Belfast Twilight
The cache
is not at the posted coordinates.
Please solve the puzzle below to find
the actual cache location.
There are numerous towns and cities named Belfast around the world, including
some in the United States. Many are tiny and a couple are nothing more
than a remote intersection without a single structure. This puzzle
focusses on THE Belfast, the one in the Emerald Isle.
Enjoy the three mini puzzles below. Completing each will provide you with a
keyword answer. Click the link near the bottom of the listing and enter
your answers. Onward to Belfast!
An Irish Jig
1 - Solve an online jigsaw puzzle depicting an aerial view of Belfast.
Start by clicking the link below. At completion, a popup message will
provide you with coordinates in Belfast.
You can solve the jigsaw online by clicking the following
link:
An Irish Jig Jigsaw
No registration is required.
No personal information is required.
The applet is supplied by a well-known and respected publisher and is widely
used for geocache puzzles.
Notes on the jigsaw:
-
The puzzle has 56
pieces.
-
Use your mouse to
drag pieces around the screen and fit them together.
-
Pieces snap together
when close to fitting.
-
Use your mouse wheel
to scroll in and out and to make more room for working.
-
Press F11 for a
full-screen view.
-
When you snap the
last piece in place, a message will display providing you with coordinates. Don't miss the message.
2 - Visit those coordinates in Street View and identify the three-word phrase
near the flowers.
Virtual Belfast Letterboxing (A VERY Random Walk)
Follow a letterbox-style trail of
hints in Google Earth Street View.
1 - Start at the same location
you visited for the previous step.
2 - Head toward the car tunnel
and turn right prior to reaching it.
3 - Proceed to the next
intersection then turn in the direction of the arrow on the round sign.
4 - At the next four-way
intersection, note the "Restricted Parking" sign (not the "Ticket Zone" sign). The sign has a smaller
section below "No Loading". If that section has four lines of text,
continue straight. If it has three lines of text, turn right.
Otherwise, turn left.
5 - Watch carefully on the left
for a brown sign hanging on a light pole. Follow the arrow.
6 - In a short distance, spot a
rather striking blue storefront on the right. Just past that, turn down
the alley/court.
7 - At the next three-way
intersection, turn
left.
8 - Pass through a four-way
intersection.
9 - Follow the arrow on the round
one-way sign.
10 - At the next intersection,
live wildly and go against the traffic, the opposite direction of the one-way
sign.
11 - The next turn opportunity
features some benches on the right just before the intersection. If they
are blue, turn left. If red, right or if black, go straight.
12 - At the next four-way (NOT
the first intersection with offset streets), turn
right, then IMMEDIATELY after, left.
13 - Watch for one of the many
street art paintings found in Belfast, this one featuring a bird. Note the
type of bird it is and continue walking.
14 - You will come to a decision
of straight or right. If the bird is a swan, go straight. If a
parrot, right.
15 - At the next large
intersection, follow the arrow on the sign with two posts.
16 - Continue a significant
distance through several intersections until you spot a building on the left
featuring several tile panels with bending stripes. They are quite
prominent - no need to watch closely. If the largest stripes
are orange and red, continue straight. If they are green and blue, turn
right just past the building.
17 - Maintain course straight for
another good distance until you spot an art panel on the side of a building at a left turn.
The panel features three men walking (full bodies - not just heads).
18 - Make note of the four
words above the panel, including the punctuation.
19 - Rest your tired feet!
Belfast vs Dublin
It's Belfast competing against
Dublin in a Scrabble game! Play along and track their scores. Who
will win?
They are using a standard 15 X 15
board and there is NOT a bonus for using all seven letters.
Amazingly, every single word
played in the game closely relates to Belfast and/or Ireland.
1 - Belfast picks "N" as the
first letter and Dublin snags an "E". Dublin goes first.
2 - Dublin plays all seven tiles
drawn for the first word: LBSAETF placing them horizontally starting at
the center. Remember that the center tile earns a Double Word Score.
3 - Belfast draws KELINRD and
places all but the "K", intersecting with "A" on the board.
4 - Dublin draws AKCSOHM and
again plays all the tiles, forming an emblematic plant associated with Ireland.
5 - The next letters drawn by
Belfast are EELCLI which leads to a play of four letters and two on the board, cleverly joining two
words. The new word is typically pronounced with a soft "C" by American
sports fans.
6 - Dublin draws SGURMET and uses
five of those letters, joining a letter on the board to form a word referring to a loose Irish overcoat.
7 - Belfast snags MICI and plays
all seven letters horizontally, spelling the eight-letter name of a major Irish
city on the River Shannon.
8 - Dublin adds TBLDI to the two
letters in stock, utilizes an existing "K" on the board as the first letter to
form a word describing a piece of clothing usually associated with Scotland, but
also popular in Ireland.
9 - Seven letters are drawn by
Belfast: REOMDAE. All but the "O" are utilized, constructing a word
that is part of Ireland's nickname. Two possible intersections were noted,
and wisely, the highest scorer was selected.
10 - Dublin's turn. A six-letter eponymous word
is placed, utilizing all three of the drawn letters and two of the letters in
stock, interfacing with the leftmost letter on the board.
11 - Belfast draws WBEVGR, uses
four of those letters and the one letter in stock to create a six-letter word
describing both a heavy outdoor shoe and an Irish accent.
"Ha!" exclaims Dublin.
"That's exactly what I'm wearing right now!" And this is demonstrated by
the raising of a leg and dropping said heavy outdoor shoe right on the game
board, scattering the letters to the four winds.
The game ends, the players having
made the same number of moves.
12 - Visit this Belfast location
in Street View where XXX = Belfast's final score and YYY that of Dublin:
N 54 36.XXX W 005 54.YYY
13 - Spot the white-lettered word
high on a trianglish section of brick wall. Make note of the word (with no
punctuation).
The Crock of Gold
Wrap up your work by stringing
your three answers together, including the apostrophe and comma, and entering them
into this Checker with our
without spaces and capitalization. If correct, you can pack your
(obviously green) bags and head to the crock of gold at the end of a short,
wonderful hike. Don't be surprised if the crock contains a nice, dry log
sheet rather than a bunch of gold, though!