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Little Bridges # 1103 A38 Challenge Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

Professor Xavier: HQ have contacted me regarding this listing.

Unfortunately certain elements of this listing don't comply with the cache hiding guidelines.

Ed - Professor Xavier.

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Hidden : 4/16/2017
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

A38 Challenge?


The A38  became a Little Bridge at the published co-ordinates for a few days in September 2016 and in February 2017 when it was completely closed to traffic in both directions and could only be crossed on foot!!!


We can't ask you to find 38 Little Bridges caches so

we have a little puzzle for you to solve instead...


In case you were wondering…..we found 41 Little Bridge caches on a cold frosty day in January

Maybe you will beat our record?

 

The A38 is 292 miles long and a major A-class trunk road crossing England from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It’s also known as the Devon Expressway.

The bridge at Berkeley Road – next to the site of the really side-tracked Berkeley Road railway station – carries the A38 across the railway line. In the 1950’s a “temporary” bridge to carry Northbound traffic was built alongside the original stone and brick bridge which continued to carry Southbound traffic. In the last couple of years, a "weak bridge"sign was put up and a 30 mph speed limit imposed.

 

Video of the works - well worth a watch!

A huge project has been underway to replace the newer bridge with a brand new one designed to last. The work started in August 2016 and still continued at the time of setting this cache. Four-way traffic lights have been controlling the single carriageway over the old bridge while work goes on with the new one for all this time– apart from when it’s been closed to vehicles completely, including trains travelling underneath. Naturally, the disruption, detours and delays have all resulted in A-road Anarchy! At long last, the lights were finally removed at the end of June.

 

You may find the following links interesting too

BBC news report

Official Photo Report


The puzzle:

LMPRF4ZBCEPCCQ2ZNMGLR7Y2ALBUCQRYY0BCEPCCQ02NMGLR122


You are looking for a cache in a nifty location. Please hide well but not too far out of reach for the next finder


In your log, we would love to see how many caches on the Little Bridge lists – see link below - you have found in one day but this is only a suggestion and not a requirement


The checker below was kindly made by WinterFoxes to show what your record is. As it was designed for a challenge which we were not allowed to enforce, it will only give you a tick and say qualified if you've found 38 or more Little Bridges in a day but it WILL show you your record day. Why not give it a try ?

PGC Checker


Original contents: logbook and pencil... plus an unactivated FTF geocoin strapped to the cache and waiting for the intrepid first finder

***** Many congratulations to AllyWeir and britpjg21 for their joint FTF! *****




The Little Bridges series was started by Stanthews in 2009 to highlight small footbridges in remote parts of Wiltshire. Since then the series has been expanded by others all over the country and starting to spread fast, Damian from Winter Foxes has created and updates a list of cachers who has found 10 or more little bridges and can be found here, if you would like to add to the series, please contact Stan on stanthews@aol.com and he will give you a number for your bridge, to qualify, the bridge must be a foot bridge too small for vehicles, please make sure your title exactly matches “Little Bridges # xx then name” including spaces so it will get picked up and added to Damian’s list.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

ghor! (Shegure uvag - Xrl vf va gur gvgyr!)

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)