B&W (T) Camel Caravan. Stony Crossing, New South Wales, Australia
By Black Bunny on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2262

Cache Details

Difficulty:
Terrain:
Type: Burke and Wills
Container: Regular
Coordinates: S35° 3.694' E143° 34.365' (WGS 84)
  54H 734618E 6117102N (UTM)
Elevation: 66 m
Local Government Area: Murray River

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Description

Burke and Wills: A Camel Caravan - Swan Hill to Balranald.

 

Burke and Wills:

The camels caused a great deal of trouble for their handlers.  Ludwig Becker was lifted bodily off the ground by one that managed to get its teeth into the seat of his trousers. Even an experienced cameleer like Dost Mahomet was later permanently disabled when another similarly lifted and shook him.  The explorers seem to have been unable to stop them from wandering at night, and many morning hours were wasted mustering them.  Specially made camel shoes, to help the animals traverse stony ground, soon proved virtually impossible to fit.  

 

 

Overall, however, the camels performed well, though HistoryHouse.com cited another source as insisting they "were wilful and mischievous, disappearing from time to time with varying levels of success". 

 

However, the real problem was that the camels were half pissed, that is to say, drunk.  The expedition had taken some 60 gallons of rum for the camels, which, according to Landells, 'revived' them when they were tired and hungry.  However, other members of the party took to 'reviving' themselves, and Burke went berserk when he found out.

At one point, thinking their camels exhausted, the party allowed them to slip out of sight.  The camels then kicked up their heels and ran all night, causing Wills to note dryly that "they were not quite so much done up as they appeared to be".
 

Hints

Gnxr gur qveg ebnq ghea bss gb gur cebcregl "Znexbby". Fgbc orsber lbh trg gb gur tngr. Ybpngrq va gur ybnqvat qbpx. Va gur EU raq, pbirerq ol n pbhcyr bs ebpxf.
ROT 13: ABCDEFGHIJKLM
NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Decode

Logs

20-Feb-19
Found this large beauty on a caching detour from my cross country trip.

A startling good collection of swaps - NTNL - and all in excellent condition, despite being easy for any to see despite being hidden as well as possible.

Many TFTC Black Bunny.
 
28-May-18
The large size container was very visible as we drove up. All in good condition and now with a plank of timber in front of it to make the hide less conspicuous. Clan Minotaur Tnx Black Bunny
 
10-Dec-17
GCA 1852. Found during a run around this area with Albida33.

Very happy with the number of GCA Trigs, CORS and Trads plus a few B&W's caches we managed this trip. Quick find and then moved on to the next one.

TFTC !!
 
04-Dec-17
My second Burke & Wills find and a great spot to have a cache. Must have been a real challenge moving trough this country on camels, I had enough trouble in the car! Almost had to make the walk into the station homestead from GZ when I tried to leave. Thanks to all the recent rains the loading area is very boggy at the moment Shocked But despite leaving a bit of evidence of my visit to the location, I was able to get back on the road and on my way Embarassed
Cheers and thanks for a fun find Black Bunny Mr. Green
 
10-Nov-16
#GA1075 - 16:10; Day 1 of the Melbourne Mega Mission with Sol de lune and taking the scenic route from Canberra to Anglesea via Balranald so we can collect a few GCA caches on the way. We were now headed south from Balranald towards Swan Hill. Grabbed the B&W virtual nearby, then on to this one. Evidence of recent work in the area had us a little nervous, but a short search turned up another nice sized cache in very good condition. Log signed and we were on our way again. TFTC Black Bunny Very HappyClan Cerberus
 
10-Nov-16
On the way to the Surf Coast Mega with LuckyL10n and we came this longer way to grab a few GCA caches....

The area around GZ had just been scrapped and cleaned up and it was an easy walk through the area. Was a bit concerned with the recent activity, however the great size cache was found without issue....in what looks like the original position. Good to see it has been left alone after all these years. Log was signed and we off to the next one.

Thanks BB....all is good with the cache...and getting to it.

Clan CerberusClan Cerberus

 
29-Jul-16
We were surprised that this cache was hidden so close to the highway. We quickly located the large, well stocked cache and had the log signed. Just a few minutes later a local drove into Markool and looked strangely at us as we left. We think he was a little bemused by the Tasmanian number plate Thanks Black Bunny we were really pleased to be able to log a find on another B&W cache particularly such a large, well stocked on. Cache and contents were in excellent condition.
 
10-Mar-15
Wow, a super quick find in such an isolated place. Love the cache container, and well stocked. Amazing that this cache hasn't been logged for such a long time. TFTC
 
24-Dec-11
Great spot out in the middle of nowhere.

Albida
 
30-Mar-11
A quick find. No snakes today, but lots of prickles. A quick wave to someone leaving nearby property.
TFTC SL
Took doggy back - for pathtags collected.
Left several swaps for kids.
 
22-Nov-10
Found 2.20pm
Easy drive up from another B&W cache, we expected this to be a long way on dirt tracks but it turned out only the last 400m were off the surfaced road. Quick easy find due to spot on coords.

Swapped pathtags
Thanks Black Bunny for such a large cache and a great addition to the B&W series.
 
30-Sep-10
This was an interesting find for us this morning. We pulled up at GZ, and as I was walking over to the hide location, the owner of Markool came driving out of his driveway, and pulled up to have a chat. He assumed that we were interested in using the loading ramp that he'd built outside his gate, as he told us that he put it there for the local community to use if they wished. I told him about the cache, and explained geocaching to him. He confirmed that it was on public land at GZ, and was quite happy for it to remain. However he did warn that there WILL be snakes at GZ as the weather warms up, so be careful over the next few months when searching here. We were very impressed with the size of this one - many thanks to Black Bunny for a quality cache, a valuable contribution to the series. Cheers!
 
11-Sep-10
Saw this one pop up on the way to our annual pilgrimage to the snow.

Opened the log and found it blank - Yay *FTF* TFTC Very Happy
 
20-Aug-10
 
Wakool (A) - dragonZone
138.75 34.50
106.75 34.50
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