Podocarpus falcatus Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This Geocache is located in the natural part of the Munessa Forest. It’s a very typical hide between the roots of a big Podocarpus falcatus, a tree which is typical for this forest. You can park your car at the main road (see parking coordinates) and have to cover the last meters by feet. Keep on the little paths, you don’t really have to leave them. Very important: Make sure that you’re not seen by anyone while searching this cache. The people around here would be very interested in the cache’s material. Thus re-camouflage the box between the roots as good as possible. If you are seen on your way to the cache, a good excuse would be that you just want to have a look at the research activity (see below) in this area.
Near the cache site you will recognize a few trees growing in cages of wood and barbed wire. These constructions are part of a german-ethiopian research project. The goal of this project was to get an idea of the carbon cycling of the plant-soil system. This knowledge is important to find out how the silvicultural use of the nearby non-natural forest (just the other side of the road) affects the ecosystem. To get an idea of this carbon cycling, some trees were labeled with an isotope marker, in this case 13CO2. For doing this, the whole tree got coverd with a kind of tent which was filled with this special CO2. The tree breath this CO2 in the same way as normal CO2 but this specially labeled CO2 can be followed through the whole ecosystem just by takin samples and examining them. Now you know what these cages where for. This and other research projects are coordinated from the german-ethiopian “Munessa Forest Research Station” which is just a few hundres meters up the hill next to the main road.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onpx gb gur ebbgf