Yep I agree with Waldron on this rating.
I just believe some remote caches don’t get treated with the terrain rating they deserve because people seem to think that because someone can drive up to them they should have a low terrain rating regardless of the environment.
A terrain rating in populated area is a completely different issue for me. Driving on Thompson beach is a lot different than at Purnie Bore. I am just concerned about the remote caches and I don’t believe that a cache get an automatic 5 because you need a 4WD. I just see the 4WD as a piece of specialised equipment to be used to get you to the cache.
I would hope that the rating for a remote cache is the same regardless if you walk to it or roll up in a 4WD. I think Zytherans law works beautifully with these types of caches because it reflect the hazard that people are putting themselves into. I want people to come back out and be able to talk about their remote caching experiences and a rating in these locations should causes people to stop and reflect on what they attempting.
Geocaching is a world wide game and there is the potential for tourists to be misled by a terrain rating that doesn’t accurately reflect the environment they are putting themselves into in their hire 4WD.
Outback Australia can be a hostile environment for the unwary, just check out the marker to the German tourist on the Lake Eyre track out from Williams Creek.
I can imagine that if a tourist is driving down the Stuart Highway from Darwin in their hired 4WD and they see a cache/trigpoint up a dirt side road less that 80ks away with a terrain rating of 2 they might turn off to it without any preparation, after all some of us equate a terrain rating of 2 as being no more difficult than climbing a small tree. If however it was rated at 4 or higher maybe that would cause them to think about what they might be getting into before they turn off.
I think we should error on the side of caution when asking people to seek a cache in a remote place. We don’t want to read about someone receiving a Darwin award because a cache was rated as terrain 1.5 or 2.
PS To Nutwood. What a fantastic effort to do all of that track. Spoke to the lads at ARB this morning and they told me that contrary to the reports we had that the road got better after Emu it was just as bad when they last went through. We though it a bit rough and we only did a little bit. Well done.