While Farmer Frentzen planned a family holiday to include a days caching with us, the rest of us drove up to Brisbane with one thing in mind – caching. Leaving Sydney on Wednesday night we soon had our complement of gangsters and were making good time up the Pacific Highway. We stopped along the way to grab a few highway caches but by 6am Thursday we were sitting down to breakfast on the Gold Coast.
With minimal sleep we spent a slow first day hovering around the Gold Coast and its surrounding suburbs picking off caches. As the day progressed we made our way northwards, stopping off at the “World Famous – Yatala Pies”. The gangsters will tell you that these are some of the best pies around, so be sure to stop. By days end we’d amassed 70 finds.
Booking into our accommodation we met up with our 4th gangster. After a few drinks it was off to bed for a well-earned rest, tomorrow was planned as our biggest day of the trip.
4.30am and the team was back together, the 4 gangsters were on the road in search of our first find. We used the dead of night to grab a few inner city caches, which I must say, “I love”. As dawn turned to day we found ourselves weaving a path down through Indooroopilly and onto Jindalee. Along the way we managed to grab a few of those unique caches like a “whereigo, a virtual and an earthcache”. While the finds throughout the day didn’t offer too much we did have a few fun moments as we witnessed a hit n run car accident, an early morning moment with a security guard, some inspiring "backpackers", the usual verbal slanging from all the gangsters, a “slips” catch which nearly proved very costly, a trip down a bus tunnel and way too many encounters with barking dogs.As darkness fell we took time out for a hearty dinner, which always works a treat to recharge our enthusiasm and we were soon out finding more caches. By the time our caching spree drew to a close we’d cracked 100 finds for the day and were happy to finish on such a milestone.
Day 3 of our trip started slowly. Farmer Frentzen headed off on the next adventure of their holiday, while Steeba, Big Matt and myself went out in search of a few more caches. For a change of scenery we headed towards the coast where we found various pockets of caches and picked off the finds regularly. One of the highlights was the cache contained within Banyan Fig Tree. These trees have an amazing root system, which made for a great hide. The day finished rather early with us sharing a few drinks back at our campsite.
As Sunday dawned we were already on our way home. Our first stop was breakfast with Mum & Dad, who put on a great spread. We grabbed a few local caches before hitting the autopilot for home. Just before Port Macquarie we took a short detour in search of a cache, it was here that we noticed the car bonnet had come loose. Upon inspection we realised the locking eye had sheered right off. With an unsecured bonnet we limped into Port Macquarie and the question of “what to do” became an agonising wait as countless phone calls ensued. Some 6 hours after the breakage we were finally heading south again, all be it in the cab of a tow-truck with Matt’s car on the back.Around 9pm we got back to Matts place, the tow-truck driver had done a great job, but our trip was far from done. Steeba and I still had 3 hours ahead of us and just after midnight we finally crawling into our own beds. What a hell of a trip home.
Thanks to my caching buddies (Big Matt, Steeba & Farmer Frentzen) for another great caching adventure. 200+ finds in approx’ 4 days.
