A trail of stones, beginning at the spectacular Marine Drive in
Douglas (photo above), leads to one of these. It happens to be a
hiding place for an Isle of Man Geocoin: but the cache also
contains a small collection of rare coins from around the
world.
To protect the hoard of treasure from the muggle hordes, I've
had to disguise the trail with an elaborate, Dan Brown-esque
puzzle. Although there are only two traditional caches to find,
there are clues to pick up on the way too: so allow half a day
(once you have the instructions). You'll encounter some historic
characters as you research the clues. One of these was responsible
for some significant Manx treasure, and provided the inspiration
for the original Isle of Man Geocoin.
The trail begins near Douglas and heads towards Peel, then
south-west for ten miles or so. Note that stage 2 is only possible
Monday-Saturday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Also note that you'll
have to return to the Internet to get further than stage 1.
The reward is a visit to a cache of geocoins (icons aplenty), and
essential clues to
Thie Tashtee USA.
Please log the geocoins but leave them in
place*
...as well as the coins, there are a few swaps inside this
box - see below.
Find the microcache at the coordinates given. This contains the
password which unlocks the instructions at the "User's Web Page"
above. Please let me know if you encounter problems opening the PDF
file: you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is a free download
from Adobe.
At each stage, make sure you have solved all of the puzzle (and
kept notes): some details may appear irrelevant at first, but turn
out to be very useful later...
Good luck, and enjoy the challenge!
Notes for stage 1.
Park as indicated below (you may have to log on to see the
waypoints), then take a narrow path through gorse (ouch!) along the
edge of an alarming, but safe, cliff edge (not recommended for
small children or dogs).
DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT NIGHT OR IN BAD
WEATHER!
The GPS signal will be excellent here, so a short search on a patch
of rocky hillside should soon lead to success. Be careful to
re-hide as found. There is no more steep ground after this,
(although the final cache may be a little awkward to retrieve), and
there's no significant walking necessary.
Research material and helpful assistants will be available
along the way. Strongly recommended is a visit to the public
library (next to Feegan's) for further enlightenment: for instance,
there's a book there called "Chronicle" (or something similar),
classified R973, which has a useful page 155.
Original cache contents:-
Isle of Man Geocoin
Mount Everest Geocoin
Mount McKinley Geocoin
Finland Geocoin
UK Geocoin
EU Geocoin
Clover Geocoin
Giant Elk fridge magnet
Hawk patch
Green geocaching pin
Geocaching wristband
USA Clue card (please note the numbers and leave in place)
Geocoin list (please take one).
*To log the geocoins: when you get home use the
supplied tracking numbers to "Track Travel Bugs" and use the
"Discovered It" log type for each coin, one by one. This will
retrieve the coins, add an icon to your profile, and drop them back
in the cache ready for the next visitor.
I may add to the geocoin collection - if you've
already logged the cache, feel free to add to your collection of
icons by visiting again (just write a note to say you've done
this).
