Location, location, location Mystery Cache
Location, location, location
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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Mr Luffness loves puzzles, but easily gets confused. What follows is a geopubquiz from hell. The starting location for this puzzle is literally in the middle of Welshpool at the crossroads of Berriew Street, Severn Street, Broad Street & Church Street. You do not need to go there - it's merely a statement that the cache is somewhere in Welshpool's town centre. Therefore, the cache location is not a million miles away from the start - happy solving and happy hunting!
The questions all relate to locations - some real, some fictional, some extraterrestrial and some otherwordly locations. Some will be easy, others will require some thinking and research. The bracketed numbers after each question refer to the correct number of letters in the answer (as per crossword clues). You're looking for one initial from each clue only - where there are two or more words in the answer, just use the first word.
Oh dear, Mr Luffness has got very muddled in setting this quiz. This first set of answers seem to have been encoded somewhat - with which code he wonders?
1) Mythological island nation that sank into the ocean (8)
2) A village east of the Shire, site of The Prancing Pony in the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (4)
3) Fabled “City of Gold” in South America (2,6)
4) American city that is the home of Batman (6,4)
5) Island (and book of same name) published by Sir Thomas More in 1516 (6)
6) Balkan monarchy visited by Tintin, capital is Klow (8)
7) European country ruled by Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (8)
8) Island in the Irish Sea that is the setting for Thomas the Tank Engine (5)
9) Country opposed to Prince Humperdinck of Florin in The Princess Bride (7)
10) Land of tiny people visited by Gulliver on his travels (8)
11) School in North London, TV series of same name (1978-2008) (6,4)
12) “Land of the giants” in Norse mythology (9)
13) Blessed Scottish village that rises out of the mists every hundred years for only a day; musical of same name (1954) (9)
14) Dr Who’s home planet (9)
15) The Last King of Scotland was the personal physician of the president of this country (6)
16) Latin American country common to the films Predator, Die Hard & Commando (3,5)
17) Backward East European country from the comic strip Dilbert (7)
18) English town featured in TV series The Thin Blue Line (1995-96) (8)
19) Home city of the Boswell family in the TV series Bread (1986-91) (9)
20) The “otherworld” of Welsh mythology (5) or (6) or (7)
21) Enormous hall in Asgard, ruled by Odin (8)
22) Central village in The Archers (8)
23) Frontier town featured in Blazing Saddles (4,5)
24) Caribbean island in the 1985 film Water (7)
25) Australian state capital that is the setting for Trent Jamieson’s Death Works series (8)
26) Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is set in this Italian city (6)
27) Princess Leia’s home planet (8)
28) Enormous castle featured in a series of books by Mervyn Peake (11)
29) European country in the Marx Brother’s film Duck Soup (9)
30) City found in the Grand Theft Auto series, based on Miami (4,4)
31) Country encountered in King Solomon’s Mines (11)
32) Featured principality in The Princess Diaries (7)
33) Union of two Middle-Eastern countries in Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders (6,7,8)
34) Superpower in George Orwell’s 1984, comprising Europe & Russia (7)
35) German-speaking Central European country, created by Anthony Hope (9)
36) Planet in the film The Last Starfighter (5)
37) Planet ruled by Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon (5)
38) Middle-Eastern country featured in Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons (5)
39) Capital of the Land of Oz (7,4)
40) SpongeBob SquarePants’s home city (6,6)
Well, that must have been confusing. Whoops, he's done it again - the final answers following now seem to be all in reverse to his intentions!
41) Historical Romanian region associated with vampires (12)
42) Island nation featured in an April Fool’s Day spoof by The Guardian in 1977 (3,7)
43) In Greek mythology, the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous (7,6)
44) The southern region of Belgium (8)
45) British city that hosts a famous Festival Fringe in August each year (9)
46) Dutch city that is the location of the Zuiderzeemuseum (9)
47) French city where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake (5)
48) English cathedral city & county town that houses a famous Mappi Mundi (8)
49) Japanese city that literally means “Eastern Capital” (5)
50) Libyan city that literally means “Three Cities” (7)
51) 20th century American state that literally means “Homeland” (6)
52) Channel Island literally meaning “Corner Island” (8)
53) European country whose name was possibly derived from “Land of the Calves” (5)
54) North African country whose name was derived from “temple of the soul of Ptah” (5)
55) Australian state named after a Dutch explorer (9)
56) South Pacific island country (administered by New Zealand) that literally means “behold the coconut” (4)
57) Pakistani city that literally means “city of Islam” (9)
58) Burkinabè city that literally means “where people get honour and respect” (11)
59) North Queensland town whose name is derived from a Greek goddess (10)
60) Former republic and current US state whose name literally means “friends” (5)
61) Vietnamese city literally meaning “between rivers” (5) or (2,3)
62) Italian coastal city, its name may derive from “knee”, “angle” or “mouth” (5)
63) Brisbane, Queensland suburb whose name means “gully of leeches” (13)
64) African country that literally means “Land of the Burnt Faces” (8)
65) Fictional town in the American children’s TV series Arthur (6,4)
66) Planet named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty (5)
67) Northern continent on the planet Venus (6,5)
68) American state meaning “Flowery Land” (7)
69) Cathedral city, highest point of the Fens (3)
70) English county that may be very literally translated as “East Stone Sword” (5)
71) Fictional sunken city in the South Pacific in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu (5)
72) Closest village to Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter books (9)
73) Malian town which is a Western byword for an exotic or unreachable location (8)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vg'f n sehfgengvat anab