Callendar Stravaig 8 - The Outlandish Pursuit
Something strange has happened....
While walking through Callendar Park Woods, towards 'The Moon Cheese' sculture on the Eastern bank of the lake (see Cache 1 in this series - GC8J56B), you have taken one of the paths in the woods that is less travelled. There in an eerie corner of the park you encounter a massive beech seemingly hundreds of years old, at which point you find you begin to feel strangely different - the air smells unfamiliar, the sky subtly changed, the ambient noises more rural. The distant sounds of people speaking and enjoying the park, have shifted such that their voices sound very broad, and bizarrely accented as if from a distant past age.
Pursuit to FREEEEDOMMMM!
The strange magics of the primeval woods here have transported you to the Year 1715- when rebellion was coursing through the veins of a shackled nation. Scotland was awakening from its sleep of thraldom to its Southern Masters. One of the chief conspirators of the rebellion - the impoverished Lord of Callendar House, Randall the Earl of Kilmarnock - is known to be a man of quick temper when dealing with trespassers on his estate. The infamous Earl is known for administering direct justice to those caught poaching or pilfering on his land, and is prone to kicking the face off any poor git he catches entering his estate without permission. Unfortunately, your sauntering around the grounds looking for caches here has been mistaken by the Earl as random trespassing/poaching or maybe even the activities of an English spy(!). Clearly, landowner approval was not obtained….
As you stand near the Eastern bank of the lake, you hear the weak-chinned Earl nearby shouting to his retainers to pursue you - (to be said out loud with a high-pitched Lowland Scots lisp) - “Fwee the dogs and hunt down the stwangely dwessed Outlandeh!!!”. Fleeing the area, the pack pursues you. Your survival now depends on evading the Earl, his retainers, and his terrifying pack of overly-amorous King Charles Spaniels who have just about caught you between Caches 1 (GC8J56B) and 2 (GC8J68K) in the series. To evade them now, you need to race through the many paths, bushes and clearings in Callendar Park from your starting location. However, you choose to bag some of the Traditional caches in the Callendar Stravaig series before exiting at the Western entrance near Kemper Avenue. There are of course many different routes you can do this by, and you don't have to stick to the paths.
The Pursuit Rules
Success in the pursuit is achieved by figuring out the maximum number of routes between the caches you can take, to escape, hence leading your pursuers on a merry chase, exhausting the Earl’s Spaniels and indeed the Earl’s interest, in the process. Being caught by them would be a fate worse than death.
- With either Cache 1 OR Cache 2 in the series as your starting point (the dogs have tracked you down between them, remember), and moving only Westward, (that is, only to a cache in the series with a higher number), what is the maximum number of different routes from your starting point to Cache 7 (GC8JFK9).
- In one move you can move in a straight line to an adjacent cache, whether it is the next highest number or the number one above that. Eg; From Cache 1 you can move to Caches 2 or 3, from Cache 3 you can move to Caches 4 or 5. The gallery picture shows the Caches in the series on a map view. And remember, it is not necessary to stick to the paths, move in straight lines between caches, that's the quickest way to evade the dogs.
- As an example, moving from Cache 2 (as a starting point) to Cache 4, then Cache 5, then Cache 7, would be one single route.
- This puzzle cache is not one of the route options - you wouldn't want to try escaping the Earl by running straight to his house after all.
- The pursuit ends when you reach Cache 7 in the series ('Kennel Club' - GC8JFK9), as you can escape the House grounds to Kemper Avenue from there.
Once you have the answer to this part of the puzzle, add on 7 to get BC. Divide BC by 4 to get A.
I originally had an idea for this series to be bigger, continuing West from Cache 7, with a total of 13 traditional caches in it. How many possible routes would there have been if the pursuit had happened over that series? Subtract 200 to get DEF.
The cache is located at: N 55 59.ABC W 003 46.DEF. See note on updated coords below.
Puzzle Update Sept 2023 - Add 2 to the northings and subtract 10 from the westings as I have had to move the cache a little due to temporary fencing at gz.
When you find the cache, take a moment to look at the unusual-looking ornamentation at gz - it relates to the puzzle theme.
It is not necessary of course to actually physically visit these caches to solve the puzzle, this can be done as a stand alone cache.