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Nature's Remedy Traditional Cache

Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
4 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Messing about in boats is fun, and so is climbing trees - fortunately for you - when I went to place this cache up the tree I was planning to - I noticed there are now some birds nesting right where I was going to put it!- so it is in another small tree, low enough so no climbing is required/p>


Yay ... after trying about 3 years ago - I finally get to hide this one here :)

There are several places one can launch a kayak, requiring either a short or a slightly longer drag/carry (across the lawn) and it is a nice lake to paddle on with (hopefully) now 2 caches on islands ... while it might be possible to swim or wade to this island, I would not reccomend that - the bottom is probably rather deep goopy mud and who knows what nasty stuff is submerged in it (probably the usual collection of broken glass, shopping trolleys, and what have you)

I was going to hide this in exactly in the same spot I tried to the first time - it was going to be up a taller tree - but a pair of nesting birds (magpie larks) kind of made me decide to change my mind ... there is also another pair of nesting birds to be careful about too - a pair of plovers were swooping me when found the spot, and (a day or 2 later) hid the cache - so careful where you walk - they nest on the ground, and I think these 2 must have a nest somewhere at the end of the island, so please look where you walk/approach from the Middle or Eastern end of the island (if you get too close I am sure they will let you know - and if you "get bushed" you can both find/sign cache, and hide from the plovers at the same time :)

About 3 1/2 years ago, I bought a kayak ... and for its maiden voyage I brought it and the geomutt here to my local pond and we had a paddle (well, I paddled and the dog swam - when I tried to get him to sit in the kayak he bailed out over the side as soon as it wobbled - lol) ... I paddled over to the next door island (which the dog often swims over to when I walk him here :) and I thought this would be a good place for a cache. A week or so later I was tidying up and found an empty vitamin tablet bottle with a label saying Nature's ... something (can't remember what - I peeled that bit off :) and my mind started wandering - and I got to thinking about how going paddling, and visiting nice quiet islands, was the perfect remedy to the stress/etc. I have had in my life over the last year or 3 (little did I know that even worse was coming - getting better now though - Geocaching got me through it :) ... and I realised that if I used that container I had a name for my first Island cache ... unfortunately there was a mystery cache I had not solved, that turned out to be nearby, then I thought I found it, but that was the next nearest premium cache (and I wasn't a premium member at the time) and after a long involved saga ... which I might leave below for those mad enough to read it ... I noticed the other day that both the mystery and the premium cache had gone (now archived) so it meant I could now hide a cache here ... so I came for a paddle and another explore - and realised I can hide two ... this one, back in (almost) the first place I tried to hide it, and ... finally - another one I have been trying to find a place I can hide - a cache up a tree on an island :)

The longer story: this was going to be my 3rd cache, my first being a CITO event and my second being a much easier one I hid close to home an hour before I originally went and hid this one :)  I originally hid this almost a year earlier (than the 2 years ago I tried again), but it seems it was too close to something else (which I did not know was there but have since found :) and when I originally paddled over to find a place to hide it, I spotted a tree that was fun to climb, and could not resist the temptation to hide it UP the tree ... I finally got around to paddling over and moving it ... first up a different tree on the same island, but still too close (I guess where i found the other cache was not where it was meant to be) now on the next island (which my dog also swims over to, and on which I was originally hoping to hide another cache - because the other end of this island should have just been far enough away if I had been able to put this one in the first place I had it - lol)

I then found out that there was only one corner of an island free, and it had no trees ... so I moved it there ... but didn't publish because I wanted to find something to put it under or take over a rock to put it beside so it didn't wander around the island ... And be nice and wait for warmer weather before it was published ... and ... someone hid a cache on the shore opposite - which ruled out anywhere on any island ... so ... I will wait and see ... which cache around the lake will get archived first? (Hopefully none, because I like to see caches last for the long term ... but if one does ... I will be waiting ... lol) Hmmm - I could be waiting a while ... I may have to see if there is still a vacant bit of shoreline either here, or at another pond in the area :)

I guess ... "good things come to those who wait" ... LOL Annoying thing is ... I am sure I still have that original container I used ... somewhere ... but do you think I can actually find it? lol

I didn't put in a parking or trailhead waypoint because there are several places one can park and carry (or drag) a kayak/blow up boat/etc. down to the water, and they vary from parking fairly close to the water and a longer paddle, to a shorter paddle but a longer carry to get kayak/etc. to water, it should all be fairly obvious where u can park/launch once you get there, and it is a nice drive along beside the lake to find where you might like to mount your attack from.

This pond is actually called the West Belconnen Settlement Pond ... not a very exciting name for what is actually quite a nice pond ... in an area that I have seen change from a pond hiding in the middle of some paddocks, where people used to dump cars and stuff, to a nicely landscaped new suburb with picnic tables and BBQs and bike paths around one side of the lake (there are tracks around the whole way, for walking, or riding a mountain bike :) There is a lot of bird life here - including ducks, swans and even Pelicans.

Hopefully not too many muggles come out here, but I did clean up the remains of a picnic (chip packets and tin cans, matchboxes, etc) that I found scattered around between the trees on the island when I initially tried to place this cache. The cache should remain unnoticed as long as muggles don't look too closely into the branches - it is yet another of my experiments in crocheting cache camo :)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

va gur oenapurf bs n irel fznyy gerr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)