Visiting from Wales!

[+welshsprite]

We're visiting Australia in February. It's going to be quite a busy visit but are there any MUST DO caches in Brisbane ( up to Hervey Bey), Cairns, Ayres Rock - Alice Spings or Darwin? 

I'm thinking of famous / infamous ones or really OLD ones or just pure quality and genius.

 

We would appreciate any ideas,

Diolch (Thank you) 

Sian - welshsprite

 

[+tyzack4]

I went to Australia on holiday last summer, the highlight in terms of geocaching as I traveled around were the earthcaches. There weren’t any standout amazing caches of the traditional type, but as I just said, I focused my attention on earthcaches and had a none geocaching family to consider.

[+on4bam]

Not only valid for Oz but take a look at Earthcaches and virtuals. Next look at high favorite traditionals, multi's, Wherigo's and letterboxes.

Since you will travel next month already there's little time to prepare (I typically start preparing more than 6 months in advance). I use GSAK, populate a database with all caches along the areas we'll visit and then start marking caches I DON'T want to do. Next I tag the ones we want to do, start working on mysteries and tagging the solved ones. All this takes a lot of time which I guess you don't have but using a waypointmanager (like GSAK) might help you filter quickly.

 

[+Goldenwattle]

February is summer. It will be very hot and humid in those places. I would not chose to travel north in summer. You might not be able to swim in the ocean either at that time of year because of stingers. It's also the wet season in the north. Kakadu, a World Heritage Site, might be worth seeing in flood and green, if it's accessible. I have only been there is the dry season. However, there are almost no caches there. Here are some replies about visiting Kakadu in February: https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g256202-i4068-k7822384-Kakadu_in_February-Kakadu_National_Park_Top_End_Northern_Territory.html

Re caches in the Northern Territory, away from urban areas such as Darwin, I found many of them in metal cans, probably to resist the frequent bush fires in the dry season. You will need a tool to prize the lid open with. Luckily my key ring made a good tool. I tend to just find caches that are convenient to get to; ones easy to walk to from my accommodation, or ones on a bush walk. Some urban areas have lots of caches, but away from them in places in the NT there are so few caches I find the few that are available. Not enough caches to pick and choose. What sort of cache you like is a personal choice. I personally don't like doing Earth caches when there are real caches available.

[tttedzeins]

Some nice ones in Alice Springs. Although some are accredited to me I did not place all of them, I adopted them when the owners left town. There are loads of really bad caches in Alice Springs, it would seem that someone is throwing out geotrash caches just to get the numbers up. These are masking the good ones.

 

https://coord.info/GCR9Z4

https://coord.info/GC1N663

https://coord.info/GCV2DM

https://coord.info/GC73MZK

 

 

We have had had a hot spell the last few months (45+ degrees), with a few deaths, so PLEASE TAKE LOTS OF WATER, wear a hat and use sun screen. There are a few others but due to the season I cannot recommend them.

[+colleda]

There's a massive amount of flooding in Cairns at the moment so there could be a lot of hides under water or caches missing altogether. Crocks have been flushed out too and have been seen in the streets. City caches may be ok but will most likely be soaked. I was there in December and had to skip a few due to them being missing and others lacked efficient waterproofing. The ones I did find  were all micro except for one small which was a relief as I had some TBs to drop of or swap over. It was very hot then and I was caching on foot so that limited my range. Its not called "The Wet" (season) for nothing and there's more to come. But good luck anyway.

Like on4bam, I use GSAK to prepare concentrating mostly on Trads, Virtuals and Earthcaches.