Given that I’ve lived very near to here for longer than this cache has existed, you’d be forgiven for wondering what took me so long. I don’t even have the excuse that many might: that the array of strange symbols, lines, and letters might be too puzzling for me, but that’s not the case either! When the cache first appeared I instantly recognised the language that was being used: I just couldn’t work out how that could be used to express a set of GPS coordinates.

Today, at long last, I thought to look at the hint. I can’t believe it’s been years and I hadn’t: I guess I’d assumed that it would have only helped me with the location of the actual container, more fool me. Anyway: once I read the hint, I instantly knew what I had to do. I was feeling lazy, so I translated the code into a slightly different format and punched it into an online service that can help with this kind of thing, and suddenly I was over 80% of the way there. But one digit (the fourth) was throwing me off… it seemed to be giving me a result that didn’t MEAN anything. Only when I stopped and thought about what a particular letter might represent did I realise my folly!

A short cycle later and the cache was in my hand: it was in the first place I looked. Unfortunately a part of the cache container flew off and attached itself to a hard-to-reach spot on my bike, and it took me a while to put the container back together again! Worse yet, while undoing the damage I’d caused (it’s fine now, by the way) I dropped my pen, which meant that I didn’t have it with me when I reached my next cache stop, GC6HV83 (Easy as 1-2-3), but more on that later.

FP awarded.