In Peaceful Repose Elphinstone, Victoria, Australia
By
kennythe1st on 13-Mar-11. Waypoint GA2993
Cache Details
| Difficulty: | |
| Terrain: | |
| Type: | Traditional |
| Container: | Small |
| Coordinates: | S37° 7.294' E144° 20.058' (WGS 84) |
| 55H 263171E 5888315N (UTM) | |
| Elevation: | 421 m |
| Local Government Area: | Mount Alexander |
/144.3343,-37.121567,14/400x200?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoiY2F1Z2h0YXR3b3JrIiwiYSI6ImNqa2l4ZzNzMDE5bjgzdm1sZGpuODF1Mm0ifQ.q8YMzVyzDJJlJHHV8EMjwQ)
Description
A cemetery. Of dead mean green war machines in a peaceful country scene.
Looks like WW2 (im)mobile equipment. A tank, bren gun carriers, trucks, something else with a turreted gun and many other items and parts. And as you might expect, an Australian flag waving defiantly in the breeze. A photo shows a large trailer with what might be a boiler in it and fluid inlets and outlets. Perhaps it was support for a field kitchen?
The cache is placed alongside section 2 of the Coliban Main Channel Walking Track just outside the above property. It is a very pleasant walk in from the Taradale-Elphinstone road (Wright St) with water channel then bush one side and farmland the other. Or you can ride the channel track in either direction - see http://digbig.com/5bbbyg for an easy ride/walk/run route.
Afterwards, if you were heading north from Taradale then shortly you will get to the well patronised Elphinstone pub and if heading south, Taradale and petrol will soon hove into view. The Taradale coffee shop just NW of the bridge seems to have closed down but I did notice a Coffee Basics sign outside a building nearly opposite - reports will be welcome. There are some rather nice wine cellars in this area. And a few other caches around Taradale.
The 65km Coliban Main Channel runs from Malmsbury Reservoir to Sandhurst Reservoir in Bendigo. It was opened in 1877 to supply water to Castlemaine, Bendigo other towns and farms. I understand it supplies just farms now and flows only to meet specific irrigation orders. I have another cache, GA1813 Not for the Dissipated, on the channel nearer Bendigo and that highlights some of the more interesting water structures of the channel.
400ml Sistema. Waterproof log. Minimal cover. FTF is a GA car sticker and FTF pathtag. Thx to iamapom and one-eyed for introducing me to the concept of a naked bush cache - no booty . The walk and environment should more than compensate ;-)
Hints
I sbe Ivpgbel oynfgrq gerr |
|
Decode |
Logs
). I note that some of the better green machines are gone, presumably into the new large shed. I snapped what I presume is the engine and carcass of a bren gun carrier.
The revised co-ordinates are from my Garmin eTrex. I also had a Holux data logger as a check. There was a difference but I decided to ignore it as I learned on looking up a conversion from DMS to DD (I use GDA94 with UTM zones in other work) that at this latitude the level of precision for 4 decimal places of degree is about 7m. So with GPS 'precision' on top, the 'precision' could be something between 2m and 12m - except that someone will tell me it is not as simple as that.
Curiously we passed nearby on the weekend and decided to get the co-ordinates and check it out this coming weekend. I do recall last time we checked, the original hide was destroyed by a branch fall and we moved the cache a bit. Maybe I forgot to update the co-ordinates.
The first cache of the day and after parking at the logical entrance Mrs. caughtatwork and I took off for a stroll along the bank of the water way. Not too much time later we were at GZ and seeking the cache. This is where some problems occurred as we couldn't find anything at GZ. We expanded our search and we finally found the cache about 10m from where our GPS was pointing. It was lucky this was not a heavily wooded area.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks kennythe1st for this cache here today. Sorry to see it doesn't get many finds, but the cache, to me, is more special for that reason.
*Overall Experience: 4*
GAFF 1
Probably not the best day to attempt this cache in 39 degrees heat but attempt it we did and were rewarded with a find in an area we would not have visited but for the cache.
An interesting collection of machinery and the walk beside the flume was something different . TFTC
Love a cache in the bush.
Thanks to the fool navigator we circumnavigated this one before we came to the bridge to the south and strolled in from that direction.
Some fascinating military relics to find in such a location.
Took Pathtag
Left gold coin
Locations like this are 'the icing on the cake' of Geocaching with the locals hosting us anonymously to their favourite spots.
Our thanks to kennythe1st for the cache and bringing us to this location.
Cheers
Ian & Sandra
Team Ladava
Cache condition – fine although it was fully exposed as one of the local critters had done quite a bit of scratching at the rotting tree stump.
This is just the sort of cache that we love. With just a bit of time this morning we drove out to find this one, we missed the entry point to the track at first but it was more obvious on the way back. Enjoyed the walk towards GZ and the unusual artifacts over the fence. We swapped pathtags and signed the log.
Thanks kennythe1st
Found by Roma and Max.
It certainly was a peaceful place today and a lovely setting for a cache although the nearby collection of military memorabillia was somewhat unusual for this rural environment!
We swapped one of our pathtags for the FTF tag.
Thank you kennythe1st for bringing us here.
Cheers,
from Romax.
