Geocaches - 70. 66 Found. 4 DNF
Distance - 12 miles walks. Similar Driven.
Yo Jigidi... with the exception of Jigsaws, I have never really taken to Puzzle Caching. On first glance, they are like Earthcaches - utterley incomprehensible.
 |
| I mean, what the hell are you meant to do with that? |
At the start of the July, I started to get the geocache publication notification messages. I could see an evergrowing list of mystery caches placed for the West Midlands Mega. I imagine this to be like Glastonbury for tupperware hunters. With less coverage on the BBC.
So a bit of a google and I found a few resources on-line that help with about 80% of solving. I'm recording them here for my own benefit in the future.
CACHESLEUTH - has a number of tools, the best being the multi-decoder - copy the offending text into a window and let it do a brute force attack. I also used it identify any character alphabets - by putting the word North into the text box. A great timesaver, when there are 200+ such alphabets that can be used.
BOXENTRIQ - is a bit more subtle and attempts to identify a cipher.
GCCODEBOOK - a downloadable PDF file. Useful for browsing.
If these didn't provide an answer, there is a facebook page that you can ask for help... providing the FTF has gone. I also exchanged messages with other hunters. Thanks TwoOfNine for your help.
And if all else failed, my own brainpower got me a few answers.
Four that caused me most grief (in case it helps me in the future)
- random ABCDEFG - 7 Segment digital display
- Phone keypads
- adding letters together with no key - could be a popular game that Mrs M spends all day on her phone playing against strangers. At least that's what she says she is doing
- Can numbers be converted? Think temperatures.
I dread to think how much time I invested solving all 70. I spent 1hr 40 minutes on one jigsaw alone. Apparently there is a hack for those but what else am I going to do with my time? Not learn how to debug HTML, for sure.
Plotting the route - it looked like the CO planned for these to be completed as Drive Bys. Or maybe Cycle Bys. I was tempted to buy a bike, as solo caching and driving did not sound too safe an endeavour. With a bit of planning, I could see that I could start at Bramshall, catch a bus to Stowe-by-Chartley to pick up number one and walk a linear route getting me the first 56 caches.
The last 14 completed as the CO intended.
 |
| At around Cache 9, I realised the Bisons were branded |
 |
| Nice looking pub at Church Leigh - Alas, I was too early |
 |
| So I had a packed lunch after getting the Church Micro |
 |
| Paying for Parking at the Butchers Arms, Bramshall |
The effort was worth it. I broke my most caches found in a day. A record that has stood for 9 long years.
But my effort was nothing in comparison to the people who set them up. Many thanks to Puzzle_Mega_Crew_22.
I hope your have a great event!
No comments:
Post a Comment