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Thunderbolts Cave Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Grahame Cookie: With our friend who had been at Guyra now moved to the Central Coast it will be too long before I'm back there. Doh !
Maybe somebody will be keen enough to get another cache going there.

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Hidden : 3/4/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Thunderbolt's Cave lies off the New England Highway, some 20 kilometres north of Armidale and 12 km south of Guyra, not far from the village of Black Mountain.

“The turnoff – S30° 19.127’ E151° 41.361’, is just 200 metres to the south of the Black Mountain Roadhouse. Since the upgrade of the roadworks, the exit point from the New England Highway is very clear. The road in is fairly rugged and care driving needs to be taken. The distance is about 2.5Km to the car parking area just below the cave.
It is possible to drive all the way to the cave (the last 100 metres requires a good 4 wheel drive vehicle.) Walking in to the cave from the car park is, however, recommended as it will give you a feel for the way it was in Thunderbolt's day.”
The following link has photos by R. J. Burling: http://www.nnsw.com.au/blackmountain/tboltscave.html

Car park: S30° 19.908’ E151° 40.527’ Bring insect repellant as there are swarms of gnats/mosquitoes/annoying critters in the cave that buzz into your mouth and any available orifice.

If you find yourself looking down on the smoke vent of the cave, you are at the wrong level, and need to get into the cave itself. I certainly don’t recommend going down that hole.

The cache container is a Vittoria coffee can bought at the Moree markets, and hopefully will remain waterproof if treated carefully. It is initially stocked with: Wooden dominoes set, Australian pen/keyring set, Stretchy frog and lizard, Puzzle maze, National Youth Science Forum pen, Pencil, What is Geocaching sheet, and a Log Book. A Platypus travel bug is waiting to be moved on.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ng onpx bs pnir, ba ebpx furys

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)