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Brought to You From Southern Africa Mystery Cache

Hidden : 7/10/2017
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

What's the first thing you do when arriving in South Africa? Why, go to the Cape Town 2016 mega event. Yes, straight from the airport (after an overnight flight) to the event to meet my good friend brownie52. I received a goodie bag of items, including this cache container, upon registering. I also won a beautiful coin - I suspect that was prior planning.


The next week was full of exciting things - seeing penguins at The Cape, visiting the southernmost point of Africa at Cape Agulhas, dipping my feet into the Indian Ocean, ferrying to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned, and paragliding off Signal Hill next to Table Mountain.

From South Africa, I joined a Road Scholar trip to Namibia and went on safaris, tracked cheetahs and leopards on foot, and did high speed sand sledding on the dunes. My favorite animals were the the giraffes.

At the end of the tour, I set out on my own to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia. Seeing the Cape buffalo completed the "Big Five" list for me, although I found the hippos to be more interesting. Due to a severe drought, Victoria Falls was low in volume, yet still impressive. At Elephant Camp I helped feed the elephants there for rehabilitation.

The puzzle and hide - solve a simple puzzle about Africa, based on things I did/saw to get the correct coordinates for finding the first waypoint of the cache. Parking, more information and hints will be found in the puzzle checker. The original container from the South Africa mega event unfortunately went missing - maybe lost to local elephants.

The solution for this puzzle will be found at N 47° 0A.BCD W 122° 5Q.RST. There is nothing to be found at this location. Because the original waypoint location was removed, there is a new hide site. You have two options (see below) to discover the actual location of the waypoint. In the waypoint you will find coordinates and information for the final hide.

Solve this puzzle first, then use one of the ways below to get the true location of the waypoint where you will find the coordinates for the final container.

A = ________ = the number of colors on the flag of Botswana. (black and/or white are colors for this question)

B = ________ = the number of birds on the flag of Zambia.

C = ________ = at 3C3 meters, Dune 7 is the tallest sand Dune in Namibia and possibly the entire world.

D = ________ = Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island from 19D4 - 1982

Q = ________ = the total number of stripes on the flag of Zimbabwe.

R = ________ = the Cape of Good Hope was discovered in 1R88

S = ________ = Namibia gained independence from South Africa on March S1, 1990

T = ________ = sent on a search mission to find David Livingstone, Henry Stanley succeeded in November 10, 187T. Did you know that Livingstone lost an arm to a lion? And that he named Victoria Falls after his queen?

Here are your two options to learn the true location of the waypoint:
Easiest - simply put your solved value for N 47° 0A.BCD W 122° 5Q.RST into the checker below. There you will be given the true, needed coordinates for the waypoint, along with a hint and parking information.
Alternative - if you prefer not to use the checker, take your solution for N 47° 0A.BCD W 122° 5Q.RST; then subtract 0.076 from solved North, and subtract 0.254 from solved West to get the waypoint solution.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

- cnegf bs lbhe wbhearl jvyy or ba znpnqnz; uvqrf ner ba fvqr genvyf.

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)