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Devizes - A Head Stort Traditional Cache

Hidden : 10/19/2002
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
4 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Placed on the edge of a field near to the boundary of three counties and near the head of the River Stort.

I originally come from Devizes in Wiltshire (100 miles, 244° from this cache). Devizes gets its name from the Latin ad divisas, which means "at the boundaries", because Devizes castle, built in 1080 was said to have been on the boundaries of the ancient manors of Potterne, Bishops Cannings and Rowde.

I thought I could pay homage to my home town in my new neck of the woods by placing this cache at the point where the boundaries of three modern counties meet. However, the original location of the cache, on the county boundaries, is on private land, so this nearby spot has been chosen as a surrogate location. The original location of the cache was at the exact point (or as close as I could find a hiding spot) where Hertfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire meet. That location is almost exactly 1 mile to the WNW of the new spot. This cache was placed while I lived in Cambridge. i now liv ein Bishop's Stortford. Coincidentally the original location of this cache was just a few hundred metres from the head of the River Stort, and the new location is just inches fro mthe River Stort itself. If you throw a stick into the stream or wee in it, it'll float within 20 feet of my house!

There is parking for one car at N51° 59.967 E0° 05.191 but try not to stay too long as access to the field may be required by the farmer. The cache is hidden just off the nearby public footpath.

Warning: You will need wellingtons or other waterproof footwear to complete this cache. The cache is not suitable for young children, but supervised kids over about 7 or 8 should be fine. (Read the hint for more info!)

The cache is a dark green ammo box, 28x17x14cm, so plenty of room for some of the larger items people bring. The original contents were:

  • Log book/pen/pencil/sharpener
  • Handel's Messiah (2 CDs)
  • Some Simpsons episodes on a CDR
  • A copy of Garmin Mapsource 4.09
  • Redhat 7.3 on 3 CDs
  • Keyring torch (with batteries)
  • Pocket torch (with batteries)
  • OS landranger map of Cambridge and Newmarket
  • "The Thirty-Nine Steps " book
  • Bottle of mineral water for thirsty visitors
  • 3 KitKat chunkys for hungry visitors
  • 2 AA batteries for poor little run-down GPSs
  • Spare zip lock bags.


Happy hunting!
Visit the real Devizes online here.

This cache contains set of co-ordinates 1 for the OS X cache

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Nf lbh tb nybat gur rqtr bs gur svryq, gurer'f n fgernz gb lbhe yrsg. Ng gur pbbeqvangrf, lbh arrq gb fpenzoyr qbja gur onax - gur pnpur vf va gur ebbgf bs n gerr ba gur bccbfvgr onax bs gur fgernz.

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)