“2024 Cache Hider Themes - August”

Water & Nautical

At the start of 2024, Geocaching HQ challenged Cache Owners with their Monthly Cache Hiding Themes. A challenge that I have decided to take up. 12 different hides across the 12 months of 2024, each tying to a particular theme as suggested in the blog post listed. From day one I have concepts in mind for most, if not all of these caches. At the end of 2024 I hope to have a series of 12 caches that will give finders a range of experiences from easy to find but memorable containers all the way through to time consuming puzzles requiring you to exercise your grey matter before you even unlock those final coordinates!

Last Months cache: 2024CHT - Outer Space (July)

Next Months theme: Sneaky Camouflage

This months GC code has been kindly provided by Cybergran V, kindly supporting my goal of having as many caches types as possible across this series.

Whether you tackle a few, or tackle the whole series (keeping in mind that October is Terrain 5 caches!), I hope you enjoy them. I will maintain a public list of all caches in the series for easy reference. So, wtihout further ado, lets progress to this months cache....

King Edward VII

The Statue:

The statue you see before you at the given coordinates has quite the history. It was one of four pieces sculpted by Charles Summers, one of four such pieces commissioned by Sir William J Clarke in 1876 to be presented to the Melbourne Art Gallery. After being held in the Melbourne Library, it was presented to Geelong in 1939, and originally lived nearby to its current location until the area developed into the current harbour between Cunningham Pier and the Carousel, at which point the Statue was removed and stored at the Council Depot on Barwon Heads Road in Belmont. During its stay here, Edward was decapitated by person(s) unknown, and his original head was never recovered.

Geelong businessman and Philanthropist paired up with Geelong council to fund a $50,000 restoration of the statue. A cast was made of the neck and shoulders, this combined with research of historical photos allowed a 3D digital model of the head to be produced, at which point a new head was produced by Sculptor Jane Valentine, using marble from the same quarry in Italy that the original statue was produced from.

Edward was once complete again, and moved to his current home in 2014, adjacent to the Sailors Rest, which was built as an memorial to the late King, with its foundation stone being laid in 1912. Sailor's Rest was originally built as a refuge for weary sailors upon their arrival in port, a task which it continued to serve all the way up until the mid 1980's

The birth of nautical wear as fashion?

A little know fact (at least to me), is that as a child, 'Bertie' unknowingly played a part in dictating a fashion trend that would last many decades. Queen Victoria came to the idea during a sailing trip around the channel islands in 1846 to have a sailor suit tailored for the then 4 year old Bertie, fashioned in the style of the officers and men accompanying them on their ship and produced by the same tailor. The outfit was quite popular, and Prince Albert commissioned a portrait of Bertie in his sailour outfit to give to Queen Victoria as a Christmas gift. In 1847 the portrait was exhibited at St James Palace and was seen by over 100,000 visitors, stimulating the trend for sailor suits and nautical leisure wear for childen. These days the portrait is cared for by the royal collection trust, which you can see here. 

Your logging task:

Visit the coordinates, take a picture of King Edward, and include your caching name in the picture, somewhere and somehow. On a pathtag or other personal item, or even written on a scrap of paper. You do not need to be in the photo, but you can be if you wish. Photos must be taken post publication of this cache, visits prior to this date do not count.

Logs without the required image attached, logs with names edited into the photo will be deleted. You must visit the cache location in order to be able to claim a find. If you are caching in a group feel free to include a group shot, but you must also include the required image with your caching account name. No group aliases please, there is no need to conserve log space here.