Explorer 167 Challenge Mystery Cache

This is another cache in the Explorer Challenge series, originally conceived by PetersfieldPoodlePosse, and based upon British Ordnance Survey grid squares as depicted on Explorer maps.

The cache is not at the published location which is the centre point of the playing area for this Challenge. But there is no puzzle - the co-ordinates for the physical cache can be found in the Waypoints section below.

To complete the challenge you need to find (or have found) a total of 167 different caches. I expect a fair number of you will already qualify - so who will be the first to the cache?

What is the Explorer 167 Challenge?

The cache is called the Explorer 167 Challenge because each of the 167 different caches you need to have found to qualify must be in a different British Ordnance Survey grid square as depicted on the Explorer 167 - Thornbury, Dursley & Yate.

The caches can be of any type, previous finds qualify (including those finds now archived and events attended (even if you were the host)), in fact just about any cache other than those you have placed yourself can be counted.

The grids on the map "start" in the north west corner, north of Brockweir at SO 53000 03000

and "finish" in the south east corner a few miles east of Old Sodbury at ST 79000 81000,

giving a possible 22 squares (South to North) by 27 squares (East to West) equals 594 squares in total in which you need to find a cache in 167 different squares to qualify.

For the purposes of this challenge the published co-ordinates of all caches, including Unknown/Mystery and Multi caches are those that are to be used when determining which square a cache counts towards.

So how do I know which of the grid squares on the OS map my cache find is in?

Well, the British OS Grid reference is given at the top of each cache page just below the main co-ordinates, as circled in red below. Or if you click on the streetmap.co.uk link in the "For online maps..." section of the cache page, this will show the location of the cache in its grid square on an OS map.

For those of you that want automated help to plan (or prove) your finds a GSAK macro has been written which produces a web page of your finds and any unfound caches in your current GSAK database selection that count toward this cache. Note: The above link takes you to the GSAK home page. From there you need to click on the 'Macros' link in the purple bar at the top of the page. Then scroll down until you find the 'ExplorerChallenges' macro.

When you have found the 167 caches, you need to provide proof of that fact to be eligible to claim a find on the cache; this can be via one of any number of different methods you may have available:-

1. List the 167 cache codes and names and the corresponding grid reference in your found log. e.g.

GC352ZK Church Micro #1105 - Itchen Abbas SU 53000 32000

GC20BEY Life of Bryan SU 58000 20000

2. Create a public bookmark list

3. After the GSAK macro has run and displayed its output in your browser window, save the web page (as an .html file) and email it to me.

4. Attach the GSAK macro generated image to your log, add it to your profile, or email it to me.

5. Create a Spreadsheet grid of your finds and attach an image of it to your log.

6. Use this site.

The GSAK route is probably the easiest.

Any finds without proof of qualification will of course be deleted! Have fun!

My thanks to PetersfieldPoodlePosse for producing the GSAK Macro.

To find out more about this and other Explorer Challenge caches, go to www.pppgeo.co.uk/explorer.html which has been created to complement the cache series.