“Swan Valley Safe” GC2MRF0 GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – February 21, 2011

The safe from "Swan Valley Safe"

Australian geocacher Astrohiker felt inspired to make a cache that would leave those who found it saying, “Wow, that’s something else.” His inspiration was sparked by a Multi-Cache that he found. The cache had a padlock that could only be opened after discovering the combination through clues.

Astrohiker decided his Multi-Cache would also have a lock, but he took the concept a few steps further. He came up with “Swan Valley Safe” (GC2MRF0).

There is a combination to unlock the cache. But the cache box is a hand-made safe designed and constructed by Astrohiker [picture on left].

He says, “Cachers have to go to three topical places in the Swan Valley, Perth, Western Australia to get the numbers [for the combination]. One is a Cenotaph commemorating the two world wars.” Directions on where to go and what to find are located on the cache page.

Once you find all the clues, Astrohiker says,”You turn the tumblers. If you have the correct numbers lined up when you turn the handle, the 3 steel pins enter the holes of the tumblers allowing the handle to turn further allowing the latch to open.”

The inner workings of the safe
The inner workings of the safe

He says his cache also educates: “People get to see important places in the Swan Valley, have a short hike & can see a mechanical cache in the form of a three digit combination working safe. Oh and don`t forget the views of the city from the cache site.”

But the cache almost didn’t survive its first 24 hours: “It was amazing that I placed the cache at 9am and at 9pm that night a bush fire came through nearly destroying the cache. It was good planning that I placed the cache in rocks on a rocky area where the fire got close to but did not burn the cache. Hundreds of acres were burnt in the nearby National Park but no houses.”

“Swan Valley Safe” was just hidden on the 5th of February. It’s been logged only three times, and already has three Geocaching.com Favorite Points. One geocacher wrote, “Wow, what an ingenious well made cache. I passed a couple of kangaroos resting under a burnt out bush on the way up.”

Astrohiker

Astrohiker says he’s not finished with creative caches. He says, “The next one is going to be a winch (already made) and will fit up a hollowed out log courtesy of local white ants.”

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