Getting Stoned Traditional Geocache
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(regular)
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The enigmatic stones of Glendale - like the ancient stones of Stonehenge and Avebury they are surrounded by mystery....
These historic dry stone walls have confounded people for years - who built them here and what is their purpose. It's funny how things happen: after our trip up a nearby slope with McPhan and ZsaZsa7 for the Lost Kiwi Tourist cache, a friend mentioned to me that there were some good dry stone walls in this area. By an extraordinary coincidence, on the same day McPhan was told about the stone walls in the vicinity and emailed us with the details. A plan to place a cache was formed. While little seems to be known about the history of the walls or why they were built, it is certainly worth the walk up here for the walls and the views. Muggles even visit without the attraction of a cache up here!
The main wall consists of several nicely constructed sections that link natural granite features into a long chain. Further beyond the highest rocky outcrop there is one more section. Beyond these up the hill we found another small section, but there could be more if you have the time to meander around.
What were these walls for? We speculated on their purpose, and came up with a variety of plausible and not so plausible explanations. I think the most likely is that the enclosures were built in connection with stock and grazing. Before the gazetting of the Gudgenby Nature reserve in 1979, now Namadgi National Park, this area was grazed and small rough huts would have dotted the leases as accommodation for shepherds. One theory is that these walls were built for yarding livestock - perhaps for mustering livestock as a wall to drive them toward, or as a partial enclosure for an overnight stay. Others have suggested they were built by children, which seems unlikely given their remote location, or as windbreak for a regular camp, or as a bushranger's protection against the troopers coming up the gully (hmmm, not so sure about that one).
And now there are two caches - this one and the partner cache by McPhan, a short distance up the hill. Getting Stoned is hidden in a rocky crevice under several granite flakes. You do not need to rummage within any of the stone walls, but you will need to do a small amount of simple clambering to reach it. Please replace the cache to protect it from the weather.
Enjoy the walk and the walls. A good approach is to park at the Glendale depot and take the foot trail towards Brandy Flat hut but turn off after a short distance and head up the gully towards the walls. There are good open leads, largely free of vegetation for most of the way up. We missed some of these on the way up, but followed them all the way down.
Thanks to our regular caching friends McPhan, RexTrex and Zsazsa7 who accompanied me on this walk and helped with placement. They will log their find after the FTF.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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