“Ponale Canyon Adventure” seems a pretty nondescript name for a 9-point multi-cache that could easily be the plot of a post-apocalyptic video game or movie.

The route takes intrepid geocachers along the Ponale River, which plunges into a canyon so lush and green that photos taken there look they’ve been layered with some sort of over-saturated Instagram filter.

Cache Owner deline says, “Ponale Canyon Adventure is like a guided tour through the valley with some challenges along the way that everyone should be able to master and still invoke that I did it! feeling in the end.”

Well, not everyone can master the challenges. The cache has plenty of DNFs. But, the 178 people who have found it so far definitely did their geocaching happy dances at the end.

Climbing gear and a secure knowledge of rappelling are required tools, which is why this cache is a T5. Several of the waypoints are literally hidden inside waterfalls, so the CO’s suggest bringing a towel and bathing clothes, though apparently, “it’s really wild down there, no muggles will see you searching, hence the tendency to nudeness.”

To each their own.

As if the route through the Italian jungle weren’t magical enough already, it also skirts the site of an old, abandoned waterworks plant that appears to have been re-purposed by the jungle as a fairytale castle.

The most challenging part of the cache isn’t what you’d expect. The CO says, “The hardest part seems to be finding the final box, despite our attempts to provide foolproof hints and some photos in the logs that are pretty revealing. Maybe it’s because they’re too exhausted after the trip or they’re afraid to stick their arms in every hole as far as it goes, but that’s what it takes!”

You know you’re a geocacher if:

1. You rappell down the side of a waterfall looking for a box
2. You strip down to your underwear and swim across a pool to look for a box
3. You stick your hands into dark, mossy holes because you’re looking for a box
4. You read this article and immediately put this cache on your bucket list

For more photos of Ponale Canyon, visit the geocache’s gallery.

 

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