Salty Pirate Island (Ilha do Rato, Lisbon/Montijo) Traditional Geocache
Salty Pirate Island (Ilha do Rato, Lisbon/Montijo)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This cache is hidden on an island near
Lisbon...
This is my first cache. And a tough one it is! The cache is hidden
on a tiny island which is only accessible by boat. Welcome to the
Salty Pirate's Cache! The tricky part is not to find the cache
itself - however getting to the island is a different game. If you
don't have a boat yourself you will have to find somebody to take
you there! The island is called "Ilha do Rato" (Portuguese for
"Mouse Island") and located between Lisbon and a town called
Montijo. There are no inhabitants, no houses, no electricity, no
water but thousands of shells, stones and some plants. So bring
some water and food if you plan to stay for a couple of hours!
(During the summertime sun protection is also recommended.) Some
ruins of a building and man-made channels tell a story of the
island being used as a saline many years ago. You may enjoy sitting
on a small beach and look at Lisbon's skyline at the horizon or
even see flamingos flying by with a little luck. If you find the
cache quickly you may even have enough time to do some fishing or
have a picknick there. IMPORTANT: You cannot access the island by
swimming or a toy rubber boat. Use a proper motor/sailing boat or a
kayak to get there. Also you must stay in the buyoed channels to
get there as the waters around are very shallow. Please use
official sea maps for advice (Contact me if you don't have any, I
can also send you a route of GPS waypoints.) and be as careful as
you have to be to navigate a boat safely. Make sure to act
according to the weather forecast and the tides. Cache In - Trash
Out: The Island is sometimes visited by locals or tourists who
unfortunately do not take their trash back with them when they're
leaving. Therefore you will find black plasticbags in the cache
which I kindly ask you to fill with trash and take it back to the
land to dispose of properly. No boat? There are different ways to
solve this problem. You might ask around in Lisbon's marinas if
somebody can take you there. Also there are sometimes tourist
cruises to the island on a beautiful and old wooden sailing boat
which start from a quay in Seixal. If you don't succeed here you
may -as a last resort- ask me to bring you there with my little
motorboat (would be nice to share the costs for gasoline then).
Just send a message and I'll try to arrange something. Enjoy your
hunt, but remember: All on your own risk - and please don't leave
any trash behind. This is what I put into the cache: - Log-Book,
pencil & geocaching info - Pirate stickers - Glass stones -
$10.000 Dollar note (Chinese play money) - Chalk - A shell - A
weird doll - plastic bags for cache in - trash out
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur pnpur vf abg vafvqr gur ubhfr.