It was more like 103 Geocaches we found in Woodlands Historic Park. There is a series of Geocaches called "Woodlands 100" in the park, and it would be the first Geocaching "series" I'd complete. Over the past several weeks Jo and I have visited the park several times. The main benefit of Geocaching is that you discover areas and places you'd overwise ignore. Jo has lived in Melbourne for about 50 out of her 60 years and she'd never heard of Woodlands Historic Park before I suggested we tackle the series. On our first visit we discovered Living Legends; basically a "convalescent home" for retired championship horses of the Melbourne Cup and other Victorian thoroughbred races. The Melbourne Cup lasts only about three minutes yet is known as "the race that stops the nation." Living Legends' most famous horse, Doriemus, passed away last month after an accident. He was the 1995 Melbourne Cup winner. During our short mission a few weeks ago we also discovered Woodlands Homestead, an old historic home built in the 1840s. Today it's basically a museum with a wealth of info regarding champion horses and Victoria's various races. It's also a fabulous place for a coffee. The park is offically only open until 4:30 PM but you can enter anytime afterward as long as your car isn't parked inside the gates. With a worksheet, Jo and I found Geocaches in many different places. The caches themselves all look pretty much the same: a long, slender tube with a logsheet and a pencil (though I wrote my name with a pen). The series included 96 traditional caches, three multicaches, and one final mystery. Several of the caches contained clues to the coordinates to the final cache (#100). Some of the more interesting caches included "Dead or Alive" (a Geocache hidden amidst a fallen tree with live branches), "Platypus" (hidden inside a plastic platypus) and "The Hand" (literally, a tree in the shape of a hand).
In another cache I had to take apart a large metal pole to get it out. There are a few caches that aren't part of the series but happened to be in the park before the series was placed. Whoever placed all the caches had to of spent large amounts of time in the park and would have required substantial amounts of effort to place them all. Our toughest day was a rather cold one and involved Jo and I walked up and over Gellibrand Hill four times and finding a total of 26 caches!
There's far more to the park than just Geocaching. Like its name states, it's a historic park. In addition to the Woodlands Homestead there are ruins of several other 19th century homesteads. The main attraction here is nature. Mobs of kangaroos and wallabies bound around the park, and there's a bandicoot enclosure. Bandicoots are noctural so there was little to no hope of us spotting one. The majority of Melbournians might assume they have to drive several hours to spot a kangaroo but it's only a 20-minute or so drive from downtown, and someone just arriving to Australia could see a kangaroo straight away without going to a wildlife sanctuary, since the park is right next to one of the busiest airports in Australia. The flora is just as exciting as the fauna. Some of the trees are downright huge! The most interesting plant we saw was one that is no more than a foot tall yet like seven or eight feet in diameter without touching the ground. The best part of the park is just the overall peacefulness and serenity. It's the perfect escape from Melbourne if you're short on time and money, and Jo and I have been several times and still have only seen a fraction of the park.
After about six visits and finding 98 out of 99 caches (and four others not part of the Woodlands 100 series) we had all the clues in hand for the final mystery. The coordinates placed us slightly outside the park in front of a property. As I was having a perouse around a tree outside the property I hear this woman screaming out "what are you doing? what are you doing?" It was difficult to focus and then her husband yelled at us, even though neither of us trespassed onto their property. They said there were going to ring the cops but I yelled out "Do it! I'm not stopping you! Send every cop in Melbourne here if you want to!" Their dogs were going crazy as well and Jo said "I think we made a mistake, let's look elsewhere." After making a small adjustment the coordinates placed us right on the corner of a road bordering the park. The cops showed up then! Jo and I had the worksheet and the iPad ready and we explained to the cops that we were Geocaching. Immediately they were intrigued and in the end we all got the last laugh. I may have mentioned before, but you're not supposed to let non-Geocachers (mugglers) know what you're doing. After the cops spoke with us for a minute or so and had a check of Jo's driving license, we went on a wild goose chase in terms of getting all the clues right. Then after, the final mystery was an easy find! We were hoping for a voucher for a free coffee at the Homestead but we just had the great feeling of completing a big Geocaching series and discovering a beautiful park within easy reach of Melbourne. We finished too late that day but today Jo, Ning, and I would all go to the Homestead for a well-deserved coffee. It was only today we found out that Doriemus died. As our coffees were being made we had a glance around the Homestead. It's wonderful here! And there is so much history of previous thoroughbred winners.
Some of the rooms are very elegant. Without my camera, Ning helped me out by being my photographer. Every room in the Homestead has something different.
I'm so glad we came here today, even though the coffee isn't $1 like at 7-Eleven. We then drove around to the other side of the park where we showed Ning "the hand." It was very hot today, and Ning was wearing tight jeans and a dark shirt. She doesn't walk often so it's more difficult for her. Today was the first of many adventures with my wonderful lady.
Thanks to Geocaching, we discovered a beautiful park as well as a great place for some excellent views and a coffee!
