Gone Bush! - 2007 Event Cache

This cache has been archived.

The Mountain Goat: I guess everyone that wanted to log has done so? With all the inventory now retrieved it's time to archive this event.

More
Hidden : Saturday, March 24, 2007
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
4 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

This is the first of hopefully many 4WD/camping events to be held at the campgrounds in Bendethra

The Bendethra campgrounds are located about 30km west of Moruya (as the satellite flies) in the middle of the Deua National Park (which is the reason the geohounds don't get to come). The main day of the event is on Saturday 24th of March but it will spill out into Sunday morning and I expect many will be camping overnight and swapping stories around the campfire. When and for how long you attend is completely up to you, call in and just say G'day on either day or come for the weekend? We plan on heading out Friday arvo to secure a location and will hopefully have a big Geocaching banner on display from early Saturday morning onward. I would expect that things will start drawing to a close early on Sunday afternoon?

The campgrounds have acres of room to set up camp, hundreds of kilometres of 4WD tracks leading off in all directions and plenty of geocaches to keep you occupied through the day! There are compost toilets in a couple of different locations and plenty of fresh water with the Deua River winding it's way through the area (in fact you have to cross it a couple of times to get here) but I would suggest bringing your own drinking water? There was a total fire ban in the park but I expect that will be lifted shortly with the amount of rain we've been getting but I will try and confirm this with NPWS closer to the date?

There are several different ways to get here, some suitable for pretty much all 4WD's and some which are pretty rough going. If you don't have low range or much ground clearance or will be towing a camper/trailer I suggest traveling the blacktop to Moruya and entering via Little Sugarloaf Road which although bumpy in sections is a well formed all-weather road (I will include some instructions on this route in the additional waypoints shortly). The more adventurous among us may choose to come in from the north-east off Araluen Road through Mericumbene Fire Trail or from the west off Snowball Road down Dampier Fire Trail (and I do mean "down") but be warned there's not much in the way of mobile phone service out this way and it's a long walk to civilization!

As always when camping, BYO everything! It's about an hour and a half drive back into Moruya (each way) if you need supplies, which reminds me, the state government has been so inconsiderate as to hold an election on the Saturday of our event so if you need to vote please bear in mind the traveling time involved or make arrangements to do so by other means (I wonder if we could get a polling booth set up out there)?

That's about it! See ya there!

*** Update - 11th March ***

I've just been back out again and taken some coords at the major intersections which I've added as additional waypoints below (assuming that you are coming from Moruya) but as a general rule if you stay on the main road you should end up somewhere close to where you're supposed to be? I've also changed the event coords slightly just for the sake of accuracy and placed a couple of new caches around the area and as expected, the fire ban in the park has been lifted (well the signs have been removed anyway) so it's looking good for having a camp fire after all!

Please post a "Will Attend" if you are planning to be there so I have some idea of the numbers attending... Less than 2 weeks to go!

*** Update - 19th March ***

5 days to go and this event has suffered a couple of major setbacks already! Firstly, the "Game of Memory"/Time Trial that had been set out for the event consisting of 12 multi caches and a mystery has been refused publication, whilst (as far as I can see) it was within GC.com's guidelines, the reviewer felt it was "just a way for cachers to get 14 smileys for one event"... which it was! And what's wrong with that? Anyway, there's not enough time left to get back out there and reinvent it so the time trial has had to be scrapped worse luck!

Secondly, it looks as though the big Geocaching banner that is getting made for this event may not be ready in time so we may have to improvise something on the day, but the above coords should still see you in the right place?

Last but certainly not least, the weather is looking more and more like we're going to get wet! As I look out the window while typing this it's still pouring down and has been all morning, the seven day forecast is for rain followed by a few showers followed by a bit more rain and while that's all very well for the farmers, it's not too nice for camping out! So if it is still raining by Saturday we are still planning to be there but probably won't be camping which means the event may be shortened to just the one day? If this happens I will post a note on the event page as soon as possible and no later than Saturday night so check back here before you head on out.

The other concern I have is that if the road down Bendethra Mountain is subject to too much rain it may become virtually impassible until it dries out again and as much as I love a 5 star terrain cache, I don't relish the idea of having to winch myself back up a few kilometres of mountain-side! I guess we'll just have to wait'n see what the weather does between now and then but stay tuned for updates through the week.

*** Update - 22nd March ***

The sky is blue, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the event banner turned up this morning!

The BOM's weather forecast is for a fine, mostly sunny day Friday, a few showers with the chance of a thunderstorm on Saturday and a shower or two on Sunday which shouldn't be too bad? We're still undecided whether the advance party will be heading out Friday arvo to set up camp or not (work permitting) but as I said in my log note, 10am Saturday seems a decent enough time to officially kick off but whatever time you get there will be fine, bearing in mind that you may need to vote before you come out?

BTW, I've just realized that daylight savings time ends on the Saturday night as well so everybody gets an extra hour's sleep in on Sunday morning!

That's about it for the updates, barring any major catastrophes I'll see y'all there!

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



Advertising with Us