South Arm with SG-3 and Many Memories

Things have been busy.  So busy that I wound up not going caching last weekend, and so busy that I’d done no planning for caching this weekend other than giving SG-3 a time I’d pick him up and updating GSAK.  And so busy that I really wanted to sleep in on Saturday – however I wanted to meet up with SG-3 and go caching even more!!

So I arrived at his house 9am ish and cranked up Ace.  I filtered for caches SG-3 hadn’t found and had a look in MapSource.  South Arm stuck out.  It’s been a while since I checked up on KY Aeorplane, and there are a couple caches down that way I’d not been to before.  I mentioned that I’d also been wanting to set another cache down that way, and SG-3 and his lovely Mrs soon had cammoed cache put together for me.  (Which was a bit silly; I thought I’d forgotten all caching gear but found containers, swaps, and ziplocs in the cacheWagon ready to go.  Oop.  In my defense I wasn’t awake, just pretending.  Don’t tell.)

The weather report wasn’t great, but as it was only going to get worse I thought we should head for KY Aeorplane.  SG-3 thought this was a bad idea and kicked and screamed the whole way,  but I was driving so he lost.  🙂

KY Aeoplane is a special cache for me.  On my first real day of caching, we went first to Hobart City Scratchie Exchange, then Wellington’s Cascade and Polar Bear Swim, and then to KY Aeroplane.  And that was pretty much all the caches in the Hobart area found!  Without these caches, I doubt I’d be a cacher today nor would have had all the fun I’ve had in the past 5 years from caching.  As all these were holiday caches, I try to keep an eye on them and semi-regularly do maintenance and CITO.  Snuva LOVED coming to this cache.  It really is dog heaven – a couple kilometres of off lead area to run in, rabbits to chase, and as it’s a peninsula it’s never far to go for a swim if she got hot.  I was feeling some dog guilt for not bringing Lottie, but I’m certain I’ll be back with her.  If you’re interested in what Snuva thought about these trips to maintain those caches and visit the area around KY Aeroplane, here’s a blog post she wrote.
View Larger MapBack to the present day!  It was overcast and the grass was wet, however it wasn’t actively raining when we set out.  This walk is on a narrow end of a peninsula that curls around like a scorpions tail.  The topography almost seems un-Tasmanian to me – gentle rolling grassiness with just a hint of hills.  But the views are all very Tasmanian – out across the Derwent to Hobart, Mt Wellington, down the D’Entrecasteux Channel, etc.  Beautiful in any weather.  We were soon quite wet from the knees down because of the grass; with each step I could feel water moving in my boots.  Oh well – it wasn’t too cold so how could you not enjoy the walk anyway?!

SG-3 Logging KY Aeroplane We arrived at GZ, and I was really amazed at how good the coordinates were.  The cache was listed almost 6 years ago when handheld GPSrs weren’t as good as they are today, but I still zeroed out right on top of the cache.  Obviously not a cache that was just chucked out the door at the side of the road.  😉  SG-3 signed the log  while I checked out the scenery and noted how different it was to other times I’d been there.

The view from GZ of KY Aeroplane

The View from KY Aeroplane Today

Scott near KY Aeroplane

Scott in 2006

Tasman Bridge from KY Aeroplane

View during a visit in 2006

In the log book of KY Aeroplane, the coordinated are given for a grave.  I’ve always wanted to set a cache near the grave but never have – until today.  This is where the container Mrs SG-3 helped out with came in.  We made our way to the grave, and as we arrived approached with caution.  Not because we were afraid of the ghosts of Gellibrands past, but because the rain had made the hillside insanely slippery – which made approaching the tomb and not slipping into a thorn tree quite a challenge.  SG-3 slipped badly once but was able to recover himself; I started slipping rather dramatically but he was able to offer me a hand and haul me back up.  We re-accessed the situation, and SG-3 found a less steep incline down to the beach, from which we could make our way up to the tomb.  I always find this lone grave in an otherwise empty area, looking across the Derwent to Mt Wellington, Hobart, and its surrounds rather touching.

View from near Gellibrand's Grave

Pretty but Thorny

It took a while to figure out where to leave the cache.  The only living vegetation close by are shrubs with rather nasty thorns.  I don’t hate other cachers enough to want to hide a cache in or near them.  I didn’t want to hide the cache in or near the tomb area or using the bricks or rocks that had once formed parts of the foundation for the gate.  I settled on making it a multi so seekers would visit the grave but the cache could be away from it, so we went up and down the beach looking for potential spots.  This side of the peninsula really sees some weather (kelp and shells had been thrown quite a way up the hillside)!  I won’t say where the cache was finally placed – come find it yourself! – but we tried to take into account the growth potential of thorn trees, the possibility that dead trees might be used by muggle for beach bonfires, the fact that some of the vegetation sprouting in some areas looked like stinging nettles, etc.

While we’d been looking for a spot for the cache it started to rain gently.  We made it back to the car, then planned what cache to hit next.  Off the beaten track was the next closest and seemed that it would be fine even in the rain, so off we went.  The parking coordinate were great – it might have been tricky to find the beach access otherwise – and we were soon searching around GZ.  After not too long the find was made, silica gel and our logs were added to the cache, and we were on our way.  Frog at Mereniko's Menagerie We made our way to the parking coordinates of Heavens to Betsy, Hope you can find it!, which looked to be a lovely walk and would have been a shame to do in the present weather.  We stopped at Mareniko’s Menagerie next, where SG-3 made friends with the cache’s frog cache guardian.  Our next, and last, stop was Honeywood like some Oysters.  It was gently raining on and off, but it was still a beautiful walk along the coast of a small peninsula in Pipe Clay Lagoon.  I really should visits sometime with a kayak!  I enjoyed not just the cache and the views, but it seemed a nice little community.  People apparently felt secure enough to leave kayaks and paddles out, and many gardens had quirky things in them.  Unfortunately my camera battery had died by this point, so you miss seeing a photo now of a garden gnome’s head on a spike.  Why is it I find this inviting and not troubling?

All in all a very enjoyable day.  Yes, it brings up memories of good times with Snuva, which is still a bit hard, but how I also have new memories of fun in the area.

I forgot to mention: if Phil Harding from Time Team ever losses his voice, SG-3 can fill in for him nicely!!

1 comment for “South Arm with SG-3 and Many Memories

Comments are closed.