On January 17, 1912, Robert Falcon Scott and his four companions reached the South Pole after a long and arduous journey, only to realise that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had got there before them.
This Geocache is a tribute to Scott and his team - and all Geocachers disappointed at not being the First-to-Find (FTF).
Surprisingly, there are a number of Geocaches located in Antarctica - and even a Virtual at the Pole!
This Cache, however, is located in the centre of Cape Town at one of the smallest statues in the Cape.
The monument was erected in memory of Scott and his team that endured and eventually succumbed to the harsh conditions that they faced.
The ill-fated expedition is well documented in the diaries of the team members and later retold in the 1948 film Scott of Antarctic.
Less known is that in August 1910 their ship, the Terra Nova, docked in Simonstown for 3-weeks on its way South.
The Terra Nova had arrived at the Cape under the command of Lieutenant Teddy Evans who as as admiral and commander-in-chief, South Atlantic, was to later live in Admiralty House, Simon’s Town, from 1935 to 1937, and wrote South With Scott.
image: Canterbury Museum NZ
Scott met up with his team in Cape Town - having departed later and travelled here by mail ship along with his wife. Prior to this, Scott had been stationed in the Cape from 1883 to 1885 and visited in 1900.
The team stayed in hotels in Simonstown and Wynberg while Scott travelled to Pretoria to raise money for the expedition (£1,000).
image: Canterbury Museum NZ
On 2nd September the Terra Nova set sail and headed South for Antarctica - under the false assumption that the Norwegian Explorer, Roald Amundsen, was on his way to the North Pole.
The Cape Times, wrote: “While Captain Scott and his comrades are making their way southwards towards the unconqurered Pole, a Norwegian, Captain Amundsen, is setting out to solve some of the unfathomed mysteries of the Great North.”
Needless to say, it was a great blow to the morale of the already battered team when they discovered that Amundsen had arrived at the South Pole ahead of them.
Scott's entire party died on the return journey from the pole.
A paragraph from Scott's diary is engraved on the base of the monument:
HAD WE LIVED, I SHOULD HAVE HAD A TALE TO TELL OF THE HARDIHOOD, ENDURANCE, AND COURAGE OF MY COMPANIONS WHICH WOULD HAVE STIRRED THE HEART OF EVERY ENGLISHMAN. THESE ROUGH NOTES AND OUR DEAD BODIES MUST TELL THE TALE.
To log this Virtual cache, you will need to visit the Scott Memorial and...
1) Count the number of ROUND portholes FRAMED with squares on ONE side of the ship = A
2) Count the number of large sails = B
3) Now it is time to travel North to a nearby location at:
S33°55.0(A)(A+B) E18°25.5(A-B)(A-B)
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
4) Along with your log, you MUST upload a photo including yourself (even just your hand) interacting with one of the people, Frozen In Time, at the 2nd location.
Have fun...!
NOTE: The photo is a requirement for logging this Cache - if no photo is included your log WILL be removed.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.