Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Ban-Yobbo, a Geocaching log


What an adventure you lead me through Banyo! On Mother's Day my GeoSisters and I took our mum out for a day of caching, we decided the BanYobbo series would be fun. With us went three of my nephews (7, 11 and 19) and we had a GREAT day. We started with Drinking and then slowly drove from spot to spot, picking out caches as we went. Everyone enjoyed themselves, between the seven of us most caches didn't stand a chance of staying hidden (though a couple were pretty well hidden). It seemed like time whizzed by and suddenly we were at School with all the clues ready to go (I had been smart enough to photograph each clue as we went) but all of us were just struck dumb, nothing we tried made any sense, there was too many of this for that solution, this was missing for that solution (I even went through the cache list three times to ensure we hadn't missed one). We all decided to call it a day with the plan for me to send on the photos of the clues later in the day.

I got home and told my partner (a non-cacher) about our day and how stumped we were with the puzzle. He offered to help me out and I was super thankful, he has a sharper brain than me :) I sent him the photos and suddenly something clicked in my head and two numbers materialised before my eyes! I yelled at my partner to start reading me the clues and when I was able to beat him to the punch on several I knew I had it! I plugged the coordinates into Google Maps and it looked feasible, I'd even ridden my bike to just nearby before! Many of the previous logs suddenly made sense and I was super excited! Unfortunately by that stage it was a little late for me to get back out to it and I hoped to get out the next morning. Of course life was in the way and I didn't really have any time for the next few days.

Fast forward to today, I was in Banyo to see my personal trainer and had shifted my schedule so I would have some time immediately afterwards to go try out my solution. In my car was my caching bag and (thanks to some good advice) my gum boots, as well as some more appropriate clothing (gym shorts and a singlet probably wouldn't be good for walking in the bush). I parked my car as close to GZ as was possible and got changed into my caching outfit and set forth. Usually if I'm caching alone I will jog from my car to the cache because I am so excited to get there. Do not try to jog in gum boots! Slowly I followed the track until I knew I would have turn off soon. Just as I thought I'd have to cut my way through the jungle a path appeared and I was thankful for those gumboots! I clambered my way through the bush, wondering if I looked like a member of the Ministry if Silly Walks as I tried to avoid getting my big gumboots caught. I constantly consulted the GPS on my phone but it was playing the "Go this way, no that way, whoops, where are we?" game I ended up having to resort to stopping, resetting the GPS app, getting a new reading, moving and repeating. Slowly, SLOWLY I approached and circled ground zero (by the way, if it weren't for the mozzies this would be a beautiful spot) and then I glimpsed something! YES! There it was, the Yobbo was mine! Just as I was signing the log I got a message from my other half, seeing if I'd found it yet. I signed, replied to the partner, replaced the cache and stood up. The way I'd come in was kind of round about so I decided I should just set of straight for the way out. A decision I immediately regretted as the entire bottom half of me was suddenly caught up and wrapped in thorny vines. Now, I grew up in Deception Bay and Redcliffe in the 80's, I've seen my fair share of Yobbos and right at that point in time I let forth a stream of words that would have made even the biggest yob blush!

I managed to find my way back to the crossing and headed back to the car. Along the way I managed to get a couple of nice pics of a beautiful butterfly. 

Thanks Pprime for this cache and series! I had the best fun doing it, solving it and finally finding it! Definitely a favourite of mine now!