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Ravens Walk 5 - Orpheus Mosaic Wherigo Cache

This cache is temporarily unavailable.

Professor Xavier: Hi

One of my roles as a reviewer is to monitor my region for caches that have been disabled for a long time, have had a reasonable number of DNFs or appear to require some maintenance. This is done through running a query on a database of all the caches in my region that looks for such things or by cachers submitting Needs Archiving logs as it appears maintenance may not be being carried out by the CO.

It would appear that this cache may benefit from some attention by the CO. May I ask that the owner checks the cache and sort out any problems with it or gives an indication of when it may be up and running again for people to find. If this cannot be done or if the CO no longer wishes to maintain the cache then the listing should be archived.

Of course if the CO has visited the cache recently then please post an Owner Maintenance log indicating that they have done so, enable the listing, and all should be fine.

In the future, if a listing is going to be disabled for a long time then posting periodic notes to the page (once per month or so) keeps people up to date with what is happening.

This isn't a requirement to fix the cache immediately but if it's unlikely to be done within 30 days could the CO post a note to the cache page giving an indication of when the maintenance will be done, or an indication of why it cannot be carried out.

By all means send a mail to me through my profile, quoting the cache name and GC code, but please also post a note to the cache page. Emails to me may be missed or go astray and it would be a shame to archive the listing due to missing correspondence.

Guidelines: "You are responsible for occasional visits to your cache to maintain proper working order, especially when someone reports a problem with the cache (missing, damaged, wet, etc.). You may temporarily disable your cache to let others know not to search for it until you have a chance to fix the problem. This feature is to allow you a reasonable amount of time - normally a few weeks - in which to check on your cache. If a cache is not being maintained, or has been temporarily disabled for an unreasonable length of time, we may archive the listing."

Sadly if there is no response to this log after 30 days I may have to archive the cache.

Please note that the guidelines say that if a cache is archived by a reviewer or Geocaching HQ staff for lack of maintenance then it will not be unarchived - Unarchiving a Geocache

Regards

Ed
Professor Xavier - Volunteer UK Reviewer
www.geocaching.com
UK Geocaching Policies Wiki
Geocaching Help Center

More
Hidden : 8/18/2012
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:




You can download the whereigo cartridge here
You can log on with your groundspeak username and password.

The whereigo cartidge


Tips:
1. Check your LOCATIONS, WHAT YOU SEE and INVENTORY at each stage.
2. You will need to check some items more than once.
3. You will need to complete some dialog with what you see at some of the stages. There may be more than one set of dialog.
4. Don't rush. I found some of the activations when reaching certain zones did not come up immediately. They should when you are within 2 to 3 meters. Give it a few seconds.
5. Save frequently so you don't have to start again. The whereigo is about 1 km in length. I did it in about 35 minutes on my android app.



The Mosaic


Not far from Littlecote House lies a Roman villa or Temple (some debate still going on about which). At the North Range there is one of the best mosaics to to found in this country dating from c AD360 - 365.
It is said to depict Orpheus with a dog at the center surrounded by the four seasons.
It was discovered in 1727 by the estate's steward William George. After its discovery and recording, the mosaic and the villa were reburied, and declared lost.
In 1976 the villa was rediscovered, and in April 1978 the owner Sir Seton Wills founded a long term research project on the mosaic, led by Bryn Walters.
Peter de Savary continued his support of the excavation until it was completed in 1991.
The present mosaic is not the original but a reconstruction of what the mosaic looked like from the records made.



The story of Orpheus


The following is taken from mythencyclopedia.com :
In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a musician who sang and played so beautifully that even animals, rocks, and trees danced to his tunes. He was the son of Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, and of the god Apollo. It was Apollo who gave Orpheus his first lyre, the instrument that he always played.
Orpheus fell in love with the nymph Eurydice. Shortly after their marriage, Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died. The grieving Orpheus refused to play or sing for a long time. Finally he decided to go to the underworld to find Eurydice. His playing enchanted Charon, the ferryman who carried the souls of the dead across the river Styx into the underworld. Charon agreed to take Orpheus across the river, even though he was not dead. Orpheus's music also tamed Cerberus, the monstrous three-headed dog who guarded the gates of the underworld. Even Hades and Persephone, king and queen of the underworld, could not resist his playing. They agreed to let him take Eurydice back to earth—on one condition. He was not to look back at her until they had both reached the surface. Orpheus led his wife from the underworld, and when he reached the surface, he was so overjoyed that he looked back to share the moment with Eurydice. Immediately she disappeared into the underworld.
Orpheus spent the rest of his life grieving for his lost wife. In time his grief infuriated the Maenads, a group of women who worshiped the god Dionysus. To punish Orpheus for neglecting their attentions, they tore him to pieces. The Muses gathered up the pieces of his body and buried them, but the Maenads threw his head and his lyre into the river Hebrus. The head continued to sing, and the lyre continued to play, and both eventually floated down to the sea, finally coming to rest on the island of Lesbos. The head became an oracle that rivaled the oracle to Apollo at Delphi. The gods placed the lyre in the heavens as a constellation.

I am indebted to Hellspaw(a whereigo writing expert) for helping make this cartridge. He managed it in 5 days which is a lot quicker than I can.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Arne gerr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)