Come with me as we go on a journey of naturalist exploration, looking to see examples of a rare species - The Flummox - in the wild. Formerly kept in captivity as a side show act for the Circus McGurkus, these little puzzle-creating critters have now been freed and re-introduced to their native habitat by Flummox-rights campaigners. Opinion is divided on whether this was a good thing.
Together we will track them to their lairs and explore their struggle to re-adjust to their new surroundings, as they try to shrug off the after-effects of their captivity. You can read more about The Flummox here: GC9F205, where all the caches in the series are listed.
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The Binniehill Show
Flummoxes' infamous aptitude for puzzling, and ingenious minds, make them very difficult to keep in captivity, thus the keepers at Circus McGurkus tried brainwashing to prevent them escaping. They took to playing the Flummoxes re-runs of 1970s TV programmes, and this proved strangely effective for holding their attention. The Flummoxes had a particular affection for The Benny Hill Show - not the most politically incorrect of 1970s TV shows, but it certainly gets a podium place. The hugely popular Benny Hill Show was known for its occasional dialogue-less sketches where the main characters would end up in a comical chase sequence to the show's theme music, following some unfortunate misunderstanding. This chase scene involved the show's usual stereotypical set of characters, (often in states of undress) zig-zagging through public spaces. After prolonged exposure to Benny Hill, the circus Flummoxes suffered psychological trauma and began to chase each other round their cages, just like the famous comedy show sketch.
When freed into the wild, some Flummoxes settled into a local woods near the village of Limerigg. However one day a glimpse of a nearby signpost triggered those long hours of cruel exposure to a certain infamous 70s TV program. The signpost read simply, 'Binnie Hill'....
Finding The Cache
The Flummoxes' trauma from their circus captivity caused them to have flashbacks, and they took to chasing each other around the woods from cache to cache, in a re-enactment of the chase scenes from the Benny Hill Show. Look at the map below of the published coords for my caches in Lodge Farm Woods - 13 Traditional Caches (black circles) in the 'Off-Grid' series and this Mystery Cache (the yellow circle). They show the route the Flummoxes used to zig zag around caches in the woods as they chased each other. As luck would have it, the 14 caches shown are laid out in a nice grid, appropriate given the title for the traditional series - 'Off Grid'. Your challenge is to see if you are as smart as a Flummox, read on to find out how...
The Flummox pictured, starts his chase through the grid of caches in Lodge Farm Woods at the box indicated – Box 1. He wants to race round the woods moving from box to box like the famous Benny Hill chase sketch. He doesn’t need to follow the paths, but can't move diagonally between boxes. As he leaves Box 1 on his race round the woods, he wants to visit every box once, but he doesn’t want to visit or enter any other box twice. What route does he take?
The cache is hidden at N 55° 54.7AB W 003° 50.CDE, where Box 1 is the first box the Flummox enters, and:
A = The number of the 12th Box the Flummox enters
B = The number of the 11th Box the Flummox enters
C = The number of the 13th Box the Flummox enters
D = The number of the 4th Box the Flummox enters
E = The number of the 15th Box the Flummox enters