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Dear Fred... Mystery Cache

Hidden : 3/12/2007
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Over the years hundreds of thousands of people have holidayed in Jersey. To get to this cache you need to identify probably the most famous and influential of all of these.

He visited Jersey at least twice, once with a friend and once with his wife. In a letter written to his friend on the latter occasion he talks of the hotel in which he is staying (out of which he is moving the next day, because he cannot stand the food), the ignorance of geography of two of the other guests at the hotel, the beaches where his wife is bathing, and how the locals are moaning about the weather!

You have enough information to track down a copy of the letter on the internet and discover who this man is and from what hotel he wrote the letter. When you have done so, find the values of the letters in the following dates, where each is a digit from 0-9:

1ABC = the year of his birth
1ADE = the year of his death
1AFG = the year he wrote the letter
1AHJ = the year you associate with the name of the hotel.

If a letter appears in more than one date it has the same value in each. Different letters, however, may have the same value.

The co-ordinates given are those of the hotel, which still exists. There are two public car parks and on-road parking in the area. On the other side of the road to the hotel is a granite stone set into the wall commemorating a mill that used to stand there. The date of the mill is given (in Roman numerals). Convert this to Arabic numerals. This date is 1KLM.

Other values you will need are:

N = G-D
P = M-C
Q = L-K

You now have all the information you need to find the co-ordinates of the cache.

The co-ordinates of the cache are N49° 1B.JHL' W002° 1N.PFE'.

The cache is an easy 3/4 mile walk from the hotel, or there is parking near to it at N49° 1B.LPA' W002° 1N.EQG'.

You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.

The area around the cache can get quite busy, but you will be able to see muggles coming from some way off and they should be just passing.

The FTF prize is a small green man (a smaller version of Touch Wood's avatar), which is somewhat ironic as, in one sense, the subject of this geocache could be described as being the opposite.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Haqre n snyyra gerr ol n cnyz 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)