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Ooops! Mystery Cache

Hidden : 8/27/2009
Difficulty:
5 out of 5
Terrain:
5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

(NB – the terrain rating is intentional. If you're not into that sort of thing, you're wasting your time with the puzzle.)

Needless to say, the cache isn't at the co-ordinates given, which are for a smallish parking space with a nice view of the canal.

It being a fine and sunny Sunday, keen geocachers Andy, Bill, Clive, David and Eddie all thought this might be a good time to try for their first 5/5. They all left in good time – at 0945, 1000, 1015, 1030 and 1045 (not necessarily in that order), and were all looking for different sizes of cache at different co-ordinates.

Unfortunately, 5/5 caches being what they are, things went a little bit wrong and only one of them succeeded in finding a cache, the others having been forced to give up for various reasons. Who was this, and where was he looking?

1. Andy was looking at W001.24.111.
2. David finally gave up when the branch he was standing on broke and pitched him head-first into the canal.
3. Eddie was looking at N52.16.320.
4. The cacher looking at W001.23.931 left 15min before the one who was looking at W001.23.835.
5. One cacher was looking at N52.16.595 W001.23.931.
6. The cacher abseiling down a rock face to look for a micro spent the rest of the day in casualty, having been hit by a suicidal sheep taking a somewhat more direct route to the bottom.
7. One cacher was looking for a large cache at W001.24.695, and left within 20min of the cacher who, having failed to come up with a satisfactory excuse for hunting a suspicious object in a drainage tunnel under a major railway junction, got arrested as a suspected terrorist and spent the rest of the day in the cells.
8. Bill left at 0945, and the cacher who left at 1015 was looking at N52.16.531.
9. The person looking for a nano left within 20min of the one who gave up after sinking so deep into a bog that he had to be rescued by a farmer with a long piece of rope and a horse.
10. The person looking for a small cache was looking at N52.16.562.
11. Clive was looking for a medium cache.
12. Bill left within 20min of the cacher looking at W001.24.357.
13. The person looking for a nano left within 20min of the one looking at N52.16.091.

If you have the right answer, then you should end up in a place where the terrain rating makes perfect sense. (If you can’t see anything for which this terrain rating is appropriate, then you are in the wrong place!)

The cache is a screw-top beaker and contains an unused, virgin TB tag as a small prize for the FTF (plus the usual assortment of random gubbins). It is wedged into position – please put the “wedge” back firmly when you replace the cache as otherwise it will fall out.

There isn't a pencil in the cache – if you're capable of finding this one, I'm sure you're capable of bringing something to write with.

Please don't post any logs/photos that give the game away as regards the puzzle . . . it ruins the fun for everyone else.

Have fun!

SAFETY NOTE

This cache should NOT be attempted without climbing equipment and definitely isn’t suitable for unsupervised children. If you are not completely confident in your ability to access the cache safely then please either enlist the help of someone who *does* know what they’re doing, or give up and go to the pub instead. Think very, very carefully about what you are going to trust your weight to . . . remember, no single geocache is worth ending up in hospital for. You cache at your own risk. Don't do anything your mother wouldn't do.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

FJ fvqr, va n cvcr

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)