From the Castle to the Friendly Woods
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This can be a fairly quick conventional cache, or you can do the longer round walk (about 4 miles), and take our quiz.For a possibly more accurate reference, see clue HCP010 below.
NOTE: No need to thrash about in undergrowth: it's an easy walk, but you'll find it MUCH more easily if you plot where you're going on an OS map. If you haven't got one, look at the clues to HCP010 below, and follow signposts and paths until you're very close!
This isn't a mystery quiz, just a simple "treasure hunt on foot" to keep you and the kids amused on a Sunday afternoon's stroll round a pleasant park.NOTE: If you have small children, parts of this walk go along the banks of an unfenced river, and round a large lake, so please keep the kids in sight! If you just want to do the cache, without the walk in the park, or the quiz, there's a much quicker way, but you're a clever enough geo-cacher, we're sure, that you won't need us to tell you how! (Plot the waypoints on an OS map, and all will become clear!)
Below are a series of waypoints, with Lat and Long in decimal degrees, with a question (or more) at each WP
.There's one general question, that you'll need to keep your eyes peeled for, all the way round... why did we call this "... to the Friendly Woods"?
HCP001, Car Park
51N11.855, 0E16.277
Who is the secretary of TJRFC? What does the J stand for?
HCP002, TMES,
51N11.824, 0E16.293
What is TMES? When was it founded? Can you touch the 1968 flood line?
HCP003, Racecourse Sportsground
51N11.756, 0E16.249
What is the name of the island wild area in the south-west corner of the park?
HCP004, High Street
51N11.747, 0E16.497
Where does the Weald Way go from and to?
How long is it in km?
What tower used to be near here? (This isn't on the same place as the other answers... look around!)
HCP005, Castle
51N11.793, 0E16.439
What did the town buy in 1897?
You'll need to look at a map to decide how to get to the next point.
HCP006, Barden Lake
51N11.668, 0E16.267
What do gatekeepers like to feed on?
HCP007, Railway
51N11.517, 0E16.194
Due south of you, there's a number of the form xx.x+1. What is x?
TLS reckons that this is the MOST difficult of the questions. You are looking for a small white oval plaque, on the *other* side of the railway, and, to be honest, neither of us has good enough eyes to be 100% sure of the numbers on the plaque. I might cycle over there some time with binoculars, to be sure! But if your eyes are sharper than ours ...!HCP008, Barden Lake
51N11.519, 0E16.914
How long is the path around Barden Lake, in m?
HCP009, Haysden Country Park
51N11.488 0E16.853
Who do you call for summer boat trips to the castle?
HCP010, Flood Barrier
51N11.542, 0E14.135
Where's the cache?
HCP011, Bridge
51N11.769, 0E16.302
Why do we say that this is the devil of a fine bridge?(Note: you won't find anything on the ground to answer this question. You'll have to ask locals, or look it up on the local town's web-page map)
HCP012, Sign Post
51N11.855, 0E16.415
How many path markers are there (counting missing ones)?
HCP013, Bridge
51N11.864, 0E16.582
What's the price of trespass?
That's it. If you need the "official" answers, e-mail us through Geocaching.com.
The cache, when you find it, has a cloth badge and a sticker from the parks department in Apopka, Florida (near Orlando), a quartz crystal, a little Greek House, some orange blossom creme perfume (also from Florida), and the normal log book, pencil, eraser, and pencil sharpener.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n pyhzc bs errql-tenff