I have always been enchanted by the playful potential of words. When I was younger that took the form of bad jokes, (Q: Why was six afraid of seven? A: Because seven ate nine), and singing Mairzy Doats at music school, as I’ve grown older and acquired more knowledge this has expanded to include puns and places where my native language overlaps with other languages I’ve encountered, (I can’t be the only English speaker to think of the white condiment every time I say 沒有). Luckily for me, it seems that geocachers also enjoy a whole lot of word play.
Quite often you’ll find that a puzzle cache contains a clue to the solution or final GZ in the title, description or hint of the cache, from example a cache hidden in a tree might have the clue “stumped?”, or one hidden in the vicinity of a clock might be titled “Time to find a puzzle cache”. But the potential for giving clues in text is as infinite as language itself.
Some of the easier to solve puzzles include those where the location or clues are given using other languages. Sometimes it’s possible to decode those by running stuff through google translate but at other times the language might be fictional or dead (think Elvish, Dothraki, Klingon, Old Norse or Egyptian Hieroglyphs). There are also a whole load of languages which are commonly used by geocachers which aren’t technically spoken or written - these include braille, semaphore, morse code, nautical flags and sign language - to solve these it’s just a case of working out which language you’re dealing with and then decoding the message.
If you don’t need to translate or decode something you might find that the information is concealed in the text of the geocache listing. Check for anything which could be read as numbers and remember that since we’re living in a place where many geocachers are familiar with at least two languages it is common to find puzzle caches which need you to use your knowledge of both languages.
We are spoilt for local linguistic caches as it seems are several caches who enjoy playing with words. For example you could uncover Steve4nlaguage’s The Written Word (GC6WH05), Jefferyh’s Language (GC609N7), luisloco514’s A Challenge of Languages (GC5GH7H) or Haima’s Smoke gets in your eye (GC39N72).
PUZZLE GYM SERIES
WRITTEN RIDDLES
THE TROLL
Last week I decided to go on a bike ride along the Bali cycle path with two of my friends. Originally we had all planned to get an early start by waking up at 5am and heading out straight after breakfast, but on the day, none of us woke up until around seven o’clock. We hadn’t gone very far, maybe only two kilometres or so when a hideous troll with nine arms jumped out in front of us, waving its arms and gnashing its teeth in the most terrifying way and making all three of us scream in fear. The troll demanded that we feed it with magnets, slips of paper and small plastic bags before we crossed its bridge and it said that if we didn’t have any of these items, it would have to eat us instead. Luckily, my friends and I are all geocachers so we had come prepared for such challenging situations. The first friend grabbed some magnets from her bag and threw them at the troll, after inspecting the items, the troll let her pass. The second friend found a few small, watertight plastic bags and offered them to the troll, the troll checked them, let my friend cross the bridge and then looked at me - the last one left. I searched in my bag and after a worrying moment or two, I located my spare paper slips and handed them to the troll. It turned the slips of paper over, making sure they weren’t wet or damaged and then, finally it allowed me to join my friends on the other side. Well, we didn’t want to hang around after that and so we very quickly scarpered. We were so nervous to escape that we actually went a whole 7km before we stopped to check that the three of us were ok. But then it suddenly dawned on us…what about the next travellers?! We couldn’t possibly leave the next cyclists to suffer the same fate! No, we had to cycle the 7km back to leave supplies near the bridge for whoever the troll bothered next. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’ll find yourself near the troll’s bridge so make sure to take precautions, as far as I know, the troll can’t come out after eight in the morning because the sun is too bright, but if you happen to find yourself face-to-face with this monster, then you can always search for the small stash of supplies we left behind.
Good luck and stay safe!
