Day: 7 April 2016

This checkin to GLMJ54B9 #Alice In Wyederland - Bonus - Was it all a dream? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

N 51° 43.370 W 002° 41.257

In my previous log entry, I’d gotten to the end of a two-trip expedition to find Alice In Wyederland caches #1 through #10 and thus collect all of the information necessary to find this, the bonus cache… only to discover that somehow I’d only remembered to write down 9 out of the ten numbers necessary to know for certain the location of this bonus cache. However, I knew that this was my last chance to complete the series (I was already overdue back at Underhill and I wouldn’t get another opportunity to come out before I had to return to Oxfordshire tomorrow morning), so I’d resolved to use what information I had, plus some logical deduction, to calculate the permutations that were reasonable possibilities for the location of this final stage.

My first attempt was… wrong.

I shan’t share the coordinates that I thought the cache might be at, of course (in case somebody else tries to use them to work out where it really is), but suffice to say that I found myself at around N 51°43.370, W 002° 41.257 and half-way down a steep and treacherous embankment before I thought to double-check the cache description and went “Hang on a minute… this isn’t a Terrain 1.5: it’s more like a 3 or 4!”That’s when I realised that I must be very, very off course.

I took a painful clamber back to solid ground and once again cursed the fact that I’d somehow neglected to write down one of the digits from the previous five caches… or, at least, that I hadn’t been more-careful and noted specifically which cache each of the four digits I had recorded had come from: I’d written them down in order, but I didn’t know for certain whether it was #6, #7, #8 or #9 that I was missing!

I calculated the remaining permutations, and one of them looked feasible, so I trekked over there and was delighted to discover that my maths had paid-off: my GPSr was right on the money and delivered me right to the spot. Looking at the log, it looks like a confused muggle has found it at some point (they’ve written into it “Can anybody explain to me what this book is all about?”, and a geocacher has left a helpful comment in case they return, telling them what to search for on the Web!).

So: victory in the end, and a great end to one of the best cache series I’ve ever visited. FP awarded, and very well-earned: it’s hard to pick out favourites among the series, because so many of them were so good, but the rewarding moment of getting here, to the finale, was a particularly special moment.

Left German “Go East” geocoin (yeah, I know – I brought it West – sorry about that). Also improved the camoflage of the cache with the help of some nearby natural resources (it was somewhat more-visible from the nearest path than I think the CO had intended).

Thanks so much for this series, RaynSallynIsabelle: the geocaching world needs more people like you.

This checkin to GLMJ52FH #10 Alice In Wyederland - Who Stole the Tarts? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

N 51° 42.902 W 002° 41.262

A bit more of a trek to this cache on this morning’s expedition, especially as I needed to divert around a bit of the path that had flooded and become impossibly muddy, at about N 51°42.902′ W 002°41.262 (added as log coordinate).

Found the cache without difficulty (nice to have on a little bit off the track, too: had to hop a brook to get here!) and tried to work out the location of the bonus… but discovered to my horror that I’d somehow got only 9 numbers written on the back of my hand; not 10 as I’d expected. I realised to my horror that I must have forgotten to write down one of the numbers from one of today’s caches! (There might have been some swearing at this point in my expedition.)

But, I thought: I can probably work it out! My first five digits (which I collected earlier in the week) must certainly be correct. So it’s only the last five. Of these, the final one I knew must be the final (least-significant) digit, because I was standing at cache #10 and I could see it, so that meant that I had three digits to put into four possible positions, and one unknown digit to put into the gap… how many permutations could there be? And it’s simplified a little further still, because I know that the missing digit can’t be a 0, because there’s no way to express that using playing cards… and I knew that if the missing digit was the one from cache #6 (the most-significant unknown digit of longitude) then there was an even more-limited number of possibilities (or else the cache would be further away from the series’ recommended parking spot than the distance stated in the description)… I was already running late and didn’t want to have to double-back, so I started coming up with permutations of digits at which the bonus cache could be! Once I found a likely candidate, I set off for it… but would I be correct?

This checkin to GLMJ5191 #9 Alice In Wyederland - The Mock Turtle's Story reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Disturbed a herd of deer (who were having their breakfast) on my way up to this cache: must have been 10 or 11 of them: I’ve never seen so many deer together in the wild before – I usually only see them alone or in 2s or 3s! They made a hell of a noise as they stampeded away, startled by my appearance on “their” path!

On the way up to this point, I discovered that I had, on ocassion, a really good view East across the valley to the house in Underhill that I’ve been staying in this week. Over there, others from my voluntary group would be by now getting up and having their breakfast, I supposed: the slippery conditions and spending longer than expected searching for some of the caches had slowed me down a little.

Found the cache and signed the log. Another wonderful bit of cache theming here!

This checkin to GLMJ5106 #8 Alice In Wyederland - Tweedledum & Tweedledee reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Somehow ended up way off course in my search for this cache and spent about a quarter of an hour looking in entirely the wrong place. The hint didn’t help, so I circled around a little more and then returned to the footpath… where I instantly saw what the hint was talking about: how could I have been such a (Tweedle)dummy to miss it first time around! Really interesting location! Signed the log and carried on.

This checkin to GLMJ50RZ #7 Alice In Wyederland - The Queen of Hearts reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Continuing my morning adventure, I quickly discovered that my OpenStreetMap plans of this hillside were woefully inaccurate as regards the locations of the paths! Still, my GPSr was playing nicely and I was heading the right way, at least! The thick layer of mud and damp, dead leaves made for slower progress uphill than I’d have liked, but I was still able to find this cache in reasonably short order.

This checkin to GLMJ50JZ #6 Alice In Wyederland - Mad Hatters Tea Party reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Out for another morning adventure, this time with the plan to finish the Alice In Wyederland series (I found 1 through 5 earlier in the week) and collect the bonus, I set off from Underhill at about 07:15. A nice walk to this first cache and I was underway!