Lost in the Fog Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size:
 (regular)
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On 20th July, 1944, a return flight of a Guinea Airways plane from Renmark to Parafield ended in tragedy.
The twin engined deHaviland DH89 Dragon Rapide airplane left Parafield on its return trip, flying low due to fog, with a pilot and six passengers on board. At around 3:15pm, as the pilot attempted to climb through fog, the aircraft failed to clear Mt Kitchener (now Kaiserstuhl), crashed and burned, with the loss of the pilot and all 6 passengers (including two pregnant women and a police constable) on board.
As there were no survivors, a true and accurate account of what happened that day will never be known. According to an official report compiled by Guinea Airways, it occurred as a result of poor judgement on the pilot’s behalf.
Rescue efforts were slow, even though the crash was heard by nearby landholders. A search party was organised, but was hampered by the steep terrain and poor visibility. Next day, one of the searchers went to sit on a rock and found it was an engine, which had rolled down to the creek bed. The main fuselage and mortal remains were found further up the mountain side.
Such an impact has this event had on some of the locals, they found the exact impact location, confirmed using metal detectors to retrieve identifiable debris, and erected a cairn to mark its place 50 years later. Within the cairn are buried a bottle of 20yo Port, reports of the time, a letter naming those involved with its construction and a copy of the summary of the official incident report.
The cache (placed on the 64th anniversary) can be found easily by following the signs along the Heysen Trail within the Kaiserstuhl Native Forest Reserve, off to your right as you climb the mountain.
As you face the cairn, cache is 8-10 metres right in the natural landform (on the far side of the fallen tree).
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ryringvba 446 zrgerf.
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