“Now, Harry,” cried the
Professor, in an enthusiastic tone of voice, “we are truly
about to take our first step into the Interior of the Earth; never
before visited by man since the first creation of the world. You
may consider, therefore, that at this precise moment our travels
really commence.”
As my uncle made this remark, he
took in one hand the Ruhmkorff coil apparatus, which hung round his
neck, and with the other he put the electric current into
communication with the worm of the lantern. And a bright light at
once illumined that dark and gloomy tunnel!
The effect was
magical!
Jules Verne: A Journey to the Center of the
Earth
* * * * * * * * * *
Finding this cache starts with a mathematical homework. If you
come to the cache area from west by car, you have to leave your car
at the official parking place which is located at
N 61° 22.787
E 023° 49.118.
From that point the bearing to the cache is 74.23 degrees.
There is also unofficial road from south, and if you use that way
you may park your car at
N 61° 22.886
E 023° 50.251
From that point the bearing to the cache is 273.24 degrees.
Hints for the calculation
The angle values are true bearing. Zero degrees is pointing to
locations having equal longitude in WGS84 and higher latitude
value, 90 degrees is pointing to east. Here the Finnish YKJ
coordinate system is not parallell with WGS84, at this point the
rotation angle between the systems is about 2.8 degrees. The
nearest KKJ zone gives, however, somewhat better accuracy. The
magnetic deviation here is about 6 degrees, don't trust your
compass too much! The geometry is quite sensitive to angular
errors, one degree error may yield about 40 meter error in
position.
The cache
The cache is multi-cache type. Angular calculations guide you to
the position of the first step where a small/regular container is
well hidden in a first cave located in one of the sides of
Pirunlinna. A picture illustrating the cave opening is attached.
Only some meters from the cave opening there is a small unofficial
camp under a big stone, people have had there open fire.
First step contains position information about the regular sized
and carefully hidden main cache. Both steps require crawling
through caves. The first container is not visible, but you can feel
it with your right hand, if you are tall enough (about 180 cm). The
second container is behind some small stones.
More practical advices:
- You will absolutely need a flashlight, even in daytime.
- Your clothes will become dirty when searching the cache.
- Please, be very careful! Take a friend and a safety helmet
with you.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Forward!” cried my
uncle. Each took up his burden. Hans went first, my uncle followed,
and I going third, we entered the somber
gallery!
Just as we were about to engulf
ourselves in this dismal passage, I lifted up my head, and through
the tubelike shaft saw that sky I was never to see
again!
Was it the last I should ever see of
any sky?
Jules Verne: A Journey to the Center of the Earth