Late December Get-Away Day 3: Gettin' Hotter!

Ahhh, brilliant – the smell of a fresh, unfound cache first thing in the morning! We’d camped the night near the Leven Canyon – right near the start of the walk to the Wile E. Coyote geocache. I couldn’t tolerate the slaves sleeping in today, so around 7.30 am I had them out and makin’ coffee so they’d get moving! After breakfast and the usual fooling around in camp (if my slaves just got themselves some slaves, I wouldn’t have to wait around while they tidied the cacheMobile and put away the bedding and breakfast things!), we started off on the lovely track. It was cool and shady and had we needed it there were frequent benches. The benches even had the metres to each end of the track listed on them!

 

The track ended at an overlook I wouldn’t go on – it used that metal grate construction that is sooo hard on the paws! I sent the slave to take photos for me, and she must have been really worried about the job she was doing as she took millions of photos! Apparently the view was a stunning look out over – and down into – the Leven Canyon. After taking in the scene, we hunted for Wile E. Coyote which we found after remembering Captain Tiges isn’t a masochist. We picked up the Honeydew-Melon TB as it has been here for months. Why hasn’t anyone done this cache in so long?! This is a fantastic spot and a lovely gentle walk!

Next up, the female slave downloaded photos to the laptop (the fun of a new camera – filled a 512 card in one day’s caching!), and we parked near the canyon floor track. The female slave whinged about going downhill at the beginning of a walk as it would mean walking uphill at the very end. We were soon on the bridge though, and female slave stopped talking and started taking photographs (have to fill that SD card up, don’t we!). I was relieved to get past the bridge (that metal grate construction that’s bad for paws again!), and it wasn’t long before we were in Devil May Care territory. No GPSr reception, and I was beginning to get anxious when I looked at the hint the forthferalz had on the cache listing – it just referenced a website to go to and photos to download! However I’m clever enough it was found quickly anyway. The view from here is fantastic, but we decided to stop, lunch, and photograph on the way back. Onwards up the track!

UP we went! not for faint hearted is on the ridge on the opposite side of the canyon from Wile E. Coyote, and this canyon has some steep sides. However it was all shady and forested, and there were fern and wildflowers all over to distract the female slave. It looked lovely and healthy with all sorts of mosses covering the rocks, however they were extremely dry. And it is surprising how SHARP dried lichen and moss can be! There were 2 ladders on the track, which the male slave helped me with, and lots of markers in trees to show where the track went (absolutely essential!). When we crested the ridge and turned off towards the lookout, this track was less distinct but we soon found GZ. I was so excited to be there that I had to be restrained – so my lead was attached to something solid to keep me safe. I knew I was close to the cache – I could see it! – but the slaves were not listening to me and scrambled all over hunting around. The female slave finally realised I had it, and the logbook was logged and another cache to Snuva! As we left, the female slave confirmed that yes, there are jack jumpers here!

 

Photographs were taken (surprise, surprise!) then we started out way back down. When we returned to devil may care, we had lunch, took some photos, and the female slave realised that, in addition to the jack jumper bites and various scrapes and bruises collected along the track, she had managed to hoover up every tick – young and old – in the vicinity! It was hilarious watching her undress in the middle of the track to attempt to pluck them out of her skin! Luckily, they are not as aggressive as the ticks the came across in California. Those buried their heads into the skin, whereas these were plucked off fairly easily.

We continued on across the bridge and then trudged up the hill to the cacheMobile. I must admit, this was the most unpleasant part of the walk as 1) it was uphill 2) we weren’t in the shade 3) we were actually low on water (unheard of for us, but the case of water was purchased before leaving home was 400 ml bottle instead of 600 ml! Oops!) and 4) I don’t know by what, but I was stung on the nose by something, and the something got caught in my beard and kept stinging me, and I tried rubbing my nose on the ground to kill I but I think either I kept picking up more of them or was making the first one angrier and angrier! Poor me! At least the female slave found more ticks on herself and stripped off when we reached the van – that part was funny!

As we were low on petrol and on beverages, we made our way straight into Ulverstone. We topped up our supplies at a petrol station, then made our way to the UFO park to relax and have a drink in the shade. I even got a vanilla milkshake! It pays to practise the hungry-puppy eyes!

After this I sent the female slave into the [TAS] TRAVEL BUG INFORMATION CENTRE. The gentleman on duty had not had a cacher come in so was a bit uncertain what to do, so the female slave found the cache for him and showed him what it was all about.

Afterwards, I sent the female slave in search of gas for the cooking stove. She tried the nearby Mitre 10 (and a member of staff had to point out to her that she had a tick on her – how embarrassing for her and funny for me!) as well as the nearby camping shop – no joy. And so we headed to Devonport. At Devonport we had a second lunch (I did the hungry-puppy thing again and scored my own mini sausage roll!). We ventured around looking for fuel for the camping stove and eventually happened upon Allgoods – who had everything! Yeah!

By this time it had been hours since I’d found a cache, so we headed to Allissons Lizard. This was a lovely walk to a spot with an interesting lizard sculpture/bench and views across Devonport to the lighthouse on the Mersey Bluff. I was in such a good mood I decided to attempt a past DNF, A GOOD WALK SPOILED by robtas. GGGGRRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Let us skip over that experience. . .we decided to head back towards Ulverstone for some more caching then try to find a camp somewhere on the coast. I’d wanted to check out Burnt Out Forest, it was 6.15 pm and as the cache description asked us not to come after 6 pm we left this one for next trip. Still very curious to see the cache and meet ThatDad!

And we were off to TENNIS ANYONE? #2. We found it fairly easily. Actually, found too easily – I thought it was a multi, however we found the cache at the listed coordinates?! Anyway, a lovely beach to visit! We tried doubling back to the fruit shop on Queen Street, however it must have closed while we were at the cache, so the handsomeMan went to the IGA for some fruit (and chocolate covered bikkies!) – apparently they get 4 stars for friendliness! At this point the female slave realised she’d left the PDA back at TENNIS ANYONE? #2, so back we went to where it was waiting patiently for us. Next up was Sister Act. The first waypoint had me yearning to swim out to Goat Island to check out the new placement there, but as the tide was in and as I’m not allowed in the area we decided against it – it was much too hot to wait in the cacheMobile! Sister Act was a lovely little multi that was going just in the direction we were! Both waypoints were well hidden but found easily, and the coast here really is beautiful. And despite being a sirius Tas cache, the terrain wasn’t difficult at all. 🙂

Deciding to attempt another previous robtas DNF, we arrived at BEAUTIFUL GARDENS just before 7 pm. Woo-hoo! Found perhaps 30m from where we got GZ, but found nonetheless! Now we can actually enjoy the gardens here rather than wandering though them getting grumpier and grumpier.

Next closest was forthferalz’s Art for Art’s Sake, a virtual that has you checking out the murals on a new retaining wall at Penguin; hmm. . .I seem to remember another cache that once was here – before these retaining walls were! The art, being only marker on concrete walls facing the sea, is really fading fast. Continuing the arty theme in Penguin was robtas’s BUT IS IT ART?. This lead us on an interesting drive around Penguin, showing us spots we hadn’t checked out before. When we got to the final waypoint we thought robtas was crazy . . . then thought he was being really mean – but it all worked well in the end! Our last find of the day before making camp on the coast near Sulphur Creek. The slaves made some coffee, then had laksa for dinner and strawberries and chocolate covered bikkies for dessert. I need to work on my hungry-puppy look!