Schnauzer muggles – and a cache or 5

Well, there was a Tasmanian Schnauzer gathering in Evandale, which of course couldn’t have been held without me.  And I was able to score a few caches while I was up north!We started out fairly early in the am and were able to hit Change your Horses on the way up.  I’ve never gotten off the hiway at Tunbridge, so it was a welcome break.  The canine muggles here were extremely friendly and submissive, however the human muggles seemed exactly the opposite!  Cache was very easily spotted, and I had the pleasure of being able to laugh at the female slave as she walked back to the cacheMobile.  You know that danse you do when you wind up with half a tree in you knickers after you’ve had to dive into foliage to retrieve a cache. . .

We stopped in Campbell Town so the slaves could get some caffiene at Zeps and I could be admired by the general population, then we headed on to Evandale for the Schnauzer gathering.

I didn’t really know what to expect, and I think the organiser really didn’t know what the turnout, etc would be either.  At one point the HandsomeMan counted 70 vehicles.  Now, each one of these would have had at least one Schnauzer, and several had 2 or more, so this was definately a well attended event.  We all arrived, signed in, and then were asked to stand in different areas depending upon where we’d been bred (Tasmanians just can’t get enough of it can they!).  There were lots of Tasmanians related to each other, of course, then there was the group of mainlanders and overseas that I was in.  I was the only black Standard; the only other blacks were two giants, one from England and one from Germany.  There weren’t many other Standards – it was mostly miniatures.  Once we’d gotten bored standing in our groups we mingled again for a while, then had some lunch.  Then we mingled again until we decided caches were waiting and could not be ignored!

We headed for Launceston and got LOOKOUT TALBOT out of the way (the female slave had had a bad experience here a few months ago – but this time it was sitting practically out in the open).  Then we headed off for 3 we’d wanted to do on our way back from the 5th Birthday Bash – but it had been just too hot that day!  First we went for  High ‘n’ Dry, which was in a lovely (though non-canine) area.  Good though easy find. 

Next we attempted was Lake Placid.  This was a lovely, short walk around a lake – looks human-made to me, but it was still lovely. We started on our merry way, and the walk was really welcome as we’d been in the cacheMobile or just standing around the Schnauzer gather – no real leg stretches yet for the day.  The path is level and easy, and we quickly found the coordinates at the first waypoint.  Excellant!  Got the second set of waypoints into the GPSr, and as we approached we could see muggles picking blackberries right where it looked like GZ was going to be.  The closer we got the more obvious it was that we wouldn’t be able to hunt.  The female slave took several photos of the lake hoping against hope these muggles would have caught their fill of berries, but to no avail.  So we had to abandon the attempt on the cache and hope that when we returned the muggles would be gone.  Grrh.

Onwards to River Walk!  The female slave’s wanted to do this one for ages.  She used to look at the sign for the walk longingly when she would drive past for work, hoping one day she would have the time to set a cache here.  Then when michael’s mob set the cache, she was even more excited and hoped she’d be able to fit the cache into one of her work trips to the area – but she was never able to.  So we hit it together today, while the HandsomeMan read the paper and relaxed.   I found a fantastic throwing stick early in the walk, and merrily trotted along this easy track.  We couldn’t have asked for a better day – wasn’t too hot (maybe too sunny), but it was just beautiful.  The muggles in the area must be incredibly lazy as we didn’t see that many while on the hunt, so the cache was easily retrieved – although there are lots of great hides in that area!  We scored the find, enjoyed the scenery, and returned to the HandsomeMan so he could pilot the cacheMobile back to Lake Placid!

Back at the lake, the muggles had finally left GZ and we quickly found the cache.  It was a bit of a challenge to get the ocntainer open, especially as one must be careful not to destroy the camo job, but the HandsomeMan’s strong hands soon did the trick and we scored this last find of the trip!  Thanks for all your caches michaels mob!