Post
by Rabbitto » 24 October 10 11:47 pm
I posted the following log on a cache where a relatively new geocacher had listed a 1.5/1.5 cache as a 4/4. There was a group of 4 teams on the search that day and the others had all logged on GC before me. They (maccamob, pprass and squalid) had all alluded to the over rating and the cache owner had replied that they would watch to see that if other geocachers thought that it was a bit too high that they would lower the rating. Since I still hadn't put my log in, I thought that I would add my agreement to the others in a fun way. Unfortunately, the cache placer was both very excited in the launching of their first caches and thought that my comments were made as an attack on their integrity and an opportunity to whack a noob. Under the circumstances, they were understandably upset. The blame for not qualifying the log was entirely mine and I should have emailed first. A couple of emails back and forth to apologise and explain and all was smoothed over. That said, the thread prompted me to look at the log again and I have included it below -
We were sweating with trepidation as we approached this 4/4 cache. We needed all the help that we could get and we lined up 86 of Australia's most experienced geocaching teams to help.
An incredible 40m walk awaited us and after many days of planning we had all assembled at the starting point. The first three metres was uneventful and we thought that we may have over-estimated the difficulty. Then, a pygmy tribe had been lying in wait. Without warning, blow darts flew out of the bushes and two teams were down and their bodies were dragged into the bushes. In the panic, some younger teams tried to escape. It was a trap. We tried to stop them but it was to no avail. Their screams were immediately stilled. We were forced to circle east. The Poppycock Pals and Horsemeat Harry had scouted ahead. We followed their trail and discovered their hats lying atop a quicksand pit. We detoured once more and were still 27m from the cache. More horrors were to follow. We had wandered into a grove where sentient plants were king. Geocachers were going down left, right and centre. The most ironical was when The Ivy Family were gobbled up by a mutant mushroom just as Mushroom Mel was dragged away by poison ivy. You could see that he saw the funny side as we glimpsed a smirk on his face as he disappeared forever behind the wall of leaves.
Only about 22 teams had managed to fight our way out to the north but the silver lining was that we had been pushed within 15m of the cache. It was evident that not all of us were going to make it out of here alive, so when Postpal Phil proposed that we double our chances by splitting into two groups, we thought only of the cache and agreed. 10 teams went with Phil north east and there were 10 teams in our group who would scout around north west. This left GPS Gary in doubt as to which group he would join but the problem was solved when a Bengali Tiger, who had been watched from above, pounced from the tree and dragged him away. We said our goodbyes to the other group and wished them luck and went our seperate ways. We never saw any of them again.
The path we had chosen seemed to be good and we soon got to within 9m of the cache. The trouble was, our path was blocked by an imopsing river. Luckily some floating logs provided us with a crossing option. Six teams had safely made the crossing when the logs started to move. CROCS! The two teams still in the middle stood no chance but Team Raccoon were making good headway until just before the bank, a huge beast leapt out of the water and swallowed them whole, even their Corgi. Well, half their Corgi at least. The front half jumped to the bank and ran around in circles on it's front two legs yipping it's little heart out for a good thirty seconds before the poor little bugger finally passed out through lack of blood and slid down the bank, back into the water.
Despite the losses, we still had cause for celebration. We stood at Ground Zero. Cprass located the cache at 10:20am. Four teams had managed to log, when Team Groundnut and the Cockroach Clan dropped to the ground. Blowdarts! The pygmys had caught us. Pprass could take no more and he ripped his clothes away leaving no more than his gold lined leopard skin lap-lap. He let out a blood curdling Tarzan cry, picked Cprass up under his arm and headed for the vines in the treetops. Had the rest of us not had the presence of mind to grab hold of his lap-lap, we too would have been surely doomed. From vine to vine he swang until he had delivered us safely back to the safety of our cars. Only Pprass, Maccamob, Squalid and myself, (Rabbitto) remain to tell the tale.
Given the above, I would agree that the 4/4 difficulty and terrain rating is fairly appropriate.
Oh, and could the next finder please keep a look our for Peter's clothes. It got a bit chilly by the end of the day (especially after the little lap-lap in the car door accident later in the day) and he would like them back.
Thanks from D B-A.
