Honeymoon Hilton

Geocaching

Some of you will know what Geocaching is, others will have no idea until now. Basically it's a game of hide and seek using GPS units to find the hidden treasures. Typically Tupperware style containers but sometimes large ammo boxes or tiny vials like you might use on a carrier Pigeons leg.

I've got just over 100 Geocaches hidden in Southern Australia which help to make up the over two million worldwide.

This latest cache is the hardest I've made and easily the hardest to find in this area.

Carefully bored into a rock and covered with an *auto filler cap held in place by a super magnet, this rock is then placed among many others in a typical bush fireplace. The whole thing is then blackened with flat black paint (it's total fire ban here so I'm not allowed to light even a small fire) to make it look used. To add further to the difficulty there are an array of camping items for potential finders to search. To make it worthwhile there is a dry milk tin full of trinkets and swaps and a hidden bottle of (fake) gold nuggets so Geocachers can take one as a memory. Add a plastic snake and centipede to make you jump and lots of bits for you to search, with the area cleared a colony of ants moved in and made it home adding further to the difficulty.

I've built the entire camp in the local fauna park, carting in every single thing to make it look entirely authentic. It's a copy of an historic camp now on army land and therefore out of bounds for Geocaching. The Honeymoon Hilton was used when the 85km trip from the next town was a two day Bullock cart ride through the bush, the camp was once the overnight resting place.

The cache became active a few days before Christmas 2012 and has caused much head scratching and more than a few phone calls from people looking for clues. The first finders took 71/2 hours to find it and two calls for clues

*car bog

 The camp as you approach it.

 Even things like this Shotgun cartridge is there because I placed it there and must be searched. One of my other caches is a Shotgun cartridge so this makes a few people think they have found it.

 An old milk can full of swaps, bottles and a fire blackened fire prod. (Painted not actually fire blacked)
On the log above the can you can see the small plastic snake.

 Even a bottle cap is a possible Geocache, every piece of wood may have a drilled hole for a tiny cache and must be searched.

 An old roll of Barbed Wire to search, under the bark is a small container with my phone number for clues and the special tool for opening the cache when you find it

 The Gold is stashed in the crook of this tree

The real hiding place..... 

Under a lower rock here. Again painted rocks and sticks to make the fireplace look used.

This rock.....

Turn it over..

Can you see the Geocache?

 How about now the special tool is inserted?

..and now the cap is removed? 

The hard sandstone rock was drilled out and the cap moulded to fit exactly. (What do you know, those years of moulding my own fishing lures finally paid off)

The metal rod holds it firmly in place with a super magnet glued into the bottom of the hole.

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Slippery Pole

You may remember a film from a while back called JAWS... all the real life shark bits were filmed at Port Lincoln where the Tunarama is held each year in January, here too you can pay your money and go cage diving with huge Great Whites, free diving in Seal colonies (where Great Whites feed) or feed and touch them like this....

I have to ask...Why would you want to?

I've seen a few sharks up close and personal, once in the water while we were spear fishing, once in my 'much too small' kayak, (the shark was way larger than my 12 foot kayak) again in my 'much too small' alloy boat while fishing...but I digress. 

The other thing you can do to see sharks is swim in the ocean at Port Lincoln...

To make it interesting lets lube ourselves with oil so we slide down easier then make a lot of splashing about like a wounded animal...better yet, let's do the Slippery Pole..

Each year at Tunarama one of the premier events is the Slippery Pole, a 5 metre plastic pipe is hung off the side of the town jetty (across and away from the Shark Proof Netting put there for swimmers) The pole is then mopped down with cooking oil to make it slippery then each potential meal, prey item, competitor, is wet down just to make them even more slippery than you ever thought possible.

The stated aim of the event is for the competitor it make it out to the end of the pipe and back in the least amount of time...the real aim of the event is to watch as the hapless victims competitors fall into the shark infested seas.

Of course this is heaps of fun and you end up walking away with sides hurting from laughing.

In case you think this would be completely impossible I have the sad duty to tell you that two young men made it all the way out and back with only time separating winner from runner up...

Years ago this event was open to all comers and since the town jetty is right across the road from the town pub (bar) there were lots of inebriated contenders.. sadly this is no longer the case as all contenders must be under 17. (drinking age is 18..and in anycase it's hard to swim without spilling your beer)

You may notice that female tryers are few and far between (none this year) I believe this is because sliding along the pole causes numerous wardrobe malfunctions..... enough said!

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