I have always been enchanted by the playful potential of words. When I was younger that took the form of bad jokes, (Q: Why was six afraid of seven? A: Because seven ate nine), and singing Mairzy Doats at music school, as I’ve grown older and acquired more knowledge this has expanded to include puns and places where my native language overlaps with other languages I’ve encountered, (I can’t be the only English speaker to think of the white condiment every time I say 沒有). Luckily for me, it seems that geocachers also enjoy a whole lot of word play.
Quite often you’ll find that a puzzle cache contains a clue to the solution or final GZ in the title, description or hint of the cache, from example a cache hidden in a tree might have the clue “stumped?”, or one hidden in the vicinity of a clock might be titled “Time to find a puzzle cache”. But the potential for giving clues in text is as infinite as language itself.
Some of the easier to solve puzzles include those where the location or clues are given using other languages. Sometimes it’s possible to decode those by running stuff through google translate but at other times the language might be fictional or dead (think Elvish, Dothraki, Klingon, Old Norse or Egyptian Hieroglyphs). There are also a whole load of languages which are commonly used by geocachers which aren’t technically spoken or written - these include braille, semaphore, morse code, nautical flags and sign language - to solve these it’s just a case of working out which language you’re dealing with and then decoding the message.
If you don’t need to translate or decode something you might find that the information is concealed in the text of the geocache listing. Check for anything which could be read as numbers and remember that since we’re living in a place where many geocachers are familiar with at least two languages it is common to find puzzle caches which need you to use your knowledge of both languages.
We are spoilt for local linguistic caches as it seems are several caches who enjoy playing with words. For example you could uncover Steve4nlaguage’s The Written Word (GC6WH05), Jefferyh’s Language (GC609N7), luisloco514’s A Challenge of Languages (GC5GH7H) or Haima’s Smoke gets in your eye (GC39N72).
PUZZLE GYM SERIES
WRITTEN RIDDLES
IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME
We’re all used to hunting in at least two languages - but what happens when we encounter a language from a distant land???
