The boys and I attended a previous event in 2016 so as soon as this one was announced we were looking forward to the day.

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When we woke up it was raining quite heavily in Toowoomba, but luck was on Xixau and Shenzi's side because when I looked at the Radar the storms missed Crows Nest and the surrounding area entirely.

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WillPunkey, Scoob, StephLego and I arrived and were pleased to see the large number of teams getting ready to go for a hunt. We were one of the last teams to leave and StephLego wanted to make sure that we sped off as soon as we could to make up for lost time. In our haste we forgot to look for WP1 and nearly missed number 2. StephLego was driver, I was navigator with the motionGPX-app and it was 9 year old WillPunkey's Job to look for the picture clues. Scoob made sure he made himself busy asking for snacks and lollies all day.

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Navigation was relatively easy but there was one point where both the map on motionGPX and the Garmin did not show any roads so we instead headed for the detour WP on the main road. We were glad we did as here we saw a little echidna which was about to walk out onto the road, we stopped for a while to show the kids until it headed off back into the long grass. A logical path to the next WP was soon found and it was on with the safari.

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Most of the clues were straight-forward but there were a couple which were a little tricky. Thanks for the previous finder who covered up the fridge model number with the rock and the person who wrote 1 in pen as the cable depth, we were not fooled :). The real challenging part was the picture clues. We spent our whole time tying to find the old building with the outhouse and the cactus and cattle ear tag on the pole. We did not find the outhouse but we were very happy we found that sneaky ear tag!!.

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Thanks Xixau and Shenzi for a great family day out. Thanks for all the hard work in setting up these events. We will be back again next time and StephLego wants to go one better and aim for No.1.

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Mystery INC.

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I have tried to get to this event for the last two years, however travel had me out of the country or state both times. As it was set a little earlier this year, we knew we could come! Unfortunately LadySim was a late withdrawal due to illness, however I was lucky enough to have missed the severity of LadySims lurgey. 

Strategies had been predetermined, though a late withdrawal of two key Bromansketeer members (and their more intelligent sidekick) defecting to glamour and glitz of the Gold Coast. This meant a reshuffle of responsibilities and obligations. Seffnjarah had stayed up all night reworking the seating positions. 

Bromansketeers all made it on time, fuelled up on coffee and competitiveness. We finally received the secret dossier of The Rural Safari 2018! It was on! We quickly headed off completely forgetting waypoint 1's question! haha. As a newbie, I was responsible for backup navigation and bonus point plotting. We quickly set into a routine, of looking for waypoints, looking at the pictures, and scanning the scenery for them. If I never search for another cactus on a fence post or a butterfly on a fence then that will be fine by me!

As we worked around the course beer bottles kept appearing in stumps, imaginary 'picture' locations were discussed, and small pebbles were found in compromising positions. Most odd indeed.

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We flooded others at times, and then found ourselves surprisingly alone for others. The largest contingent was at one Bonus Point where the container had been (lets just say) very well hidden! I think we ended up with 20 people looking for it, and one happy Pprime making the find.

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It was surprising how fast the time went, and eventually we found ourselves back in the township of Crows Nest. After 6 hours of driving we sat and reworked our answers as the rain set in. We made 2 guesses of photos we hadn't seen (and got them both wrong!). Did ANYONE find the conical concrete thing??? I would love to know what it was.

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Eventually the results were in. We couldn't believe that even with all the laughing, and joking through the day, we had somehow managed to jag a win. No one was more surprised than us. Apart from the first prize trophy, we were presented with a very generous gift of a well stocked ammo tin from JimmyProject. Thanks so much JP Team!

We headed back to our campsite to find that our tents were still dry, so we could stay another night.

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What can I say about this great event? It was a well run machine, heaps of fun, a great twist on the world of caching, I laughed to much, we all screamed with joy at finding each picture, we had great fun with friends and made a few new ones. This is a must do for anyone who wants a fun weekend away. Thanks to Jerry and Co for all your tremendously hard work, and making it look so seamless (I mean who ever goes to the trouble of having a wet weather track too - just in case!).

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C'mon next year - we have a title to defend! Bring it on peeps!!!

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Swellerfungus

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What an awesome event...as part of the Gold Coast Glitterati team we enjoyed charging around the ranges immensely. 

Big thanks to Jerry for the massive effort in organising everything. Oh, and cache no. 4000 for us to boot. TFTEC.

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Herbz

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Geocaching events have really become somewhat mundane to me. 'Hang about in this random park for an hour' has kinda grown old. And I flatly refuse to 'sit in a pub/library meeting room/cafe' and classify it as outdoors or geocaching. As a result this is only my fifth event attended for 2018. But I will say, the moment I see it listed, I whip out my calendar and ensure I will be there. It truly is the event of events for each year! I sincerely hope they continue on for many, many more.

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This year, as with most years we spin the wheel of options to see who will be on the team and in which vehicle. Location however, someone else sorts that out and we're at the comfortable Crows Nest. Fangsoki's Canyonero was the weapon of choice and was joined by myself, Pprime, Kaibrya and Radnoski. Somehow five people had arrived in three different cars. But, checked into our cabin and the briefing listened to and understood just brought on the painfully long wait to start!

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I can't fathom how long it must take to determine the route, find all the clues, plot all the waypoints and find awful observation clues as well. I couldn't help but giggle a few times (no, not at the awful puns and dad-jokes in the car) at the silly things this long convoy of 4WDs are stopping to look at and probably take photos of. We felt we did alright but certainly missed some clues - cest la vie! And we were in the only town at the wrong time and as such lunch was very late and very meager when we finally rolled into some tiny town shop that was a bit under prepared for a carload of five hungry hunters. Leftover pizza saved the day when we got back to the cabin seven hours later.

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But, seven hours of good times. Five of us rotated through seats, made awful jokes, it rained, we saw some interesting things, visited the unique town of Acland, made donkeys of ourselves at a waypoint or two and otherwise just had a brilliant day out. As is always the way. The result were announced and out of 1000 possible points, we scored in the low 800s, earning us fifth place! And with only 40 points between us and first place, it was clearly a scoreboard decided by but a few tasks. And so that was it, we found dinner at the pub and retired to our cabin for the night.

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Sadly we can't give events favourite points, but this is mine for the year, as it is nearly every year for the past seven years I've been attending Xixau & Shenzi events! I'm already looking forward to next years and I forever hope this event sets a benchmark for the effort, creativity and adventure of geocaching get togethers :)

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Captain Terror

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This must be some kind of record for me - logging an Event one week later!

The Rural Safaris are now the Events of Events as far as I am concerned. Wild horses couldn't keep from these great little gymkhanas.

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As poor old Canyonero (aka "the Pajero") had only come back from West the week before, I had to work on getting it ready for this Event. Of course, the day before the battery died. Oh well - better than out there.

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Team Canyonero this year consisted of Radnoski, Pprime, Captain Terror, Kaibrya, and myself. We arrived.. checked ourselves in.. got ourselves signed up, listened to the briefing and we were off.

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This year was tough for us. Despite having 2 more sets of eyes, we will managed to miss a few of the observation clues. However I really think we put our best in.

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But more importantly, we enjoyed ourselves. Managed to encounter a tiger snake.. saw the remarkable ghost town of "Acland".. and enjoyed each other's company. Toward the end it rained on us - but I don't think that hindered our "observation" ability.

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We got back to "HQ" all tired and weary and handed in our sheets. We got the gist we had missed a few. It transpired we managed to get 5th place this year. Oh well. We are always there for the fun. Congratulations to the the winning team

Also congratulations to Team Herbz and Stairman1 for getting 4000 finds. Well done, guys

The event had a tinge of sadness for me , as I previously managed to catch up with dear old Guddink at these events. He is sadly missed.

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However, it was great to catch up with other dear friends. (It's not the same without you, Team @Aussie Liahona!)

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My sincere thanks yet again to Xixau & Shenzi for their hard work in getting this setup. This year was just as enjoyable as the others. And thanks to OMY130 for being his "support crew"!

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Look forward to next year! TFTE Xixau & Shenzi

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Fangsoki

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Always a must-add onto the calendar when announced, and despite having just had 12 weeks on holidays, after two days of work I was ready for another one. Up to Crows Nest I came with Fangsoki, Joining with 'nKab, Captain Terror and Radnoski to form Team Canyonero, back in the saddle this year. We set off high with confidence and full of dreams - and had so much fun, dad-jokes notwithstanding, all day.

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ALLLLLLLLLLLlllllllllllll day. We Collected letters. We spotted things, looked at fence posts, collected answers, Looked at fenceposts, navigated our way past the helipad using Pythagoras' theorem (see kids - algebra IS important). Saw the actual helipad. Looked at fenceposts. Collected more letters, saw a big plane. Looked at fenceposts. Down some slightly rougher roads, oops, missed on. U-turn, wait for traffic - where's a traffic cop when you need one. Counted chain links. Looked at fenceposts. Visited a cemetery/ Looked at fenceposts. Saw a train. Looked at fenceposts. Looked at fenceposts. Looked at fenceposts. It rained. It stopped raining. Looked at fenceposts. Looked at the clock - oh, it's been nearly 7 hours.

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We never saw the right fencepost. I am still looking at fenceposts - not so many of them in the Brisbane CBD. None have a 19 on them, and no cactus here.

It was a truly awesome day, and a lot of fun. As always. We didn't win this year (time to encourage others I say), but the fun was as much as ever. This remains one of the highlights on the calendar.

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And like always my sincere thanks and amazement at the effort invested by Xixau, Shenzi and Geoff and others that help out. It astonishes me the effort it must take, and to keep it fun each year. Well done to you all.

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Thanks for holding this event, Xixau & Shenzi. A fantastic time was had at this, my 91st ever event.

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Pprime (p)'

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2017's event saw a Bromancekeeter team, operating under a chocolate-based code name, finish right in the middle of the field, and have a few chuckles on the way round. Our positive report meant that we had a full complement of Bromance and Keeters signing up for the 2018 event. My weekend started out well; hitching a lift with Seff meant I was free to answer emails and texts on my work phone, which kept up a steady stream of pings most of the way from Brisbane, telling me all about the broken server, and how my name was mud for not being there to fix it!

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Once there the phone went on silent, and the steaks onto the BBQ, and for a while, all was well with the world... at least until the Golden Stairs announced their defection to a glittery Gold Coast team Oh the betrayal! They even had uniforms! Lady Sim had also unceremoniously dropped us in favour of a quiet weekend and her bed, so her beloved Swellerfungus made the drive up alone, leaving Keepingupwith and Crookedpete to make their own way up on Saturday morning. Our numbers had dwindled to only 5, and right up until we arrived at the event we were still intending to go round in 2 vehicles, but a last minute decision saw us cram into Victor del Prado with Seff at the helm, Fungus in the navigator's seat, myself in the back centre as scribe, and KUW and CP as spotters.

Last year we had set off at speed with the result that we were still entering bonus WPs on the road, and missed the special bonus entirely. This year we displayed a much more level headed and mature approach, and took our time setting ourselves up properly across multiple devices, and were still patting ourselves on the back for this when we realised we'd missed WP1

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Out on the road we soon settled into a routine of spotting, mocking the foibles of first one member of the team, then another, answering questions, bringing up traumatic memories (H.O.A.R.S is not, and will never be, a recommended treatment for a pulled muscle CP!), looking for bloody cacti on fence posts (!), and finding the bonus boxes. Friendships remained intact via judicious application of shower in a can, sharing of carb and fat-loaded snacks, and lots and lots of laughs.

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We found ourselves back at the campsite with around 90 mins to spare, so we reviewed our answers over a late lunch, entering in guesses for two of the observations we had failed to spot (although certain members of the team would say our guesses were actually carefully considered statistical gambles, based on pattern analysis of the clusters and gaps displayed in the.. blah, blah, blah... either way, they were both wrong!), and handed in our sheet.

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When it was time for the results we waited with baited breath... the first few names were read out; glad we'd made it to the top ten, then into the top five. Once it was clear we were in the top three we were exchanging incredulous but excited glances, and upon winning the very cool prize donated by Jimmyproject (Thank you!) we were blown away, but immediately started planning how to use the prize to best effect.

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Thanks so much for organising this event Xixau & Shenzi. You make it look effortless, when it is anything but. We all had a great time! See you all next year!

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JezNDez

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Up from Brisbane for the event with IolantheK
Filled a car as "Colin's Slaves", not our first choice of names thanks Colin
Had a great day out, driving, laughing, spotting

Thanks Jerry (Xixau & Shenzifor) putting it all together

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T-Tech

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The last Safari I did was a nice short sleeve khaki number at a 70's themed fancy dress party a few years ago. Quite dashing really. But today, being a newbie to these shindig's, I found this whole Safari thing a bit daunting.

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Firstly, there was a weekend long leave pass to be obtained from the Minister for War and Strife. Got that a little too easy!? Am wondering if I should read a bit deeper into that. Secondly, the travel arrangements were thrown out the window at T minus 12 hours by a Swollen Mushroom. Then, on Safari day, some last minute defections by our high profile stars to the Golden Glitterati team (amidst calls for a salary cap investigation) meant the entire Bromanceskteers team could fit into one car. I think this actually helped our result even though it was a little up close and personal across the back seat of Seff's 4wd - but nothing that a generous helping of "shower in a can" couldn't fix.

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At our designated time, we set off. Like complete rookies, we missed the first waypoint, which we were able to collect on our return. Initially, we rushed from point to point but soon realised we were better to poke along slowly and make sure not to miss any of the photo clues. Approaching the end of the day, with a good haul of pictures clues spotted there was animated discussion about the statistical distribution of picture clues across the waypoints. We were even reasonably upbeat about our two guesses at the two clues we didn't spot, though neither guess proved right.

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Along the way, we couldn't help but have some fun with our fellow competitors. With three or four cars right behind us, we decided to pull up and run into the bushes whilst others in the team pointed at landmarks in the distance. Lots of confused looks checking GPS's in the following cars after that. Thereafter, every beer bottle we found in the bush on our stops ended up lodged upside down in a fence post. I was almost disappointed that the beer bottle picture clue ended up being an obvious one.

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In our car, there were lots of laughs, silly stories and other antics. Perhaps this is what I enjoyed the most about the event. Thanks for a great day out, team. Whoever counted the insulators on the power pole can go back and brush up on their Grade 1 maths.

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Many thanks to Xixau & Shenzi. The organisation, dedication and effort required to pull off this event is mind blowing. I now have a better idea about your various more subtle deceptions along the way. So look out next year!

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Pete

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PS We stopped for five different cacti growing in the tops of a fence post. Pre Safari, I would have thought the chances of that were remote! Even on the drive back to Brisbane I found myself scanning fences posts for a cactus.

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CrookedPete

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After having such a great time last year, stortigirls and I decided to attned the Rural Safari again. It did not disappoint this year either. Loved the drive through the countryside and catching up with people I don't see very often. Xixau & Shenzi, it is obvious how much work goes into organising this event and it is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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Selva Girls

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Last year an advance party from The Bromanceketeers did the Safari and came back with rave reviews so this year we were all keen to join in the fun. I managed to wrangle a leave pass for the day and so it was looking like we were going to get the full compliment front up for the event.

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Last minute sickness and defections saw us reduced to five and we made the snap decision to cozy into one car. SeffNJarah took on the driving, the Magic Mushroom fronted up to navigate, JezNDez scribed while CrookedPete and I took staring-out-the-window-at-fence-posts on the right and left side respectively.

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We started out in complete noob style by missing the question at the first way point... but managed to to get into the swing of things by the time we got to the bomber.

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With a mix of sing along to the Corries, talking sh*te and the occasional wild ejaculation on spotting a photo clue (followed by the obligatory comic reenactments) time and country side sped by and it seemed like no time until we were back at the starting point checking answers and wondering whether the rain was going to hamper our evening.

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We were pretty happy that we'd made a respectable effort but as the result announcements went further on we were becoming more and more surprised not to have been called out. When second place was announced we were all a little stunned. The excellently prepared Ammo tin was a very kind prize and we immediately started planning on how to use it.

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Thanks Xixau & Shenzi for an excellent event. Clearly a huge effort went into the setup and the attention to detail made for an great day out exploring new places.

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Keepingupwith

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Many more here...

(Geocaching.com login required).

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