Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Monmouthshire) Multi-cache
The Blorenges: R.I.P. Isaac Newton
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Monmouthshire)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This two-part cache is in honour of one of the greatest of ‘Great
Britons’. I think he would have enjoyed the walk to this cache with
its opportunity to view 20th Century civil engineering at close
quarters.
To find this cache you will have to do some simple research before
leaving home!
This man was of extraordinary intellect. From a modest home in
Lincolnshire his work and studies brought him some of the highest
honours in the land. At various times he was an MP, Warden of the
Mint, President of the Royal Society and he held the Lucasian Chair
of Mathematics at Cambridge University, the post currently held by
Professor Stephen Hawking. From contemporary accounts, he was not
an easy man to like: he had an argumentative nature and was
frequently bad tempered. Always secretive about his own research
and sensitive to any hint of criticism, he was not above using the
hard work done by others without giving them due credit.
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I
seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting
myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier
shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all
undiscovered before me.”
Who does this quotation come from? Find his years of birth and
death, but BEWARE… there are two possible birth years! This person
was born on a day towards the end of the year, but then the
Gregorian calendar was introduced and ‘moved’ his birthday so in
some sources of reference it appears as early the following year.
You need to find the earlier year(abcd), then the year of his death
(wxyz). Use these numbers to locate the first part.
51º (a+d) c . (z+d) w (w+x)’ N
02º c (d+y) . (b-w) (y+z) (x-c)’ W
When you find this "cache" it has the co-ordinates for the main
cache which is less than half a mile away.
Good starting point is at 51°35.112'N, 2°44.994'W, Blackbird Road,
a residential street. You need to go over the railway line via a
small humpbacked bridge to pick up the footpath (the main
co-ordinates at the top of this page are the start of the footpath
near Blackbird Road). This can be a nice circular walk along the
river Severn estuary but is on grass paths and not suitable for
buggies or wheelchairs. The footpath goes over the M4 motorway by
footbridge and may be rather alarming for small children and dogs.
Once you’ve completed the cache you can do a round trip back to
Blackbird Road. It is about 2 miles. But, if you have time why not
continue onwards from the main cache and find Alianore and the Swan
(GCM5FY). Follow the tarmac path roughly north and over the railway
line level crossing. Bear NW through some bollards and follow the
road N. At the main road turn right and at the roundabout head W
into the country park.
The main cache is a large plastic box filled with items the great
man would be pleased to find!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[First cache] Svaq jung ur sbhaq