Is this up high, down low or are you too slow?
Please note - this is part one of this series 'PE' or 'Puzzling Essentials' and more will come!
Well, you will find out after solving this puzzle that we have put together for you.
Remember, like 95% of puzzle caches (no, not all of them!) the posted coordinates are NOT where the cache container is hidden.
You still could visit that place, although sadly a cache won't be found there and a nice blue sad face (a.k.a DNF) will be sitting on the 'logs' page...
To reveal the final coordinates of this puzzle to yourself, you'll need to solve a couple of different common puzzles that hopefully are known by a lot of you Geocachers!
Perhaps you don't know what some common Geocache methods are?
Well, then you will now find out! This cache is designed to use many common Geocache methods to help you get your coordinates.
How must I start?
To start, just follow the numbered (1, 2, 3) instructions below. Each one will contain a common puzzle-solving method that you will need to solve here!
Each puzzle you solve won't give you the whole set of coordinates (which as an example would look like S36 54.000 E168 45.444), but instead some of the full set of coordinates. At the end you'll need to put them together (they are in order from the first question to the last, don't worry! No sorting requried).
GOOD LUCK!
1) Dancing Men from Sherlock Holmes
Above you'll see what the Sherlock Holmes 'dancing men' look like. There are a few caches with these around the place, so this sure will come in handy!
Each man stands for either a letter or a number. Usually in the coordinate world you'll need the numbers, although it completely depends!
TO SOLVE THIS PART OF THE PUZZLE, you'll need to look at the following men below to get the first three parts of your sequence. They may be letters - so watch out!
2) Camoflage Text
Often puzzle creators change the colour of text so Geocachers don't see it. Then they have to highlight it so that they can reveal the coordinates to themselves.
Somewhere below will be the next three parts of your coordinates, so you'll have to do some highlighting to find it!
It ain't here!
Keep searching...
And............. still no.
There is nothing here...
52.6
Have you found them? Hope so! Add those to your sequence and remember this for next time.
3) What3Words
What3Words is a common way Geocachers create their puzzles.
By visiting www.what3words.com, cachers can enter coordinates and have it create, well, three words that can be entered on a cache page!
Doesn't make sense? I'll explain.
1. You enter your coordinates. Let's say you put in S36 00.000 E174 00.000.
2. It gives you three words that represent a 3 square metre block. Let's say grass, trees and hills.
3. You give those words to cachers and they must get the coordinates with them by visiting the site and decoding them.
BUT! Often cache puzzle owners add an extra mean step on and ask you to use dictionary definitions to identify words first.
For example, for the word 'grass', they might say "A green piece of nature that grows at ground level straight up and can get cut" - yes, very bad description (I agree!) but it is there to give you an example. Then now you know the words they used (after doing the other 2 words) and you can get your coordinates. Voila!
TO GET THE NEXT THREE DIGITS IN YOUR COORDINATES, take these three words: ///thinks.deal.dined and put them into what3words.com. You'll then get a street address in Upper Riccaton Christchurch. NO, thats NOT where the cache is.
Take the house number from the address (for example, if the address is 17B Peer St, then take the '17B') and that is the next part of your sequence!
(updated on 22/12/21 to fix issues that occured)
4) ROT-13
ROT-13 is another common way to solve puzzles. It's just like how you read your hints (in fact, it's how they're encoded in the first place) - you have to decode the hint (by pushing the decode button) which will then take it from ROT-13 and put it into 'normal' text.
Here are your next three parts of the coordinates: baruhaqerqnaqfriraglsbhe - you need to visit rot13.com and put them in to decode them.
Good luck!
5) Braille
As I am sure you will know, Braille is the 'language' that those who cannot see use to understand and 'read' everyday words.
It can be found out in the public, often when using road crossing lights and also in special books for blind people.
To recap each number/letter in braille:
For the final part of today's puzzle (this gives you five digits instead of 3), you'll need to decode this braille:
Good luck! The website in the image above (www.boxentriq.com) can help with this too.
We hope you have had some fun solving these puzzles! Make sure to use the GeoChecker on the cache page (you may need to visit the website for it to appear) and happy caching.
Look out for more 'PE' caches coming in the future too.