Unlike other raids, we didn’t really spend too much time on the planning phase of this trip. The usual, leave Friday back Sunday was a given. That was until we decided to have a crack at the NSW one-day record for finds in a single day. A route around the region was quickly put together and schedule of the days active was drawn up.
Big Matt & Shell played host to us for the weekend and after arriving at their place on the Friday night we shared a few stories before retiring for an early night.
Saturday dawned very early for us, we were out the door at 3.15am leaving Matt & Shell to enjoy a sleep-in. By 3.30am we were finding our first cache on the outskirts of Raymond Terrace, from then on the finds fell reasonably quickly for the 3 of us. We were averaging 7 finds an hour and by breakfast we had already accumulated 40 finds.
As the day progressed we swept through various towns leaving very few unfound before eventually making our way out to Nelsons Bay. Those that have been here before would know the cache density out here is ripe. Plenty of finds in easily accessible locations quickly improved our cache count. However the beauty of the area is often a cacher’s downfall as many muggles also frequent the area making some finds near impossible.
As the daylight hours faded for the day we came upon a cache called “Million Dollar Views”. This particular spot was the highlight for me, with its sweeping views of the area. It was just magnificent.Pressing on, the finds continued to mount as we meandered around the various bays, which including Salamander, Nelsons, Fingal and finally Anna Bay. Many of the time muggles shared the area with us as they too soaked up the beautiful day. Just on sunset we drove around to the Stockton Sand Dunes where we completed the nearby earthcache.
As the clock ticked over 8.30pm we finally reached the end of our intended route. We had just completed a 17-hour caching run finding 124 finds which was a very impressive days work. Back and Matt & Shell’s we shared in the spoils of our good day as we enjoyed a great night eating, drinking, singing and being merry. However the nights activities came at a cost on Sunday morning. Most of us were suffering bad hangovers none worse than mine, which seemed to get worse as the day got longer.
After a slow start we finally were capable of driving and thus headed off in search of more caches. The days pace was relevant to the way we felt – very slow. We headed south towards Swansea/Belmont where grabbed a few finds before wrapping up the weekend with us taking the old Pacific Hwy home to grab a few of those nuisance caches that just sit off the main thorough-fare.
Thanks to my fellow gangsters for another top weekend.
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