Tangles

So in other words yourself and a group of unknown cachers have concluded that NSW needs an association by an online debate that appears to have only taken place on another website. By your own admission no one website covers all geocachers and even this debate failed to reach a consensus. This new association intends to introduce additional guidelines to the ones currently selectively ignored but the new association and to quote from the OP “won’t be dictating what geocachers can do”. So what are the guidelines for? The other associations you have mentioned have rules/guidelines for their members to follow. The idea of the association is a great idea but are you trying to run before you can walk. Submitting anything to the NPWS in the current state is like an arsonist applying to join the fire bridge. Form the association, fix the problem and then when the next review comes around you will have demonstrated your goodwill and the responsibility of it’s membership. From our past experience of trying to tackle this issue and being constantly white anted and ridiculed by fellow cachers my only concern now is a handful of unknown cachers are rushing into to a bad situation and could make it worse for the rest of the NSW Geocaching community.

Reading the post it appears this association is forgone conclusion in NSW. I have two questions. Do all NSW cachers have a say in whether we actually want an association? Why did the rest of Australia reject the idea?

If you get bitten by a snake leave the bloody thing along and under no circumstances try and catch it as you will be bitten again. If you are walking in the bush you should carry a first aid kit with a bandage long enough to wrap your whole leg from ankle to the top of your thigh. If bitten apply this to the affected limb firmly, and REST (stay still). Don’t try and move and STAY where you are. Send someone for help (with written information of your location) or if you are in area with mobile phone reception dial 000 (or 112) and ask for police and tell them you where bitten by a snake and give them your location. We have very good emergency services and they will come to you no matter where you are. If you are going to be doing any remote areas or walks by yourself you may want to consider hiring an EPRIB. A really good investment is a book called First Aid in the Bush by Bruce Wilson. Enjoy your trip, you will have a great time.

Yes, we are seeing the comet and it looks superb. We where able to watch it set above the Sydney Olympic site last Tuesday while signing the log on a cache. But generally we just move outside, sit back in the banana lounges and watch it set while enjoying a mango smoothie. There are a lot of bushfires around at the moment and the smoke haze makes it harder to see as it gets lower to the horizon. View from backyard

Point Perpendicular is in the Jervis Bay area and the Postcode is 2540, it is very nice area but some of it is restricted for military use. August is still winter here in Australia and is often our windy month.

The Sydney area is a bit vague and summer is 8-9 months away here so a lot can change in that time. For caches in the City of Sydney do a postcode search on 2000. Most of these caches are popular with visitors. How do you plan on getting around, public transport, car or walk? Once you know which areas we can help you out a bit more with possible caches and transport options.

Hi You might want to try these two caches GCKKTY and GCMVFK as they are just a short walk from where you are staying. Just west of you is GCQ7R8 and do a nearby search for some other caches in the area. If you want to go further afield or for more information just ask. You might want to have a look at the open-air cinema at Mrs Macquaries Chair, which is a great way to spend a summer evening. Also a good way to see the harbour is to take a ferry to Manly on a Sunday afternoon.

We have turned WAAS off on our unit and can't see any reason to have it turned on. For more information have a look here.

Hi You can start by doing a search for caches by postcode, Sydney is 2000 and Cairns is 4870. Need to know what part of Sydney you are staying in to give good recommendations but if you are staying in the city you could try The Five Quay’s in a row cache by Philma is a good spot to start and you can walk to a few from here and take in some of the sights. Cairns is a great place if you like English backpackers if not you might want to visit Port Douglas, which is up the road a bit.

May 8th is Mothers Day and all good cachers will be visiting their Mums. We can take a stroll around the city on the afternoon of the 7th if you want some company. We find the fastest way to get around the city is to walk and most probably safer then having a Yank driving on the wrong side of the road .

The coordinates for the main drag in Humpty Doo are S12°34.583' E131°07.258'. You could also try this map site and do a search by suburb or town, as it shows some of the streets.

Where abouts in Sydney are you staying? If you are staying in the city you can start on one side in the Botanical Gardens(east) and try Fruity Bats. Then walk over to Giba which is past Darling Harbour on the other side of the city (west). There are a few caches you can do along the way between these two caches. Do a check of nearby caches and read the logs, most of the caches tend to be micro or small in the city. There is one cache near the airport which is easy as well called the Travel bug connector.

We could not decide on one photo.

Here is the NSW NPWS policy on Geocaching. There have been a few instances where NPWS staff have removed caches. I don’t know what policies are in other states.

Nice spot to stay Cronulla and there are some great caches in the area plus the topless babes down the beaches. The South Coast has a lot of ticks so use the Aerogard and be careful of the Kangaroos, as they can be a bit aggressive. I don’t use gloves or a stick, just go of instinct, experience and stupidity but don’t recommend you use this approach. Snakes can be very hard to spot when walking in the bush and you can step on one with out seeing it. For more information http://www.avru.unimelb.edu.au/avruweb/creatable.html The most common plant you will encounter will be the Stinging Nettle but most plants have some spike or some other means of annoying you. What else you should know: Don’t stand any where near a Bull Ants nest Take plenty of water on your travels Wear a hat and sunscreen If going for a swim on the surf beaches swim between the flags Don’t go caching if bushfires are in the area, go somewhere else Get a map or street directory to find your way around. Best spot for maps near Cronulla is Paddy Pallin at Miranda. You can catch the train from Cronulla to Miranda. You can get a street directory from just about anywhere. Have a great time

It’s not only the animals/ insects you should worry about; some of the plants are dangerous as well. It all depends on what part of Australia you plan on visiting as to what you may encounter. Basically for checking holes and cracks I would suggest a pair of leather gloves, but check the hole for any sign of life i.e. worn path leading from it. Seems to be an awful lot of snakes around the Sydney region at the moment so you should where long pants and try and avoid walking through long grass and lifting old junk. If you encounter a snake LEAVE IT ALONE, most snakes will normally move out of the way. Some species will not move and appear dead however as I said before leave snakes alone. Snakes are active in the night as well as daytime. Insects, the north side of Sydney Harbour is prolific for ticks and you should use a personal bug spray like Aerogard tropical strength and check yourself for any of the buggers when you have finished caching for the day. You should also check the dunny/toilet seat in any of the outside toilets as you can encounter Red Backs.

My caching mate is my wife, Kathy and whether it’s abseiling down a waterfall or walking for 10 hours in a snowstorm nothing puts her off finding the cache.

We just use the local street directory UBD, but you will have to convert WGS84 Lat/Long to AUS66 UTM to be able to plot cache locations on the map.

We think our cache the AE2 is pretty cool as it is a remote control submarine. You first have to find the remote control, which operates the cache. The cache is hidden below the surface and the remote control allows the user to raise the sub to the surface. Once you have done with the swaps and stuff you then use the controller to submerge the sub back below the water.

Here we are logging Fearless cache.

For bushwalking in the rain map cases are fine but when you get into real wet environments they tend to fail, as does just about everything else. What we do for canyoning is scan the section of the map we need and add any notes we want then print it out. We then stick any instructions to the back of the map then laminate them together. That way when you are treading water or swimming you can still use your map and check your notes at the same time. This method is useful when doing caches like this one.

There is an extension of bird watching know as atlasing. We got into Geocaching from doing atlasing as they are both very similar as in both you go to an area and do a search. In atlasing the observers mark the location of their search area with a GPSr then count the number and species of birds as well as describing the terrain. All data is collated and reviewed and submitted to a national database that looks a lot like a cache distribution map. But details bird species, numbers and locations rather then caches. All the data collected over the last five years went into the publishing of the New Australian Atlas of Birds Australia. The book is used government and conservation groups to determine the status of the bird population in Australia and determine which species are becoming threatened or recovering.

Here we are at some caches; Australia's Highest Claustrophobia Snow Pine

Where do you want to start in Australia? In the water apart from sharks you have Blue bottles, Blue Ring octopus, Cone shells, Stonefish, Sea Snakes and the deadliest of all the Box Jellyfish. On land we have some of the deadliest snakes on the planet and Saltwater Crocodiles. There is the Giant Stinging tree which can cause pain in some people for the rest of their life. Then there is the large flightless bird called the Cassowary, which has a bony growth on the top of its head, which it uses as a knife when attacking people. Paralysis tick and a spider which tends to bite you on the bum (Red Back). The Australian Magpie which when in nesting season attacks anyone who comes near their nest. Then on the roads we have to deal with crazy drivers, road trains and animals, which hop out in front of you and just stop.

I mainly cache with my wife on the weekends but we both will hunt solo depending on who is closest to cache location if one pops up during the week. Caches that require overnight stay or walks over twenty kilometres I tend to do solo if we have both been to the area before. We both do the 5 terrain caches whether it’s underwater or abseiling down a waterfall. We enjoy them all.