Don't kid yourself. A caravan journey can be long and arduous. This will not be a relaxing walk in the park. Much distance and many challenges lie between birth and death, between source and destination, between dawn and dusk, between you and this cache.
You will need to pause your journey at the eight different Caravanserai along the way. A simple observation at each will provide you with the digits you need to discover the location of the final cache at:
N43 DG . BHE W79 GF . HAC
Please replace the natural camo when you are done.
STAGE A
Dreaming when dawn's left hand was in the sky I heard a voice within the tavern cry, "Awake, my little ones, and fill the cup before life's liquor in its cup be dry".
And, as the cock crowed, those who stood before the tavern shouted "Open then the door. You know how little while we have to stay. And, once departed, may return no more."
The posted sign has many digits on it. What is the very first digit?
STAGE B
Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of Spring the winter garment of repentance fling. The bird of time has but a little way to fly. And lo! The bird is on the wing!
Think, in this battered Caravanserai whose doorways are alternate Night and Day, how Sultan after Sultan with his pomp abode his hour or two, and went his way.
Looking at the year when "Maxicer" signed the bridge, what is the difference between the last digit and first digit?
STAGE C
Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough, a flask of wine, a book of verse — and thou beside me, singing in the wilderness. And wilderness is Paradise enow.
And this delightful herb whose tender green fledges the river's lip on which we lean — ah, lean upon it lightly! For who knows from what once lovely lip it springs unseen?
There are two shapes drawn on the orange post. What is the total number of vertices they have?
STAGE D
Lo, some we loved, the loveliest and the best that Time and Fate of all their vintage pressed, have drunk their cup a round or two, and one by one crept silently to rest.
And we, that now make merry in the room they left, and summer dresses in new bloom, ourselves must we beneath the couch of earth descend — ourselves to make a couch. For whom?
If you were to call the oil company collect, what digit would you dial first?
STAGE E
But leave the wise to wrangle, and with me the quarrel of the universe let be. And, in some corner of the hubbub couched, make a game of that which makes as much with thee.
Oh, come with me, and leave the wise to talk. One thing is certain, that life flies. One thing is certain, and the rest is lies: The flower that once has bloomed, forever dies.
The cover plate shows a year. What digit is flanked by a repeated digit?
STAGE F
Ah, fill the cup. What boots it to repeat how time is slipping underneath our feet? Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday, why fret about them if today be sweet?
And if the wine you drink, the lip you press, end in the Nothing all things end in — Yes, then fancy while thou art, thou art but what thou shalt be — Nothing! Thou shalt not be less.
This triangle invites you to call Waterdown. How many times would you dial a "7"?
STAGE G
The worldly hope men set their hearts upon turns ashes — or it prospers and, anon, like snow upon the desert's dusty face lighting a little hour or two, is gone.
The moving finger writes and, having writ, moves on. Nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
Some large birches have fallen together. How many parallel trunks lie here?
STAGE H
Ah, moon of my delight who knows no wane, the Moon of heaven is rising once again. How often hereafter rising shall she look through this same garden for me, but in vain?
And when you, with shining foot shall pass among the guests star-scattered on the grass, and in your joyous errand reach the spot where I made one, turn down an Empty Glass!
There is a slogan on the cycle bridge. How many words are in the slogan?