When RapidSupreme announced he’d be archiving School of Rock sometime early in the new year, several local cachers realised we’d have to get out there and find it! I’m one of them – I’ve been meaning to do it, well, since 10 December 2005. The major drawback to this cache has always been that for me it is a Dog Guilt cache, i.e. in an area where dogs are not allowed, so I feel guilty doing it as I know there’s someone at home upset to be left behind. But when SamCarter and SG-3 asked if I’d like to accompany them on their walk, I was excited and ready to go!
It all started around 9 am, when I picked up SamCarter and SG-3. It was raining, but none of us was going to be a girl and pull out so we soon found ourselves at the parking coordinates near Risdon Brook Dam. Gore-tex was donned, and we were on our very merry way. If I’d bothered to have a caching resolution last it year it would have been to do more group caching. And if I could be bothered having a caching resolution this year it would be the same, so for me this was starting the year out on the right foot. Until it all went horribly wrong! 
Based upon the information in the cache description, we were all looking out for a crossroads to leave the main circuit track around the dam where we would be 1.1 kms from GZ. The distance counted down, then the distance counted up again. We arrived at A Stream at Risdon (which I’d logged back in Feb ’05), so my companions found and logged it. We were near a gate that SG-3 knew would lead us to a track that wound up behind where he’s once stalked Scouts (and he thought I was a balding 50-y-o male who hung around public toilet blocks?!), so of course we took that.
Um, well, after a while the distance was counting down. We came to a fork in the track, not at 1.1 kms, and it took us nowhere. So we continued on. It was a fairly straightforward track, which SG-3 couldn’t help making a bit more difficult – resulting in bleeding. But it was a lovely walk, and we even squeezed in a wallaby sighting.
Eventually we came to a saddle and were 350 metres from the cache. We thought we were in spitting distance now and briefly broke into 2 groups to scout the options. Instead of taking SG-3 & my perfectly simple bush-bash we wound up taking SamCarter’s clear, but steep, track. Which eventually petered out – above The Cliffs of Insanity! After a bit more hunting, SG-3 found a way up, around and over a gully to where we had seen tracks from the opposite side. (I won’t mention the fences traversed – however I will mention that SamCarter and SG-3 would make very good players of massive lutes – based upon how well they helped holding up / back various tightly-strung fence wires.)
Now we had tracks to follow, not that we knew if they would actually get us where we were going – however tracks were welcome at this point. If I were mentioning the crossing of fences I might mention going under one and inexpertly over another at this point (but of course I won’t). We then zigzagged our way almost to GZ.
I won’t reveal where the cache is, however it was at a spot that of course wasn’t obviously reachable from the direction we came. But find it we did!!
 
Many photos were taken along the way, especially near GZ. But most importantly, I had a blast. The walk back was obviously boring and uneventful – except for coming across the ‘birdwatcher’ and earning a 9.5 for my stumble-roll. If you’d like to take the boring track Fast-Pizza-with-the-Lot recommends, here are some coords below. If you’d like to take a more adventurous route, well navigate via the sound of the birds and the STWs. Highly recommended! I don’t remember the time we arrived back at the car, but it was after 2 pm. More fun for us, say I!
Some coordinates that might have helped us:
- Turn off from main track: S42 47.977 E147 20.219
- A gate you’ll head through: S42 47.946 E147 20.391
- Crossroads RapidSupreme mentions: S42 47.823 E147 20.671
- ‘Detour’ in the track (possible aboriginal site?): S42 47.668 E147 20.585
- Re-joining the track: S42 47.551 E147 20.633
Dippedidooda mentioned in her log that she thought if she’d been doing this cache as part of The Amazing Race. Well Dippedy, you know how on The Amazing Race everything will go wrong for one team on a leg, and they will be convinced that they will be eliminated at the pit stop – but sometimes another team has even worse luck? Well I have this to tell you: Phil’s just told you that you have NOT been eliminated from the race – we win that honour!