Geocaching Australia

caughtatwork wrote:Or are they still at the stage of exchanging Flanian Pobble Beads?

geospyder wrote:On the serious side, I tend to leave golden US dollar coins in caches when I travel if I make trades.

Ah, now it would be really impressive if geospyder left Ningis*. (Collect eight of them and exchange them for a Triganic Pu.)

*A triangular rubber coin 6800 miles along each side, which banks refuse to deal with because they don't like fiddling small change.

You are such a geek / nerd

SamCarter wrote:Ah, now it would be really impressive if geospyder left Ningis*. (Collect eight of them and exchange them for a Triganic Pu.)

Maybe to save a some space I'll just hitch hike around Tas. Is there a hitch hiker's guide I can use?

Two weeks and counting.

geospyder wrote:Two weeks and counting.

Excited yet?

Oh and in case it's slipped past - never ever ever leave for a walk - even for a few minutes - without water. I made that mistake once (for only 20 minutes) and it's not something I'd ever care to do again.

Definitely getting excited. We're from a high desert area in Nevada so we know about water. We'll also have a purifier so we can take water from streams if need be.

Dang - it's snowing again. Sure ready for some warmer weather.

In the US you can normally make a right hand turn after stopping at a red light. Can you make a left hand turn after stopping at the red light in Australia?

Round-a-bouts, traffic circles, what ever they are called. In the US the autos in the circle have the right a way. The autos entering have to yield. What are the rules in Australia?

It might be a good idea to check out the Australian Road Rules, here: http://www.ntc.gov.au/viewpage.aspx?documentid=00794

You may only turn left after stopping at a red light at those intersections with signs saying so. Otherwise, no.

Cars on a roundabout do have right of way, and cars waiting to enter must give way.

Generally, in Australia, we have the rule of "Give way to the Right", and this rule comes into effect where there are no other traffic instructions.

Good luck, and have a great trip!

Wendy

It's going to be over 30oC in Canberra today.

Thanks for the link. That was interesting. It did bring up one other question - are there any toll roads in Tasmania that I should be aware of?

Not that I know of, but I don't live in Tasmania. Someone else is sure to come along who knows more.

Wendy

No toll roads.

Bear in mind that a National Parks pass is required for visiting National Parks (see http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/); yourt best bet might be the holiday pass. This allows you to visit Freycinet Peninsula, Lake St Claire, Russell Falls National Park and a whole heap of others. Of course, there are heaps of reserves that are free, includng the magnificent Mt Wellington which overlooks Hobart, has wonderful views and has a whole heap of great walks ... and caches. Only piece of advice (which applies to all of Tassie) is to be prepared for any weather: so take rain gear, sunhat, sunscreen, warm top, and good shoes.

If you want to visit Bruny Island you will need to pay to go on the ferry (it's a car ferry).

Have fun.

ferry costs i think $20 for a round trip

We did get the parks pass. We plan to visit a number of areas but we did eliminate the caches on Brundy Island. At this point we'll be visiting the Coal Valley area, Mt Wellington area, Wine Glass Bay (Freycinet), the Tasman peninsula, the peninsula south of Lauderdale, Mt. Fields and a few other areas. We talked about heading up to the Cradle Mountain and /or the Launceston areas but we're not sure we'll have the time. Are either worth the drive from Seven Mile Beach? We only have ten days. We also plan to be in Hobart during the market on Saturday the 27th.

geospyder wrote:We talked about heading up to the Cradle Mountain and /or the Launceston areas but we're not sure we'll have the time. Are either worth the drive from Seven Mile Beach? We only have ten days.

Yes, both are worth the drive BUT if you only have 10 days then you will have to make strategic choices and may have to leave them out. People always underestimate the time needed to see even a fraction of what Tas has to offer. You can easily fill 10 days in the southern region (places like you mentioned).

You could do Launceston and back in a day, but you wouldn't get to see all that much (probably do the gorge); if you wanted to do Cradle Mtn from Seven Mile Beach I think you'd want to allow an overnight stay: it's a fair drive and there is plenty to explore.

If you want some pseudo Cradle Mtn country without the overnight stay and long drive, go up to Mt Field National Park (allowing yourself a really full day as it is still 1-1.5 hours from Hobart), and take the road up to Lake Dobson (drive carefully on this last section: it's narrow gravel ... and you still have keep remembering to drive on the left!) and walk up to Tarn Shelf. You'll get lovely lakes, alpine shrubs, views of glaciated valleys (no glaciers of course), mountains, and there may even be a hint of snow depending on what the weather's been doing (less likely in Feb but still possible). It's not a serious only-for-the-extremely-hardy walk, but you should still go prepared as per my previous post (food and water included) and not treat it lightly. And, of course, when you drive back down to the bottom you could go and see the famous Russell Falls (this is a doddle of a walk, but truly beautiful). [Or, you could do the falls first and then Tarn Shelf]

PS You may be surprised that there aren't very many caches in Tassie's national parks, although there are quite a few elsewhere in Tas. There is no official policy so far as I know, but the Tasmanian cachers seem, in general, to have chosen not to place caches in these areas (there are some exceptions). The environment in the parks is very sensitive in places, and although you may catch yourself thinking "This'd be a great place for a cache, how come there isn't one?", enjoy the view, take a photo, and have yourself an internal smiley. I think there is probably wisdom in their unwritten decision.