Chacun à son goût Mystery Cache
cezanne: As announced in advance I am archiving this cache as the circumstances do not make it possible to keep in a form which meets the spirit of the cache. I will pick up the final container soon.
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
English description
This combined 6 stage mystery-multi cache leads you to a forest area. All stages except the final one are question to answer stages where you need to answer questions. The fields puzzle attribute is set because at Stages 2 and 5 questions need to be answered which require general knowledge.
Preliminaries (Please read this part before you start your hunt!)
- The coordinates in the header are fictive!
- Plan to spend 2-3 hours for the cache.
- Long trousers and water-tight shoes (at least in some seasons) are recommended as you might end up in thorny or wet areas, in particular if you do not find the right paths (some of the paths shown on maps hardly exist in reality). For that reason I have set the terrain rating to 2.5* (borderline to 3* in some seasons). The technical difficulty never exceeds 2*.
- This cache is not an ideal choice for the extended family (small children, parents, grandparents) when the family looks for a short stroll after lunch wearing Sunday clothes.
- To fully enjoy this cache you should enjoy outdoor experiences, some basic orienteering challenges and be not bumped off by having to collect a number of variables, some of which will need some time to determine.
- You can determine to some extent how large a challenge you would like to have. The intermediary stages can be reached in various manners, the most difficult being the trackless approach without usage of a GPS-device and the easiest being following paths most of the time and with GPS-usage.
- There is no fixed order for visiting the intermediary stages. Two suggested orders are the increasing order starting from Stage 1 or the decreasing order starting from Stage 5. It makes sense to visit Stages 2 and 3 together. The cache is hidden somewhere in the middle of the area.
- If you come by car, you can choose between two well-suited possibilities for leaving your car: Either north-east of Stage 1 or not far from Stage 5. If you do not mind to park at the edge of a road, there exist other possibilities as well.
- The cache can be done also when there is snow. It will, however, become much more strenuous to reach the stages in a trackless manner under such conditions.
- Please take care to avoid spoilers in your log!
Stage 0: At a place of your choice
Your first job will consist in determining the general cache area which lies within a circle with radius 7 km around the coordinates given in the header.
Your basic tool for this cache will be the following treasure map.
The following comments should assist you in interpreting the treasure map in the right way.
- The map is based on a section of the AMAP (1:50000 version). Most details are left out. If necessary, adapt the scales appropriately so that the two maps (treasure map and AMAP) are aligned. (As a plausibility check, note that the distance between points 4 and 5 in the real world is between 600 and 700m.
- The map shows five locations that play a role in this cache and are marked each by a circle with an enclosed number. The black curve pieces depict pieces of paths which are however drawn in a unified way regardless of their importance and size to make your task more difficult.
- The puzzle below will provide you with a hint for the location 4 on the treasure map. This should enable you to calibrate the treasure map with the AMAP (that's an important step in particular to identify Stage 3!)
The Puzzle
The solution to the puzzle consists of a word which consists of two parts P1 and P2.
Let us start with the second part which will be easier to obtain for most of you, and which might also help you to direct your thoughts about the first part into the right direction.
- P2: The second part of the word (in German) associated with the right half of the picture above.
- P1: The first part of the last name (adopted name) of the man depicted in the left half of the picture above. This man, an illegitimate child of poor parents, lived in the last century, was born in Upper-Austria and died in Germany still in his thirties.
- Q1: The first name of the man depicted in the left half of the picture above.
- Q2: The first part of the word associated with the right half of the picture above.
- X: Determine all letters which occur in both Q1 and Q2. Add up their position numbers in the alphabet to obtain X.
Stage 1: Location 1
Task 1: (Changed December 2016): There used to be a prohibition sign at this location which apparently got lost. Around the key object at this location you will find wooden posts. How many approximately? ´
Set A depending on the answer.
- A=4: 0-3 posts
- A=6: 4-6 posts
- A=3: 7-9 posts
- A=7: 10-12 posts
- A=5: more than 12 posts
Task 2: Look around yourself. Which of the following objects can you see not far from the pond? Do not let you trick by the vegetation which is denser than it used to be when the cache got hidden.
Set B depending on the answer as follows:
- B=11: raised-hide
- B=25: bridge
- B=34: bench
- B=41: fodder-rack
- B=49: a small wooden hut
Stage 2: Location 2
When I stumbled years ago by chance over this location, I was quite surprised about it. All questions are to be answered from the outside!
Task 3: (changed in July 2014) Watch out for a large round hole in the wall (at ground level) that formerly contained a big fan that I referred to as "wheel of time".
Choose C depending on where the hole is located (horizontal placement) as follows:
- C=3: to the left of the first large square
- C=7: between the first and the second square
- C=5: between the second and the third square
- C=6: between the third and the fourth square
- C=4: to the right of the fourth square
Task 4: Watch out for a name (consisting of two words) which can be seen as a strong commitment of faith (formulated in a modern way).
Comments added March 2021 and October 2022: The words and the surrounding colours have faded out over time. The hint might help you to spot the right place to which you to pay close attention. One of the words got sprayed over. The question got thus changed in October 2022.
- D: Take the position number of the first letter of the first word in our alphabet and add 6.
Task 5:
Determine the two colours (meanwhile unfortunately quite faded out, but still recognizable at least at some spots; ignore the surrounding black) which dominate the arrangement of the name referred to in Task 4 . Find out the European country whose national flag is coloured with these two colours (and no other ones) and which breaks up into the largest number of pieces (=parts of the flag that are coloured with a different colour than the neighbouring area).
- F: The number of vowels (not necessarily distinct) in the name of the capital of the country determined above.
- G: The number of other countries that can be reached from the country above by road connections without visiting any other country inbetween.
Task 6: (Changed in 2012 since the coat of arms went missing except a very small rest of it) Watch out for a green door.
- H: The number of small windows in the first floor (upper floor) of the building into which the green door leads to (the door got trampled and damaged in 2014 according to edorian, so look carefully!; it's not the same building than the one used for obtaining C!)
Stage 3: Location 3
This location (do not confuse it with Stage 2!) has changed in recent years. On the AMAP at Stage 3 two objects are shown. The smaller of the two is hardly visible nowadays as it is very overgrown. As I do not want to send you into thorny areas, I decided to change the tasks at this stage.
Task 7: (Changed in 2012) From Stage 3 continue further on the path that brings you from Stage 2 to Stage 3. After less than 200m (from Stage 3, not Stage 2) you should come to an area where you encounter several border stones all of the same type.
- M: The number that results by translating the two letters that can be found on each of the boundary stones by means of the keypad code of portable phones. (Do not compute the sum and replace each letter by a single digit!)
- J: Set J depending on the predominant colour of the border stones as follows
- J=20: white
- J=50: blue
- J=30: yellow
- J=60: orange
- J=40: red
Stage 4: Location 4
Task 8: (Changed October 2022): What is the predominant colour of the of the background in the painting to be found at the man-made object?
- O: Set O depending on the colour as follows
- O=7: orange
- O=19: green
- O=26: blue
- O=31: dark brown
- O=41: red
Task 9: Measure the coordinates of Stage 4.
- P: The integral part of the minutes of the latitude.
- Q: The integral part of the minutes of the longitude.
Stage 5: Location 5
Task 10: What is the name of the person playing the key role at this place? (In case of doubt take the person who lived a very long time ago.)
- S: The position of the first letter of the person's name in the alphabet.
Task 11: What is the name of the permanent floral decoration at this place (i.e., the place associated with the previous task)? [In case of doubt please consult the hint.]
- R: The position of the first letter of the floral name in the alphabet.
Stage 6: The cache N 46° P.T', E 015° Q.U' (New hideout 2012)
where
- T = (M-H-3) * (B-A) - F*O + S
- U = (C+D+G+H+J) * R - 5*X + F
In May 2012 I moved the hideout as the area around the old one has changed to its negative considerably within the last years.
The reception in the target area is not the best. I recommend to bring along the spoiler photos. If you end up in a thorny area, you are wrong.
The cache box is a small lock and lock container. It is covered with pieces of bark and wood to avoid that it is found by chance. As the box is not very large, large trading items and large TBs will not fit into the box.
Please be careful when retrieving and rehiding the cache. It is not too far from the nearest paths (of which there exist a great number in the target area).
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[EN, Puzzle, P1:] Bpgbore Gjraglfvk, Yvam
[EN, Stage 1, B:] AJ
[EN, Stage 2, D, Hint 1:] Yrsg bs ynetr ragenapr
[EN, Stage 2, D, Hint 2:] Pybfr gb ahzore va erq jvgu 3 qvtvgf
[EN, Stage 2, H, Check:] Rira
[EN, Stage 2, Sanity check:] Fhz bs ahzoref bognvarq ng Fgntr 2 qvivfvoyr ol sbhe.
[EN, Stage 5, Hint 1:] sybjre
[EN, Stage 5, Hint 2:] juvgr, abg va infr/cbg
[EN, Cache, Hint:] gerr fghzc, pybfr gb tebhcf bs sve gerrf