Aaarrr .. it be a fine day for treasure hunting, pillaging and feasting ..
I just HAD to get out of the house today, I haven't been well (again) and I was beginning to feel like a hermit who had been discovered by tourists, people always wanting to talk to me, pull me in directions other than the lounge or bed and insisting I be hospitable and feed them .. the hide!
So mrT and I set out to just do 1 cache, the caches around us all seem to be quite the drive away and I felt it was only fair to ask 1 of him today (which I failed to divulge until after we'd hit the road .. just follow the talking box I said) .. lucky for me I'm OK with changing my mind once on the road.
The first box was 30 mins away and on a road we didn't know existed, the drive was lovely and the bush was lush and alive with life, we were looking for an old school (or so we thought) which ended up being just a sign and an empty paddock, perhaps it was an old time alternative open air school .. who knows .. we grabbed our trusty GPS and wandered around in circles amusing ants and spiders a like until BAM .. we found it, the little pot of treasure hidden under bark in an old burnt out tree stump. Now was not the time to be independent and equal, I promptly stood back and allowed MrT his moment of manliness, it was his hand delving in to clear the debris (until he spied a spider) and grab the pot.
In which we found this little beauty, it's what's called a trackable and it's mission is to make it's way to the Northern Territory where it will be found again by the people who set it free. I really enjoy finding the trackables, this is my 2nd and I got so excited when I saw this cache had one listed, I love being part of the bigger picture of moving these items around, it's like being in a secret club which is so secret you don't really know the other members, just the stuff they leave behind and help to move.
Once we'd signed the log and gotten back in the car I just happened to mention that there were others down that way and hey, we may as well see if they were close so as to not waste the trip (luckily for me, MrT is a fairly laid back kinda fella) and low and behold there was another one just up the road (wink wink).
The next cache was under an old railway bridge, easy to find and dig into, someone had left a cute little thailand keyring which I couldn't resist so this is what I grabbed to transport, signed the log and we were on the road again, which is where we met this lovely lady.
She was lovely, she had a few friends with her and it seems they were playing hooky and looking for greener grass outside their fence, she watched us intently and didn't seem at all phased by my taking her picture, I hope she doesn't ask for royalties!
By this stage we were getting hungry so with the promise of food and drink I plugged in the 3rd cache location and we set off again, it was a long round about drive to this one (why oh why does the GPS insist on the long way?!) but the drive was worth the view! We both lamented the lack of a real camera to take pics, it was a view I'd sell one of MrT's body parts to attain and the track was definitely weekend 4wd warrior quality so we enjoyed it and then tapped into our inner mountain goat and clambored about on the rocks to find the cache, in which we left the miss thailand and set off for food and water.
As we came out of the fields/paddocks which the "road" runs through we got a friendly wave from the caravan park man and wondered how many lost treasure hunters he's had to direct over the years. We stopped for a bite to eat in the tiny town of Killarney, best $5.50 hamburgers you'll ever scoff down eat washed down with thick shakes and one last cache.
It's always exciting crossing the border, which is what we had to do for the last cache, I like to pretend I'm on a road trip or escaping the kids or even escaping with my lover (a girl can always dream the romantic dream) never mind the fact we like to be losers at the border and talk of rival hillbillies and their hunt for fresh DNA!
The cache was called "A chickens nightmare" which left us a little stumped, I mean battery farm is just too easy isn't it but we couldn't seriously come up with anything else even though in my mind I was conjuring up snake farms and rabid dogs behind fences but seriously, those hillbillies probably aren't as rabid as we like to think!
The cache ended up being in the guard rail at the edge of a bridge, the river was flowing and it was nice, there were a few random cars who all looked at us like we must be from over the border, especially MrT who looked sus kicking around in the bush eating hamburger and making chicken noises! We did the required chicken jokes and then headed back over the border to safety and the knowledge that our DNA was safe.
Another successful day of treasure hunting .. Aaarrrrr!
