Well, yesterday morning AnnaMoritz suggested another multi cache to me as our main target for today's walk. Later that day she however this cache got into her focus due to the recently posted owner maintenance log and wondered whether we rather should go for this cache and so we did.

After a bit of back and forth we finally found a suitable place to leave the car and headed off. The question at Stage 1 was easy to answer and for those who hesitate about the answer the hint makes it clear. Then we managed to lose the marked trail quite soon which we first did not realize. AnnaMoritz made the comment "This part is not used by millions". One minute later she saw a marked tree at some distance and then remarked "No wonder that this way is not used by millions because we are not on the trail". So we headed over for the marked trail - however to me it seemed that not so many more people or beings (including animals) use that path either. I was surprised about how dry the ground has been today - no muddy areas and my shoes stayed amazingly clean which was well appreciated as when taking along my trekking boots in my suit case I do not like it that much if the shoes are very dirty.

At Stage 2 I would have expected something else due to the comment in the cache description, but the object we found fits well into the cache theme and the question was also easy to answer and so our walking rhythm was not broken. The calculations are helpful in this regard too - they are cezanne friendly and did not distract me from my main goal, the walk. It's somehow interesting that I tend to make many mistakes in doing calculations for caches of some cache hiders and make much less mistakes or none at all for calculations of a different style which often is apparently preferred by other cachers. Part of the reason seems that cachers think and calculate in different ways and that some cachers use tools for calculations and some don't.

Stage 3 came as a surprise to me (not having ever heard about this area before and not having done any sort of research about the area before we headed off). It's a nice place.

Stage 4 is of quite a different type and the general area around it offers attractions to people with quite diverse interests and one also can enjoy a very nice view from nearby - the snow covered mountains of which I only recognized the Schneeberg are impressive. At first AnnaMoritz was concerned that we would not be able to reach Stage 4 but that turned out to be not the case. Counting the number of swords did not pose an issue to us and even without the "look carefully" we would have came up with the correct result.

After a short break at Stage 4 we proceeded to Stage 5. I would have expected E to be smaller: amazing how many illustrations have been offered at the price of 3 crowns. At Stage 6 I could hardly believe the answer but we could not find any alternative and so we proceeded with the F we found. At some spots along the way one can enjoy an even better view than from Stage 4 of course only if one is lucky and comes on a day where the weather does not obstruct the view.

AnnaMoritz was not too happy about the routing to the next stage after having looked it up on her map. We indeed had to walk back a bit but we found a reasonable route to the last intermediary stage. The reception there was very bad. At first we were still too low - I told AnnaMoritz what we need to look for and then she said "Oh well, then we need to work up our way or we could have looked it up". We took the first option and soon afterwards had obtained the last variable.

The final coordinates we obtained looked reasonable. AnnaMoritz wondered whether we need to go back and take some detour. However I told her that the description asks us to continue further along the small trail.

So we continued further and followed something which I would call a gebu like trail. In the end we got somehow stuck - probably we followed from some point on an animal's trail. However this was not a big issue. We managed to reach the final area in a reasonable way. I need to admit that shortly before Stage 7 I wondered why the description is telling us that the cache is not relaxing walk from wayside shrine to wayside shrine. Now I understood why and need to beg pardon to M.W. for having thought for a while that they have lowered their standard when it comes to rating the terrain difficulty. However I would not say that the part from Stage 7 to the final is challenging or demanding - it's just more demanding than the rest of the walk which is not suitable for strollers but apart from that very easy and relaxing in my eyes.

After having come close to the target coordinates, AnnaMoritz first wondered where a M.W. cache could be hidden there but once there it was clear. We found the untypically large container which is in good condition quickly. I enjoy signing real log books even if they typically do not write much in the cache log books and rather report my experiences at home in the online log.

After having rehidden the cache container properly we headed off for the way back. With some small detours we ended up with a walk of a bit more than 10km. I enjoyed the walk very much. While I do not like the baroque style it was still interesting to visit the pilgrimage church and to read about the history of the pilgrimages in the area. It seems that the Mariahilfberg has been a very important place in earlier times. Some of the meanwhile abandoned booths reminded me a bit of Mariatrost in Graz and my childhood memories of how the area around the church in Mariatrost looked like back then.

Thank you this very nice cache and for maintaining it over many years, something which has become very uncommon and even more so for caches that do not get many visits. 40 found it logs (including mine) in more than 10 years speak for themselves or rather for how geocaching has devolved and how the preferences of geocachers have changed. I'm glad that such caches still exist. I like the combination of a nice walk with being led to interesting places I would not have got to visit without the cache and I appreciate cache set ups where the focus is on the route and the locations along the way and not on playing a game, searching for creatively crafted containers or solving puzzles.

I do not know how many M.W. caches I have found so far. I only know that I enjoyed all of them and in particular the non urban ones (due to my preferences for non urban caches). I hope that this cache was not my last M.W. cache I get to find and I would be very happy if new M.W. caches showed up somewhen in the future (even though I still have many unvisited ones).

I really wish there existed more caches like this one and more cachers like M.W.

Out: TB Troll 8
TB Rot und Weiss Eventbesucher/ red and white eventvisitor
TB Bienchen

In: TB Thomas the Turkey Travel Tag

Das ist ein wunderschöner Wander Multi. Wie immer bei dem Owner ist es eine perfekte Mischung aus herrlicher Landschaft, sehenswerten Stages und interessanten Aufgaben, die nicht schwer aber auch nicht trivial sind.

Gleich die ersten Meter gehen durch eine spektakuläre Schlucht. Senkrechte Felswände links und rechts - und das so nahe der Straße. Die Landschaft war heute besonders schön, weil sie frisch weiß angezuckert war - eine echte Besonderheit in diesem Nicht- Winter. Die letzten Schneeschauer gingen beim Start gerade zu Ende, und zwischendurch ist dann die Sonne herausgekommen. Auf dem Weg hat man herrliche Weitblicke und Tiefblicke. Die Wegführung ist perfekt, sodass man alle Sehenswürdigkeiten der Gegend besucht.

Vielen Dank für den tollen Multi. Leider sind nur mehr zwei Caches des Owners offen. Ich hoffe sehr, dass er bald wieder neue Caches macht.

IN: ein Travel Bug

Bis zur Stage 3 war alles im gruenen Bereich und die tolle Landschaft und Aussichten konnten ungestoert genossen werden. Dann hab ich allerdings einen boesen Rechenfehler begangen der sich hartnaeckig gehalten hat waehrend ich einige Bonuskilometer absolviert, die anderen Stages eher zufaellig aufgelesen und immer wieder versucht habe durch Rueckrechnen meinen Fehler zu entdecken. Den schliesslich doch noch gefunden und von einer wahrscheinlich ungewoehnlichen Richtung schliesslich den schonen Versteckplatz erreicht. Dort auch noch ein wenig suchen muessen bis sich der Cache endlich gezeigt hat.
Wunderschoener Cache in toller Umgebung mit klaren Stages. Vielen Dank, no trade.

Tippfehler in den Headerkoordinaten korrigiert .

Vielen Dank!

Hier ist ein Tippfehler in den Listingkoordinaten, statt

N 47° 52.881' E 015° 51.474'

müsste es wohl

N 47° 51.881' E 015° 51.474'

heißen.

Wunderschöner Tag, wunderschöne Wanderung! Gemeinsam mit Untergrund haben wir nach 3 km lustigen Umweg(das kommt davon, wenn man richtig errechnete Zahlen falsch ins Navi tippt) und einem Tankstopp am Cremeschnitten-Stage (ein absolutes Highlight! - auch spitze: Apfelstrudel!). Auf dem Weg zu Stage 7 hat uns eine - wohl vom Owner geschulte - ;-) Gämse den späteren Weg zum Cache gezeigt. Dose ist in tadellosem Zustand.

In: Magische Glaskugel, Erogener Kugelschreiber, Regie-Assistent

Out: Wander-Haarbürste

TFTC I Lunedi und Untergrund

Beim ersten Versuch leider ein Minutenfehler, der uns bis zur Dämmerung beschäftigte. Zuhause den Fehler, heute den Cache problemlos gefunden. Schöne Wanderung. THX, Sterau & Lisi

Auf Gavriel's Spuren gewandelt, schade dass wir so langsam waren, sonst hätte es vielleicht ein Treffen gegeben,  Danke für die super-Runde.  Döschwo mit Begleitung

Accompanied by the distant sound of singing I made it as far as the Cremeschnitten-Stage, where I had to take a break. No chance to get on without one.
Thus refreshed everything went smooth for the next stages until I followed the narrow "path". It soon dissolved into a chamois' track so I bushwacked the last 200 m to the cache. Fortunately I had learned on the way which saint I had to praise for the gift of strong feet. [;)]
All informations were found without problems. The view-points are great as well as the cache-location.
Stage 3 shows how times are changing: Nowadays obviously nobody cares to walk that far in order to collect the donated money.

Out: A pin
In: A hamster

thx for the nice walk,
Gavriel

p.s.: Not all waycrosses are lucky enough to be in such a holy surrounding, as the photo shows.

Pictures for this log entry:
the most elaborate cache-hideout I've ever seen
Waycross between Pernitz and Gutenstein
a badly camouflaged trap
roe deer
green green