he would be in town.  As soon I saw this, I PMed him to let him know I would be pleased to allow him to make use of a slave or two for the day.  And so it came to pass that my female slave met up with dak for a day of caching lunacy.

Unfortunately, the female slave didn’t really plan the day terribly well.  She made ridiculous claims about being extremely busy at work as well as at home, so all she did was look at our home town in MapSource, showing found and unfound caches, and decided she’s take dak to South Hobart, work over to Mt Nelson, then head south along the coast from there and if they still had time to hit an easy cache or two on the Mountain.

They met at a cafe in town at 8 am and ordered some big coffees to get the blood moving.  Then it was off for a first dak find at The Russians are Coming III before collecting the information from the first waypoint of Nelson’s Signal. 

After a quick stop to swap vehicles and a longer stop to fuel the cacheWagon, off they headed to Frank’s Farewell.  Frank’s friend Fred was found but not Frank’s Farewell cache.  However this did give dak an opportunity to experience some Actual Tasmanian Geocache Blackberries and do a bit of bleeding, so the stop wasn’t a complete waste of time!

Next up was the first waypoint of Raise a Glass, Raise a Cheer!  In order not to let on the location of the other waypoints I’ll just say they visited the others in and around some other finds, and dak was able to log a find combining history and beer – not a bad way to get on with the day.

They continued through South Hobart, with dak scoring finds for all the Linear Park series, Not an Ocean Cliff Cache, and Ultimate Battleship: Snuva’s Throne.  The female slave said she was having a absolute blast swapping caching tales with dak and hearing his experiences of caching on the north island and overseas.

They headed to Cheesy Pigs Four Seasons – Autumn, then (believe it or not) drove between there and Tyres! No Traction.

They then headed up the Southern Outlet, where the female slave was under instruction to pick up Odd One Out for me.  Apparently there were several muggles milling around, so they continued on to Save My Bacon.  Dak made quick work of finding the cache, the container of which is unfortunately cracked.

After a quick stop at !STOP! at the scene. they continued onwards to Mt Nelson, where dak found HAPPY BIRTHDAY! as well as (wink, wink) another cache.  The female slave found it fun to not only be sharing this time with dak, but he was also making & receiving phone calls to other ‘famous’ north island cachers – real life almost-contact with Rabbito and Muzza!  (Note:  dak wasn’t being rude, he just needed info from a caching listing page.)

Down and down the hill they went towards the coast, headed for The Russians are Coming II and Cheesy Pigs Four Seasons – Summer before passing Ghost Tour of Hobart #1 The Shot Tower  on the way towards Kingston.

This is where the female slave should have been scoring my first find for the day, at The Lost Bridge .  Shall I repeat:  SHOULD have been scoring my first find for the day!  Alas, it was not meant to be.  They searched low and high, tried to reach some help lines – but only came away with a DNF.  This seemed a good place to re-fuel, so they continued in to Kingston’s Banjo’s and ate lots of raw mushrooms.  Well, that’s all the female slave admitted to – she knows there would have been strife if anyone had a sausage roll, meat pie, or baguette with yummy fillings without me being there to help!

Next they stopped briefly at Between two worlds before continuing on to find and check the status of my first ever cache, Chepup & Snuva.  Despite sirius Tas finding it in a bit of disarray last month, the cache seemed happy and dry.  I added a ziploc for Flip’s scarf, and we continued on towards the next cache.

If you don’t mind my interrupting, I’ll just paws :-) here to mention the sort of day it was weather-wise.  Although the day started off overcast, breaks soon appeared in the clouds and there were sunny patches.  dak and the female slave had so far spent the day in shirt sleeves.  When leaving the cacheWagon the female slave didn’t hesitate to take the Gore-Tex jacket out of her rucksack to make certain she could fill it with swaps.

Now we continue the narrative; the weather is still behaving and, much to my dismay (as I was not in attendance), dak and the female slave made their way along the dog beach to the start of the track to Alloy Overhang.  Near the start they passed some bushwalkers on their way out, having been discouraged by ‘Treacherous Track’ signage.  Being the caching equivalent to a lady of the evening, they looked the other way when they eventually passed this sign and continued on.  The female slave made some flippant remark about dak being able to do some caching in the Tasmanian hail that had just started to make its presence known; the weather gods were not pleased.  By the time they were within 20 metres of the cache, dak and the female slave were cowering behind a shrub in the hopes it would help break the constant flow of wind and ice that were bashing them from the side.  Eventually dak said they’d have to brave it and make a break for the cache so they could leave the area.  The cache was found away from where the Cheesy Pigs had set it, and dak logged it as quickly as possible.  The hail was too blinding for the female slave to re-hide it in the proper spot – by this point the rain was falling so fast and heavy that it was foaming in the rivulets running down the sides of trees and turning the track into a stream.  Completely soaking wet, they continued on, with glasses steaming up.  By the time they were back at the beach, the rain had stopped.  That’ll teach them for not taking me to the beach and making flippant remarks about the weather!

The next victim in dak’s path to caching glory was Sweet Tooth #1 Mints on the Beach.  The female slave didn’t know how likely it was they might find it.  The cache had been out for weeks, and some pretty experienced cachers hadn’t cracked it.  They looked, and looked, and looked.  They found some trash, although luckily no syringes, and looked and looked some more.  Finally in the middle of chatting, dak had his hands on it.  He patiently unwrapped it from its several layers of ziploc bags, patiently retrieved the log sheet, and was rewarded with a beautiful sight: it was clean!  A foriegn FTF for dak!  The slave signed as well (my first find for the day!), and dak told some tales of other foreign FTFs.

After this there were a couple more finds for me, first at Washed Ashore.  They approached first from above, then spotted the track below, rounded a corner – and MUGGLES.  Almost sitting at GZ.  They continued on, and dak was cursed by a muggle-hound.  But luckily upon reaching GZ it was evident that geology was in their favour, providing the perfect hide to make their activities invisible to the muggle eye.  The cache itself was wonderfully in-theme – very well done.

Back up to the top of the cliffs, and the duo followed a coastal track to the next cache, Sunny coast .  It was lovely track made even better by the owners of the houses it passes behind; many of the gardens have been extended beyond back fences to provide a lovely display right next to the path.  The cache proved remarkably difficult to find considering its size and colour, and after an extended hunt it was logged.

Time meant unfortunately they had to pass on Fossil Cove, but they did stop for the first waypoint of Ruski? Nyet! and to find Sunday Drive #3 – Tinderbox.  The female slave hadn’t been to Sunday Drive #3, and it actually took them quite a wile to find it.  In fact, they found it just after they’d given up and phoned HQ!  Then off they headed for the final waypoints of Ruski, and after a bit of a search dak scored the last cache of his trip with the female slave.

They made their way back to dak’s rental, which had been left in the CBD and said good-bye.  My female slave hated to stop, but of course she had important duties to attend to at home – cooking for me and the HandsomeMan.

I was lucky enough to meet up with dak the next day to assist him with my Soldier’s Walk cache (female slave hadn’t finished maintenance!).  I look forward to him coming down to Hobart again, and next time my slaves make it to Melbourne I’ll ensure to enlist him as a slave to make certain they get a goodly number of finds for me.