Restoration of Independence Day
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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Com is a delightful fishing village 200 odd Kilometres east of Dili on the north coast of Timor-Leste.
There you’ll find a good hotel, great scenery, snorkeling and diving..but beware of the big salt water crocodiles that infest these waters!!!
Walk out the pier and see the fish swimming beneath you, then walk on to the old Portuguese Pousada where, amidst dark and horrid memories, where lives were lost in the independence struggle, you’ll find our little cache.
The Restoration of Independence Day
20th May 2010
‘The Restoration of Independence Day’ is the eighth Geocache Set by Shamcock and U-Bend since we arrived in Timor-Leste over four years ago now.
If you have a LONG weekend off then why not have a try driving along the north coast, eastwards out of Dili, to Baucau and onwards, straight through Lautem, to the end of the coast road at Com. It will take you about 6-7 hours, depending how long you stop for lunch at the Pousada in Baucau on the way….
Not much happens here in Com. The pace of life is slow, very slow. There is a pier where some Thai fishing boats used to be berthed but they have gone now, as have the sharks and big fish too, the divers tell us. I wonder is there a connection??
There are local places on the beach to stay for a few dollars a night and the ‘Com Beach Resort’ which is wildly overpriced for what you get, but the gardens are magic and the food is good and the beer is cold!
The country side around is a geomorphologist’s paradise, with raised beaches a plenty, limestone caves and sink holes, and huge fossil corals and sponges to tickle the palaeontologist in you…..
Our hunt for the cache starts at the end of the pier which sits atop a reef, jutting out into the sparkling bay. Look over the side and you’ll see colourfull fish a plenty..no need to dive or snorkel here if you don’t want to!!!
The end of this pier is at:
8º 21’ 39.7” South
127º 03’ 53.1” East
You’ll have to do a little MATHEMATICS to find our cache…..On the pier you’ll need to find out the following :
A = No.. of lamp posts on the pier
B = No.. of bollards at the end of the pier….
From the end of the pier look towards compass bearing 145º to see where you will have to go next, it’s only a short walk eastwards around the bay….
The old Portuguese Pousada:
8º 21’ 51.3” South
127º 3’ 58.2” East
overlooks the bay and, as with all these old places, the location is stunning with views across the bay and on-on across the Wetar Straits to the Indonesian island of Kisar 30 or so kilometers away.
You’ll also see lots of big container ships off on the horizon, taking the deep water passage, north of Timor, from Australia to Singapore and beyond..
But this place is a ruin, untouched and clearly unloved by the locals.
Why?
Before you find out, back to MATHEMATICS :
C = No.. of steps up to the entrance of the old Pousada
D = No.. of rooms in the old Pousada….
Now inside you’ll see why….this is an eerie place of ghosts and bad memories. Evil spirits lurk around every corner. It is overgrown and neglected, slowly falling down in sad ruin.
Scratched on the walls are lists of names and large angular numbers etched into the rotting plaster, for what purpose we don’t quite know…Bullet holes spatter the walls and in one room beneath yet another list of Timorese names there is a clue, written in Indonesian:
‘Kecuali mati’ which translates as ‘Everyone is dead…’
This place must have been used as a place of torture and death during the long years that the Timorese fought for their independence against the ‘Malais’, the Indonesians…so in honour of all those who died here our cache remembers those unsung heroes who never saw their ‘Restoration of Independence Day’.
And now, back to MATHEMATICS.
Our cache is well hidden to the left of Z where:
Z = [ (A x B) x (B + (C – (D + A) ) ] + B + D
Easy…..!!!!
It’s a small cache with a small treasure, but the stunning scenery around Com will make up for that!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvqqra va gur penpx gb gur yrsg bs gur ahzore M ng urnq urvtug