Trials and Tribulations in the NE

Thursday lunchtime, and I decided I needed a break from watching the slaves bumble around my palace, attempting to fix things and breaking almost as much in the process. So I declared it ‘National Let’s Visit Digger Country’ in the Princessipality of Snuva.

In honour of this event, I spent Friday afternoon at the groomers – it’s time for Snuva’s summer fashions! And a few fashion tips for all of you: black is the new black, and sleek & velvety is the mode!

The slaves picked me up, then it was back to HQ for some necessities. Having packed my bedding, we were off!

Originally I had planned to just go halfway up the East coast then camp for the night, however I decided to try to push the male slave and so we could sleep near Sloopy’s Spa Bath and wake up in the morning to that fabulous view. And so we did.

Saturday The slaves woke VERY late – almost 10 am! I needed to get at some caches, so be headed off to our closest unfound one, [AG] Scrooge’s Cache. Not too difficult; it was fairly easy to spot quite a distance away! While signing the log, some muggles stopped near the cacheMoble. Strange behaviour – but then they are muggles!!!

After that it was off to Grandad’s Place (#7). We were looking high and low when a friendly older couple walked by. They played with Snuva a bit – obviously charmed by me – and the old gent started chatting away. He was looking for white bait. Other year the latest he’s first spotted them for the year has been 20 October and here we are almost a month late. And the flooding! Pacific oysters can only survive in fresh water for 6 days before they die, and the flooding lately has put an 18 centimetre layer of fresh water on the bay as fresh water is lighter than salt. Flooding was so bad that where we are now we would have been under water; it went all the way up to his front fence. [A-HA!!!! At this point we knew this was Grandad and suspected the cache could have floated away??] So we asked him, and yes, he is Cached’s grandfather. He’s had the property here for years and retired there in 1980. He’s jantas’s father. We admired his front gate, and he told us the story behind them. They are modelled on the gates of a national park between South Africa and Mozambique, except the originals were 8 feet high (to keep in or out the elephants). We admired his garden – he doesn’t do it, a woman who recently went to WA did it – and he showed us the South Esk pines and Oyster Bay pine. Beautiful. Then he recommended somewhere we could go for a great overlook of Georges Bay. [Excellent! We need to plant some caches for Digger!!!] We’d been talking so long we didn’t feel like we could go back immediately and nose around, so into town we went for brekkie.

Having refuelled with coffee and water, we went out to energizers’ Veggies in Hot Water. What a great walk! I bounced and ran and jumped and splashed and told those seagulls where to go!!! We found the cache, and before I was finished dictating to the female slave, the big wuss ran away and left it for the male slave to complete. Her excuse was MonsterSquitos. Pathetic!

Then we were off to another one of Digger’s caches, Little Blue Dune Buggy. It didn’t take long to find, but the views of the dunes were marvellous. And lots of sand for everyone’s favourite Schnauzer to run on! I had convinced the slaves that I didn’t need to walk on the end of a string for this one, so on the walk back to the cacheMobile I decided to take a spontaneous visit into the bushes to visit with my friend Rabbity. I tried from this direction and that, all the time the slaves calling for me – really, can’t they do without me for a few minutes so I can pay a social call!, however she must not have been home.

I’d been enjoying the walks in the area so was looking forward to [AG] Georges Beautiful Bay, however rude signage near the start said that I was 1 ½ months too late to enjoy the walk. Harrumph. So I commanded my slaves to make haste to the final waypoint and score this one for me. Female slave was off, quickly found the cache, however as she hadn’t properly researched my holiday realised she didn’t have essential equipment: a screwdriver. Back to the cacheMobile: toolbox must be at home. Grumph. So she phoned Digger’s male slave Aloysius, and Digger must have him well trained as he was out in moments. [My slaves should take note of this; list your game! There are suitable replacements everywhere!] With the correct equipment in hand the cache was soon signed and back. It was a fantastic cache, and I noticed the local canine population had little regard for the rude signage – good on them! We chatted with Aloysius for a while – he really is a lovely guy – and saw Digger’s new exciting mode of transport! (Well, once Bastvet lends a little help with Digger’s seat.) Then Aloysius was off to finish preparations for his online event, and we were off to buy some rolls to give us an excuse to go back to Grandad’s Place.

After Cached having reassured us Grandads Place (#7) wouldn’t have floated away, we were able to find it. We ate our samidges and some dog treats found in the cache, did a bit of CITO for granddad, then went off in search of the view he had recommended. Well, either he hasn’t been up there since it was gated off or he wanted to anger the residents by sending miscellaneous people onto their property, but it was a private road and had a gate across so we decided it probably was the greatest place for a cache. Oh well!

Off to [AG] Radio Birdman! Aloysius had very helpfully given clear directions for where the slaves should park (obviously their reputation precedes them!), so we had no trouble finding the correct area and starting our walk. It was a pleasant enough walk, and spiced up by the fact if the female slave tried to rest, mosquitoes would immediately swarm around her baying for blood! Hilarious! The cache was easily found, then we stopped to admire the view. I shared some strawberries with the female slave and wondered why they were giving me water rather than champagne. Goodness!

After having enjoyed so many of Digger’s caches, I wanted to find some great places to hide a few for her. So we drove hither and yon looking for some good spots. Now, it’s a conundrum. You want to leave some caches for Tasmania’s loneliest cacher, however you don’t know her area very well – so how can I know where to leave a cache?! We found a place for Catch the Cache #1, but where to leave any of ours?! We spent quite a while searching, and finally decided to settle for a place we do know. Despite sleeping in late, it did feel like it had been a long day, so the Binalong Day cache was born.

Then back out to Sloopy for a campy. We took our dinner down onto the beach – cheese sausage for the princess!!! – and were invited to gather around our neighbour’s campfire. Our neighbour, Clover, is a Golden Retriever. You know the type – good looking, but not great for conversation – so as our cacheMobile was comfy and warm and the slaves’ wine was calling them we decided to turn in.

Sunday Well, we had decided that a movable cache in this area to encourage people to explore and share great camping spots would be a good idea, so while the male slave and I frolicked on the beach I set the female slave to making up the new cache. She was taking quite a while. Yes, quite a long time. Finally she called to us – she couldn’t find the GPSr!!!!! The male slave searched through everything; still no GPSr. Where did we last use it? Binalong Day. So off we went back to that cache. The GPSr was where the female slave had left it to average while she was distracted by photographing me. Well! At least the GPSr had a good view overnight, but I’m not embarrassed to admit that the female slave broke down in tears of relief when she found it! She must have realised how deeply my teeth would have gone into her flesh as punishment had the GPSr not been found!!

We stopped by a local restaurant for celebratory coffees, then found a place to start the movable cache from. I liked the spot so well I figured it needs a permanent cache as well – and left behind Grant Us Peace. . .and Another Easy Find. Off to town and some more supplies, then we were on our way south. Before leaving the area entirely, we left one more cache for Digger, Showgirl Tears. And off south again!

Next cache for us to hit was The Mouth. The GPSr lead the slaves everywhere, but they got there in the end and scored a FTF for Snuva! Next one south: Falmouth Blows Harder! It wasn’t actually blowing when we were there, however it was another fantastic scramble with beautiful views. Scrambling over rock is always held in high regard; I hate having my toes trimmed!

Next we were off to Crack the Code. The female slave had already cracked the code on this one, so we were just enjoying the pleasant stroll to the location of the next piece of information. As we were walking down the track, I saw a CHICKEN on the trail in front of us!!! The male slave must not have seen it, and as I was leading him and he didn’t see the need to rush, so we missed it. So I was extremely pleased when the male slave stopped to make a waterfall of his own into the ferms – and missed the chook trying to hide from me by a narrow margin!!!! EXCELLENT!!!! His actions did however flush him out 😉 and it got away. You can imagine how pleased I was when we got to the end of the track and the railing formed the perfect cage, as THE CHICKEN HAD FOLLOWED THE TRACK AND WAS TOO FAT AND LAZY TO FLY OVER THE RAILING!!!!!! The slaves reactions of course were incredibly slow; indeed in their incompetence it almost seemed like the male slave held me back and the female slave encouraged the chook to escape! As you will have realised by now, I missed out on what would have been a yummy lunch. After that excitement it was time to get back to the task at hand and find the missing bit of information to score the cache. Look and look the slaves did, however they just couldn’t find it. Eventually I led them out of the area in disgust, and then sniffed out the cache all myself without any coordinates or any help from any slave so there! Woo-hoo!!!!

And now for the cache we were most looking forward to on this trip: Paddy’s Ropes and Ladders. I directed the slaves to the start of the track (I was completely beyond trusting them at this point) and off we went! The track was challenging for the slaves but not impossible. Since the difficulty had been talked up by everyone, we had a horrendous journey in mind so were almost surprised when we reached the end. The female slave commented that the ropes made the track rather civilised; I pointed out that locating the ropes 2 metres off the ground and suspending dog-sized gondolas with crystal champagne bowls from it would REALLY have been civilised. In any case, close to the cache I found the perfect dog area for me to take in the views north to Digger country while the slaves logged my find. Off they went, and I kept barking instructions so they would have no problem finding the cache and finding their way back to me. Find the cache they did, and continue on to get some photos. They were gone so long that I decided they must have lost their way, so I left my post and started back down towards the cacheMobile. Eventually I heard the female slave calling from back where I had been; they hadn’t gotten lost, just were taking a pathetically long time. How long is a princess supposed to wait?! I made the female slave serve me some water, then we made our way back down to the cacheMobile. But before we could get anywhere, the cacheMobile front right paw was kaput. Grrh! I gave the male slave the task of exchanging the flat paw for a new one, and half an hour later we were back on the road.

At this point we were a bit behind schedule for getting home, so we pushed on to Bicheno Blows! On the way we stopped of for coffee at aloysius’s uncle’s café; the latte and flat while were yummy. At Bicheno Blows I stayed in the cacheMobile so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat any penguins (since I’d already missed out on my chook lunch!). So leave it to the female slave – SHE disturbs the sleep of a penguin while looking for the cache! With trousers and backs of shirt full of bits of tree, the cache was finally found and logged – we were 5 ½ hours behind polfil. This being the final stop of the trip, we pushed on for home.

It was an eventful trip, not just because of the great caching; we met Cached’s granddad, chatted to Aloysius, lost and found the GPSr, the male slave weed on a chook and I missed out on having it for lunch, the male slave had the fantastic opportunity to change a tyre, the slaves met aloysius’s uncle, and the female startled a penguin while it was home watching the latest documentary it had starred in. But I’m glad to be home now. And even happier that the slaves are back at work tomorrow so I can get some rest form their antics!!