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Aibohphobia Mystery Cache

Hidden : 10/7/2015
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Aibohphobia is the fear of palindromes, words or sentences that are read the same backward and forward.  Notice that aibohphobia is a palindrome!  Conversely, ailihphilia is the love of palindromes, the word being a palindrome itself.  The cache is not at the posted coords.  I chose those coords merely because it is a palindrome.


Was it a car or a cat I saw?  A nut for a jar of tuna.  A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.

These are all cool sentences that are also palindromes.  Yeah, sometimes the sentences don’t make much sense.  If you want to see a really long palindrome, check out the related web page.  There are other websites that claim to have longer palindromes but they’re just a bunch of words that don’t really make sense.  Some of the most common palindromes are:  dad, wow, toot, civic, kayak, level, radar, racecar, and rotator.  I’m a firm believer that puzzle caches and/or challenge caches should be rewarded with a nicely stocked ammo can.  Unfortunately, I’ve had too many ammo cans stolen so you’re searching for a bison tube.  In order to obtain the final coords, you must decipher them from the following story:

Some people have a good eye for palindromes, they just pop out of the sentence for them. I knew a guy at work that would interpret memo after memo and point out palindromes quickly. Yet, some men interpret nine memos before they are able to see them. So I challenged him to a duel. When he heard about it, he replied “he did, eh?” Yeah, he was Canadian.

The next day around lunchtime, we met behind the bleachers, you know, just like in grade school? A crowd of coworkers was there to witness our epic duel. I was getting nervous but luckily, I brought my good luck charm, a laminated ET animal (I’m a sucker for 80’s movies). He pointed at me and said, “How dare you challenge me!” I just replied, “I did, did I?” I could feel the warm noon sun beating down on my back and I had this fleeting thought of calling for my mom. No, I can’t back out now, all those days that I spent training in my gym would go to waste. He started taunting me and threw useless palindromes at me, some that I never ever heard of. He was evil, just pure live evil. As I countered with palindromes of my own, I remembered something from my research. He kept it a secret but he had a girlish name! I looked straight at him and said, “Hannah”. He was crushed, shrugged his shoulders, and gave me a thumbs up. It was then that I knew that I had the top spot of palindrome king at work.


You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Chmmyr: Rkpyhqr chapghngvba naq dhbgngvba znexf... hfr whfg gur yrggref! Uvqr: Frr fcbvyre cvpf va gur tnyyrel.

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)