The TARDIS doors were closing......... “Just before we leave America”, Smaughunter said to the Doctor “I brought something interesting with me from my father’s house here in central USA.... He was a keen Geocacher in his youth and there were some notebooks in which he referred to a cache he had placed but never published, I thought it would be interesting to put it up on Groundspeak’s website, so I have decided to publish it under the Title "Lost in Time and Space" . It seems very strange because it contains a story about me looking for it. Looking at the date on these notes, I would not have even been born when it was written.”
The Doctor looked at the scrappy notebook smiled and said, “The coordinates would indicate it is somewhere in the United Kingdom. Would you like to go and see if you can find it before we head across the Galaxy to our next mission? We can get there quickly in the Tardis. Punch in the coordinates and we will be there in moments ”. Smaughunter entered the coordinates from the Notebook N 51° 24.623’ W 002° 20.042’ and locked the Tardis’s navigation system.
The Tardis sprang into life, and with a lurch and a bump they quickly sped to the chosen location. Smaughunter opened the doors and looked out onto a high open plateau with no special landmarks. Certainly there was no obvious place for a cache to be found here. He looked at the hint and it made no sense at all. He read it several times.... “Let’s face it, you just need to reach in”
“Sorry Doctor, perhaps he never published it because he got the coordinates wrong”. The Doctor took the notebook and stared at the page. Then he smiled that knowing smile. “You forgot to check the date” he said. “Look at the date in the notebook , put the correct date into the controls. Sometimes it is important”.
Smaughunter looked puzzled but knowing the Doctor is seldom wrong; he reset the controls to the date in the notebook, and reactivated the Tardis’s navigation systems. Soon the date indicators were changing but there was no sense of motion as the physical coordinates remained static. Watching the control panel Smaughunter saw a message on the screen. ## WARNING ## Approaching 1984 ## . “Hold tight” shouted the Doctor, just as the Tardis gave a sudden violent lurch sideways. “Sorry, That always happens then. I should have warned you earlier”.
Then the Tardis stopped and the doors opened. Smaughunter was surprised to find the landscape outside was similar but also somewhat different with more features now, there were obvious cache hiding places and the hint, although cryptic, now made sense. Before jumping out to retrieve the cache he looked back at the Doctor, “Why has the landscape changed? What happened here ?” The Doctor smiled again, “Nothing”, he said “it is just been offset by our time travelling”.
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Note this cache was inspired by Jenny and James recent hide - GC39TAK, or rather by one of my failed attempts to solve it.
When originally published - Everything you needed, to find Smaughunter’s dad’s cache was right here on the Groundspeak page. You Just had to look carefully. But now they have removed some link references to NASA or more precisely NASC so now you will have to do a little extra research elsewhere.
This cache is placed with the kind permission of Batheaston Commons, English Heritage and the National Trust.
Congratulations to ABANAZAR on being first to experience that Eureka moment and then FTF!
If you are unsuccessful in following Smaughunter from the empty plain to the correct location, spend some time at N 51° 24.677’ W 002° 20.236’ and see if it helps! If you were successful you may use this location for a celebration. If you have children with you I would definitely recommend a visit here before descending back to lower ground.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.