B&W (Moveable) Expedition Cache Darley, Victoria, Australia
By g_ordo on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2486

This cache was originally to consist of two parts, the actual cache (a 30cal ammo box), and a tracking device (SPOT) which will be attached to it. It would automatically update itself every hour, uploading it's position at that time to this cache page.

In contrast to typical moveable caches, it was intended that to log this cache, all you need to do is log it as found, the location is updated automatically as described above. Finding, or perhaps more aptly, catching the cache may have been the challenge, as it will be on the move a lot of the time. 

As is quite often the case with all well laid plans, quite like the Burke and Wills expedition, this can lead to failure, in this case failure to launch, rather than return.

Now, whilst still a movable, it will offer a slightly different bent....  it will work as follows:

For those who would rather not move it on - simply find it, log the find, and enjoy the experience.

If you intend to move it on, the rules are as follows:

a) Take in with you a new cache container, log book, geocaching aus sheet, swaps, etc, ready to leave behind. (preferably a well designed and durable cache as well)

b) Hide this new cache in the same spot where you found this movable cache. (once you have been to the place you will understand why, you wont want to be depriving anyone of the experience of this find)

c) When listing the new cache, give co-hiding recognition to the last person who hid the movable cache (after all, they were the original cacher to have found this hiding place. Feel free to name the new cache, and provide any description as you wish.

d) When you move this on, the hiding spot will need to provide the following:

     i) A sense of expedition (preferably a decent foot slog of a few kilometers)

     ii) A destination where you will want to just sit and marvel at what our beautiful country offers (and perhaps rest your aching feet)

     iii) while on the hike, think about what it would have been like 150 years ago, being on an expedition to explore this vast land, discovering the beauty and the harshness it dishes up to the unsuspecting traveller.

Now go out and enjoy.....

This moveable cache commemorates the Burke and Wills Expedition. It is fitting that this cache be constantly on the move, as a commemoration of an amazing achievement of exploration and endurance.

The Expedition used several modes of transport – horses, wagons, and the infamous camels: their first large-scale use in Australia. Burke was unique amongst explorers of the era for travelling most of the distance of his travels by foot. Most explorers proceeded on horseback for at least the majority of their travel. Burke seemed on some level to see walking as a test of manhood, as well as an opportunity to increase the amount of baggage the animals could carry. He bragged to friends of how hard the going was for other members of the Expedition, especially Ludwig Becker, the artist and naturalist.

In the end, Burke’s insistence on walking was not enough. The pack animals he brought on his four-man dash from Cooper’s Creek to the Gulf country succumbed one by one to exhaustion, and the desperate men salvaged what meat they could from them before pressing on.

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