Desert Challenge Gold Rush Mystery Cache

The published coordinates are an approximation to the cache’s location and are not sufficient for you to find it – read on…

General Area

There is an extensive sand desert between the Dubai – Al Ain road and the Omani border with plenty of undulating sand dunes and the occasional Ghaff tree forest. This is an excellent area for overnight camping. It is easily accessible from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. This is also the location that we have chosen for the Desert Challenge cache. There are a few tracks into the sand so access from the nearest firm ground is not too far. The sand driving here is wonderful and of course, there is nothing to beat camping under the stars at night.

You should be experienced in sand driving if you go for this. You will need a suitable 4x4, recovery equipment and should go with at least two or three other vehicles. The dune driving is not difficult but you must know how to recovery the car if it gets stuck.

The Desert Challenge

We have chosen this location to hide our Desert Challenge Gold Rush cache. We’ve called it the Gold Rush because we’ve put a genuine bar of gold into the cache as a prize for the first to find. It wouldn’t make you rich – you’ll spend far more in finding the gold bar than it is worth (it’s only 1gm) but it’s a little extra to add fun to the whole thing.

This is a challenging cache to find because you will first need to find the five “coloured key” caches, each of which is a challenge in its own right. The published coordinates are only a rough approximation to the cache location. You will need to work out the true location after you have collected all five coloured keys. The key caches are:

• GC13AXV Winding Wadi - Red Key
• GC13AYA Rubik’s Wadi - Blue Key
• GC13AZA The Wreck - Black Key
• GC13AYW Sand Track - Yellow Key
• GC13B0Q Animal Instincts - Green Key

The Base Key is UTM 40R E340497 N2714157.

See below for calculating the true location from the keys.

We think this may present a real challenge to the local caching community to find as you, or your team, will need a variety of skills to find all of the keys. It may take many months, or even years, before the FTF. Nevertheless we have had tremendous fun in planning this series. We will, of course, be visiting each cache on a regular basis to make sure it is in good order. If you have any questions or comments about our series of caches then please drop us an email and we’ll be glad to offer help or advice.

Finding the Cache

The true co-ordinates are that of a small tree. The cache is hidden under the branches on the south side of the tree. It is covered in loose sand so is not in plain view.

As with most caches hidden in the desert or mountains of the Gulf, beware of what wildlife may be hiding with the cache. You are unlikely to come across them but sand vipers and scorpions are in the area.

Cache contents

The cache contained the following goodies when we left it:

• One bar of Gold
• One Travel Bug
• Rubik’s cube
• Buddha
• Magnetic rocks
• Hippo
• Piranha note pad
• Quality Chinese puzzle
• Submarine
• Magnifying glass
• Geocaching pin
• Chinese bell
• Desk top darts set
• Cuddly giraffe
• Dodge Charger
• Hummer
• FTF certificate

Calculating the true co-ordinates

The coordinates published for this cache are approximate only and not accurate enough to locate the cache. They are in the correct vicinity but you will need to find the exact coordinates as described here.

First you will need to find the five coloured “key” caches (red, green, blue, yellow and black). Each key cache contains an eight digit key. The key is written on the key caches themselves, inside the log books, and on a take away key fob (please only take one – leave the rest for future finders). You will need to collect the five keys and then take the base key from this web page.

When you have collected all five keys and the base key you will have to do a bit of maths to get the final coordinates as follows.

Each key consists of eight digits. The first four digits are the “easting” part and the second four digits are the “northing” part. The base key is a UTM coordinate which consists of a six digit Easting and a seven digit Northing. Add together the five “east” parts from the coloured keys to the base key Easting part to get the true Easting. Do a similar exercise to get the true Northing.

Example

For example, suppose the five keys are:

And the base key is UTM: 40R E 312078 N 2764812

Split the five keys into an “easting” part and a “northing” part”.

This gives:

Adding the figures will reveal the true coordinates as UTM 40R E330280 N2792328.

Checking the location

To verify that you have the correct coordinates:

• check the distance from the approximate coordinates given to those you have calculated. You should find that they are in roughly the same area.
• Add all of the thirteen digits in the Easting and Northing together and you should get 47.

Last Change

This page was last edited on 4 June 2007