The Free state Botanical Garden is located in the North-West "corner" of the city of Bloemfontein. It offers some beautiful picnic spots and the opportunity to do some walking in the koppies. Apart from learning about the different fauna and flora, you can also read about some historical events and general conservation. This is definately worth a visit.
The Botanical garden can be reached by turning into Rayton Road from Genl. Dan Pienaar Drive - there are some directions to follow. After signing in at the main gate, you can park at the entrance, pay for entering the park and then set off on your adventure. The entrance fee for adults at the time of writing is ZAR 16. Those in wheelchairs or who could otherwise not make the climb into the koppies, may entertain themselves with a picnic or perhaps at the local restaurant. Three of the five clues are in the koppies, but the first two is on nearly flat ground. All five clues can be accessed without leaving the laid out paths, however, the final cache location is a bit off of the path but on a rocky area so that vegetation will not be damaged when grabbing it.
I suggest doing the clues in the order below, however, you may do it in any order you like. That might mean you may walk a little bit further, or perhaps you'll find a shorter route! On our trail run together with my brother, we walked approximately 2.3 km and to find the cache took approximately 1.5 hours.
Please make sure to hide the cache properly - in the plastic bag - when done. Also, please observe the guidelines given to users of the park. Enjoy!
For further information, you may consult this website: http://www.nbi.ac.za/frames/freestatefram.htm
The clues:
1. Go to the tree trunks and plaque at S 29 03.164 E 026 12.756. How old does the text on the plaque claim these trunks to be? The number of million years is A.
2. Go to S 29 03.104 E 026 12.804. An event is mentioned here. In what year did this event start and end? B is the least significant digit (i.e. not the millennium, century or decade) of the start year. C is the digit indicating the millenium of the end date.
3. At S 29 03.015 E 026 12.937 a plant is mentioned. The name of the plant is given in Latin, English, Afrikaans and Sotho. How many letters are there in the Sotho-name? Call this D. Note from owner: The information has been reported as missing. Set D = 10.
4. The wall at S 29 02.870 E 026 12.841 was useful to a certain group of people. Were these people (1) Afrikaners (2) British (3) Sothos (4) Zulus (5) Chinese? Name your choice E.
5. Touching allowed at S 29 02.879 E 026 12.824. How many millions of years old does the text on the plaque claims these rocks to be? Call this number F.
S 29 0T.UVW E 026 12.XYZ
where
T = E + C
U = E - 2
V = E * E
W = B
X = B
Y = D - B
Z = (A / D) - (F / D)
Small note on cache maintenance: The cache will be maintained by my family who lives only a few kilometers from the cache.