Matchstick Madness Deakin West, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By Tankengine on 13-Oct-07. Waypoint GC16MFC

I'd sorted this puzzle out a little while ago mainly off vibes and vague recollections of similar puzzles encountered in the past and, now that I'd scoped the general region out during yesterday's excursion, I figured that I'd tick this one off today.An enjoyable wander was had through this slightly unusual area until I wound up at gz which possessed quite a few possibilities.Emerging back out into the clear after checking one of these possibilities gave me the perspective I needed to spot the slightly more obvious hide than I'd been looking for - not, I suspect, that such an attribute poses any problems for the cache's longevity in the context of its location!Thanks to Tankengine for this puzzle and hide!

A caching trip to Canberra with JohnMawbs to attend a few events,and pick up a couple of caches in the area.The weather was cool, but excellent for caching.A quick search and the cache was located, signed and replaced.Giving this one a favourite point.Many thanks for placing this cache, Tankengine, for us and others to find.

Day #1 of 2 - With a free weekend and three geocaching events in Canberra, I decided on heading over for an overnight stay. I also asked if The Drovers wanted to tag along and the answer was yes. So we headed over Saturday morning and met up for Bfast at Gold Creek Maccas. Afterwards, we found a trail of caches, [somewhat] leading towards the first event of the day. Todays event was a CITO. I always love a good CITO and this one was no different. Lots of rubbish collected, all talk Geo was had and even a cache found. Next we headed off and found caches around the suburb of Hawker which was not far from the CITO location. Amongst the cache finds, we had KFC for lunch. Then we headed over to the motel to check in. Once that was done, we headed off and found some caches around Queanbeyan before getting dinner and some sleep before tomorrows adventures.Day #2 of 2 - Today there are two events but before that there was caching to do. We went and found several caches around the suburb of Yarralumla. Some easy and others harder to find. They were a mixture of different cache types/containers/hides which added to the fun of the day. Then it was time for the first of the two events. I was very surprised. It was a great organised event to teach everyone about rope activities. We even had a got to have a go. Thanks so much. Once the event was over, we headed off to the nearby Oporto for lunch. After lunch, The Drovers and I parted ways. So now by myself, I headed up the hill to the Arboretum to find some more caches and ALs before heading to the next event. At the second event now, I was one of the first there and I also one of the first to do the rope climb. This time the trees was taller and I got to the top in which was described as, in record time. Anyway, it was great fun and an awesome idea for an event. I hope you continue these instructional types of events in the future. Then it was time to head home. At about the halfway mark I made a quick and easy final find for the weekend.Unless otherwise stated, the caches we found over the weekend, were quick & easy finds and were in good condition. It was a great weekend away and a big thanks to The Drovers for tagging along. Most caches were signed as JM to save room on the logsheet/book. TB visit. Of course a big thanks also goes to the CO for adding this cache to game for the Geocaching community to enjoy. TFTEs & TFTCs!

The lack of a checksum concerned me, but apparently I removed the right matches since the cache was found right at GZ. Locked the bike up nearby before finding a route through the bush hell that you'll run into if you approach from the south. Luckily, as of this log, there is a pretty easy route through straight to the cache which I'm very happy about. I don't need more blackberries in my day (for some reason today has been FULL of blackberries). Quickly located the cache at GZ and quickly made my way back to the bike. I can't count how many times I've pondered this question, but how did Tankengine find this spot??? A conundrum which I expect will remain unanswered. TFTC Tankengine!

Found while attending the Mega event in Canberra over Easter.The trip bit.Easter geocaching festival of twenty twenty four. This time it is the turn of Oz Mega GeoBash MEGA event in the nation's capital. It is time for a road trip across country to Canberra in the Sporty Pajero Sports. Freddo and Gridge98 traveling from Adelaide via a strange inland route that takes in scenic rural locations, dusty roads, punctured tyres, overheating batteries, various tools of the trade, special campgrounds, and lots scope for many many geocaching finds. Along the way we saw running emus, jumping kangaroos, wandering deer, dead foxes, herds of wooly sheep and stray steers.Arriving in Canberra we met our colleagues e.gregory1, featherwaite, team walron, courtney rose, davidwazza, e_smilie, and georode, signing as ABP, plus a huge group of other like minded excited mega geocachers attending event after event, and more events.Day one. Adelaide to Broken HillDay two. Broken Hill to WellingtonDay three. Wellington to CowraDay four. Cowra to BathurstDay five. Bathurst to CanberraDay six. Canberra to CanberraDay seven. Canberra to QueenbeeyanDay eight. Canberra to AdelaideThe generic bit.I will apologize right now, because everything from here on is here solely for the purpose of padding the word count and winning that one hundred word diamond badge again. Somebody moved the goal posts. So many caches to find. So many caches to log. We find them, sign them and replace them.This particular geocache was found using one of the following GPS enabled devices, Garmin GPSr, Montana 680t, Oregon 650 or Dakota 20 and an Apple iPhone 11 using the marvelous Cachly app. Waypoints and paperless geocaching were downloaded via GSAK 9. Log prepared, checked and submitted using GSAK publish logs macro.Warning, this hobby can be addictive. It can lead to exercise, meeting new people and finding interesting places you might not have known existed otherwise. Beware: you may have fun. Apologies for the generic part of the cache log. We do apologise for the generic logs. Thanks to all the cache owner for placing this cache here for our enjoyment.Thanks for the cache. Merci la cache. Danke fr den Cache. Gracias por el cach. Bedankt voor de cache. Kiitos ktkst. Terima kasih untuk cache. Hvala cache. Nga mihi mo te keteroki. Dankie vir die kas. Ksznm a rejtst. Vdaka za cache. Dzieki za cache. Takk for at cache. Obrigado por isso cache. Dky za ke. Aciu u ta talpykla. Paldies par o cache. Aith selle eest cache. Tack fr att Cache. Tak for denne Cache. nbellek iin tesekkrler. Ksznjk, hogy a cache. Graas para o cache. Dankon pro la kasmemorone. Dank fr de csch. Eskerrik asko cache horrengatik. Na gode da wannan cache. Zikomo chifukwa cha cache.I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Come visit the world's longest running annual geocaching event - keep the weekend free - 7th - 10th June 2024 Cant wait!! GCAK1D5 - Lameroo's Ludicrous Legwarmers

Found during the Mega event in Canberra over the Easter long weekend. Our team comprised courtneyrose_, Davidwazza, e.gregory1, Featherwaite, Freddo, gridge98 and Team Waldron, signing the logs as ABP to save time and space in the logbooks , or with our individual caching names. Enjoyed a great weekend away finding a rewarding range of cache types, d/t combinations, cache hides and retrievals. Thanks for the cache Tankengine!

Found while attending the Mega event in Canberra over Easter.Today I teamed up with FeatherWaite, Team Waldron, gridge98, CourtneyRose, Freddo, and Davidwazza. Logs were signed ABP to save time and space on the logsheets.It was a productive day, focusing mainly on caches of interest, with a variety of cache types.The weather was fine and quite warm, in contrast to some of the other times Ive been in Canberra over Easter.Thanks Tankengine for the puzzle and the cache.

In Canberra for the Easter GeoBash Mega.Our team cosisted of Team Waldron, Featherwaite, E.Gregory1, Freddo, Gridgre98, DavidWazza, CourtneyRose. Logs were signed as ABP.We travelled far and wide had a great time.Thanks to the organising committee and all the cache owners.TFTC

Found this during a fantastic weekend away at the Canberra Mega, with gridge98, Freddo, Team Waldron, e.gregory1, Davidwazza and Featherwaite. The log books were either signed with the name ABP or our individual caching names.Was an excellent Mega, grateful to be part of it!

Found on our journey over the week here.This weekend was mega weekend and we headed over with Courtneyrose_ Freddo, Team Waldron, e.gregory1, Davidwazza and Featherwaite as part of our team called: ABP (Alphabet People), the log books were either signed with the name, ABP or our individual caching names.A great weekend away in the capital and a very well organised mega, it was nice to be back in the ACT caching once again over easter with great weather.Thanks for the cache

Logsheet (and cache) replaced.Old log attached.But if you want this one come and get it soon! I expect it may get clobbered with the Yarralumla brickworks redevelopment!GOOD TO GO!!!

Fun puzzle, that we solved a while ago, with some CO assistance to refine our work. We had the method right at least. Find took a little while today, after choosing a very suboptimal route to GZ. Tip for future visitors: approach from the northeast rather than the west. Logbook is mush and needs replacement. I have messaged the CO to let him know. Not sure what previous finders found but it surely wasnt this one, given the state its in. Not sure. Anyway. Thanks Tankengine . --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the spirit of reconciliation we would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country on which we geocache throughout Australia and their long lasting, and ongoing connections to land, sea and community. We (the pants people) pay our respects to Traditional Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Woohoo! Finally got to finding this cache after solving the puzzle years ago.
We did exactly as the hint suggested and found your cache. We wonder if there are two caches here as we couldn’t see the signatures of the most recent finders anywhere in this logbook. (Nothing since August 2020.)

Surprisingly, apart from being a little bit damp, all is in great condition.

Thank you.

Found with SA quite a while ago. TFTC

#1049 I’ve definitely played around with puzzles like this before so when I realised what I had to do I quickly gathered what I needed and soon had a solved puzzle. Turtle had also solved the puzzle so we were keen to make our way to this one today as well as a few others before heading home with a dinner planned. Parked as close as we could and walked in towards GZ and begun our search. We spent a bit of time focussing in the wrong spot before readjusting our search area. I’d actually headed off in one direction whilst looked in another and I soon got the call back over that he’d found it. Other than a slightly damp log after all the recent rain and not being found in a good while it was good to find this one in really good condition. Thanks Tankengine for the enjoyable mystery

#2902 In these days of gas lighters, matches were a bit of a flash back to the past. I took the step back in time and gathered my matches to solve this puzzle. It wasn’t long before coordinates fell into place. Today DeadThief and I made our way to GZ. We searched the area before reflecting on the hint and coming up with the find. Six days shy of a year since it’s previous find it was certainly showing signs of it’s time undiscovered. Despite being a bit damp we added our names to the logbook and replaced for the next hunter. Thanks Tankengine for the puzzle. I recall doing puzzles similar to this in newspapers some years back.

Site is very overgrown, had a good look around but a DNF for us today. TFTC

Finally, a puzzle I can solve by myself without needing to beg for help! This was quite enjoyable and I soon had a suitable set of coordinates.

Today I parked nearby and made the short trek into the wilderness where I made a quick find at GZ. Cache and log are in very good condition.

Thanks, Tankengine.

Today’s adventures out and about picking up some of my solved puzzles and bonuses on a blustery winter’s day.

All logs in good condition unless otherwise noted.

Thanks Tankengine for placing and maintaining these caches

To keep completing my challenge of filling the multi and mystery calendars I needed to get out and find one of each yet again today. There was one of each on my solved not signed list close to each other here so it was a given that I come to this area. After spending so much time on the multi I wasn't sure if I would be happy with this cache. I walked across country following a series trails, roo or geotrails? to get to the GZ. This time I read the hint and did as I was told. Luckily I didn't have to take the seat anywhere as it was a quick find in the second spot I looked. TFTC TE SL TNLN

I worked this out the other day on the dinner table. When I got near GZ at the beginning of the week I was thwarted by the thicket, and totally underdressed. I was actually on my way to the National Gallery to see the Know My Name exhibition and stopping for a cache was an afterthought.

Today I approached from the other side and followed some Kangaroo trails through the grass and weeds, carefully circumnavigating any Blackberries. After that, GZ was actually quite pleasant. That is until the mozzies found me, bent over looking for the cache.

Took a while, but given the expedition to get here, I wasn't going to give up.
Signed the log and went my merry way.

TFTC

Out with PPE and Crash 2079 as part of GOM's Grumpy ACT Day 4. A morning of good D caches with little walking and a variety of TOTT as opposed to the last few days of over 25km each. The puzzle was one solved during the C-19 lockdown. Today we parked close and headed in to find a well hidden cache. We completed the signing duties and re hid. TFTC

Day 4 of the GOM ACT expedition. This morning was all about high D/Ts with all manner of different apparatus. This needed none of those but was great to collect in any case. A quick find.
SL TFTC

Instinct!!! Listen to the damn instinct!! Finally my brain catches up with my intuition and came up with the prize. TFTC!! (In good condition after recent rain)

Found with LaurenKatelyn

After GPS bouncing, we finally caved and read past logs. Found with Epzccc131 after a more thorough search

Out picking up a cache for the day. Fabulous day for it. Solved this a while back but picking up today. TFTC Tankengine not so much the headache solving it.

Found today with Joolay on a Mothers Day cache run. We had solved this puzzle a while ago and happy to make the find today. Little bush bash to the cache - who would have thought it could get so wild so quick.

Condition Report:. Good and dry
Log Status:. Lots of room

Thanks for hiding this cache Tankengine

Solved quite a while ago. Found today while exploring around the area on a quick unforecasted mini cache hunt. TFTH

A nice matchstick puzzle quickly solved. A bit concerned at GZ with plenty of potential hiding options around but pretty straightforward in the end. TFTC Tankengine.

Was grabbing a nearby traditional and had (what I thought was) just enough time to pop over and pick up this recently solved puzzle as well. Multiple obstacles (forces of nature, fence, my ongoing inability to read the GPS particularly well!) meant it took a lot longer to make it to GZ than I had anticipated. Once I was finally in the zone it was a lot quicker to locate and sign the actual cache.
It was a relatively easy puzzle, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing this one as it took me back to my childhood when I loved doing matchstick puzzles. Remember when having a use for a packet of good ole Redheads was a routine thing? Can’t remember the last time I bought a box of matches now. Would easily be a decade or more...

Should learn to trust my first instincts better. Went straight to the right place then wasted time looking everywhere else till finally had a proper look in the right place. But did finally discover it! Tftc

An interesting little GZ here. There are really 2 options: 1. impatient straight line through fairly thick bush or 2. find the opening a little ways away and work your way back to GZ. I opted for 2 and had to use the hint to eventually find the cache. Quite a nice little challenge. Thanks, Tankengine.

We enjoyed this puzzle. We enjoyed it more when the checker went green first time. [^]

Today we weren't exactly in the right area to look the cache but soon made it that way. It's always satisfying to find puzzles that were solved in readiness for road trips, or in this case the Clear Waters Mega. TFTC Tankengine.

Solved this one about a year ago and took the opportunity after work to find. Found in first spot I looked. Really enjoyed the puzzle. My second solution was the right one in the end. Tftc!

Wow very interested with this puzzles, took us a bit while, really amazing...
Enjoyed day with geogirls
TFTC

Found it with help by geogirls
Thanks for teamwork mates.
TFTC

Found on

An interesting GZ for this puzzle cache, not where I had expected it to be hidden after seeing it on my map for a while! Decided to come and see if I could make a find today, and parked as close as I could and strolled on over. Had to get through some thick bush but eventually reached GZ.

If it wasn't for the hint I am not sure I would have ever found this! Boy was it well hidden and covered! [:o] But with a thorough search in a spot that matched the hint I soon uncovered the well hidden cache in good condition!

Thanks Tankengine

Tricky hiding spot for this one. So many places to look...... TFTC TE.

Clearing caches I'd worked out over 14 months ago (when I was on a roll). Only took a few minutes to find, log and replace. My 300th Tankengine find. TNLNSL TFTC

#8958 @1055
After ZQX, AngelG27, Fox in Jox and I headed off our separate ways after finding a 5/5 wherigo together, I spent the rest of the morning solo caching focusing on some solved Tankengine puzzles. This was easily solved a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't 100% confident. My co-ords were confirmed this morning, so I persevered at GZ until I found it. The GPS was jumping around, but keep bringing me near GZ, which did seem the right spot based on the hint. I couldn't find the cache initially, but did manage to find it when being more thorough. TFTC.

Wednesday 20 September 2017 - a beautiful sunny Spring morning to find the first of 2 caches for the day (1 trad, 1 mystery). Had figured this one out back in March this year but haven't been in the vicinity till today while dropping off MuggleHusband at a day clinic in Woden.

This puzzle was relatively easy to figure but only once I laid out my matches on the kitchen bench to remove matches and then the numbers started appearing. However the cache was not as easy to discover at 8.30am. GZ was bouncing around in a 10m range amongst very very large matchsticks scattered on the ground so some scratching, ducking and weaving was required till finally, thanks to the hint, I was able to narrow down the real GZ. This is snake country so I would not recommend searching for this without making lots of noise. TFTC Tankengine.

This was a case of making the simple into the complicated.

After looking at the picture for a minute I worked out some pretty good looking co-ordinates without touching a match. Alas the check sum said wrong. [:(!][:(!][:(!]

Out to the camping cupboard for some matches. Back inside the house only 10 matches in the box. Back out to the cupboard and returned with 6 boxes of matches, most only 1/4 filled. [:(!][:(!][:(!]

Then on the kitchen table I soon had the matches out and deleted and came up with the same co-ordinates. [:(!][:(!][:(!] After 5 minutes of staring I came up with another solution that involved some dubious reasoning to get some co-ordinates that met the check sum. As these looked rather suspect I e-mailed the CO who conferred that I was 1 number off.

Back to the drawing board and after reading the description again discovered that the check sum I was using was not the check sum in the description. My original co-ords were in fact correct. [:(!][:(!][:(!]

To-day parked at Yarralumla Nursery and walked towards gz, but there is a big fence between me and the gz, It also appears to be in the middle of the golf course, where a cache should not be. Back at the car noticed I had transposed a couple of digits in the easting. [:(!][:(!][:(!]

After correcting my gps, drove off and after another walk came to the cache which took only 5 minutes to locate. TFTC Tankengine.

Enjoyed this puzzle and find...but easier than others I have been doing lately

F(H)ound It! #1964 - @ 5:00 PM

I love a matchstick puzzle! However now I am missing my long abandoned smoking habit. I still crave the coffin nails and I also miss all the ritual involved, ...and games involving matches.

Getting to GZ was a bit of an adventure, I found a bit of a trail but it quickly petered out. I had to disconnect the lead and let the Ridgeo-pup pick her own way through. Thankfully we didn't see and bunnies or Aussie rabbit deer.

At GZ I have to admit now that the RP found it straight away but I dismissed the spot after a (not hard enough) search. Eventually I went back to there and found the sneaky thing.

Thanks for the cache, Tankengine. The winter attribute is appropriate today as I think there was a bit of sleet around.

Went with dty73 but she was no help. Took a bit of negotiating through wet grass & thorn bushes until we eventually got to GZ. This cache is well hidden but we were finally signing the log. Thanks Tankengine. Kutgw

Worked this one out at home, then forgot to bring my puzzle book with the answer. So Aquilus1 and I did it again in the car just after we had grabbed the nearby bridge banter, but decided that GZ was a little too deep in for such a late night so have come back today to grab. Would have been a spooky trip at night and a mist rolling in along the ground. But was still fun and reminded us why we love caching so much. Tftc Tankengine!!!

Dty73 mentioned she had this worked out after our recent Bridge Banter but then realised she didnt have the coordinates with her. We sat and worked it out again but decided that being so late at night perhaps a day time would be better. Still, I think if anyone wanted an extra challenge night time would be the time to go for this one! Weaved our way in to a likely location and was happy to have came up with the cache. Thanks for the cache TE!

It took a while but eventually managed to get a set of coordinates quite some time ago. A beautiful day to be outdoors and we took a stroll around this area. This was the first cache for the day. We had a bit of difficulty approaching the cache, with one fall and quite a few thorns, but made it to GZ in the end. A reasonably quick find at GZ. We found a much better way out but there was yet another fall by Loki before we managed to hit the path again. Thanks Tankengine

We left The Woofer at home today, and set out for a day of caching in and around Kama Reserve. On the way we collected a few that had been on our list for a while. We had a great day sloshing through fields and discovering places we never would have been had it not been for geocaching! It’s funny how that keeps happening.

Chris solved this one a while ago, and it's been on our "To Find" list since then. We parked nearby and headed through the mud to GZ. A nice hide, and we left some goodies behind. Thanks TE!

Solved it for the MOM series. Had some problems first but with logical thinking and some tries it was done.
TFTC

Solved it for the Marathon of mysteries. Thanks.

Out and about, quick grab after bush bashing. Log signed and replaced. TFTC

I had solved this one a few weeks ago, but put it in the list of puzzles to collect when in the area. It doesn't often happen, but this puzzle was an instant identification (loved doing matchstick puzzles as a kid). Following a logical approach, the solution was presented quickly.
So this morning, geohound and I got up to chase a number of caches, including this. Once I arrived at the GZ, my GPS began swirling around, so I checked the hint and locked onto the spot. A quick ferret around the site and the cache was in hand. This being part of the Marathon of Mysteries series, it has opened up other global puzzles, which I have already started to tackle. So many puzzles...so little time!!! A nice problem to have. TFTC Tankengine

Solved it for the marathon of mysteries.

TFTC

I'd solved this one months ago and today I went for the find. GPS wouldn't settle at GZ but I decided on a couple of spots that fit the hint. Soon had CIH. TFTC

I enjoyed walk . Am catching up on caches solved and found. I enjoyed doing this puzzle. Signed the log.
Thank you Tankengine

Solved for the marathon of mysteries! Thanks for this puzzle.

Solved for Marathon of Mysteries.
This was quite a tough one for me, but finally got it with some help
from Braedy21 and AngelG27. Thanks!

#900

My grandad and I found this cache during the afternoon for my 900th! I mainly chose this cache for a milestone because of the great puzzle.

We parked near the cache and made the lengthy walk towards it. On the way, we realised we could have parked much closer, but we were up for a walk! The last 30m to the cache proved a bit difficult - through the thick jungle! We eventually made it and I found the cache fairly quickly - nice hide!
Yippee! Not long now until I hit the big K!

Our thanks to Tankengine!

Solved for GC4D92J Marathon Of Mysteries

Thanks

Am catching up on caches solved and found. I enjoyed doing this puzzle TE - nice one!

Found with Geoman on a little trip south to find some caches - keep my daily going and figure out how to use the new GPS.

Solved the puzzle last night - thought I had it almost done mentally, but decided a physical re-creation was needed to be sure - so borrowed some matches and made the coords work out pretty quickly. HypoHippo also came up with the answer pretty quickly.

Parked off the side of the nearby road this afternoon and tramped to the GZ - saw security people in the distance, so pleased I did not try to park more closely. Both the GPS (once we figured out that "next stage" = waypoint) and the iPhone saw us to with a few metres of the cache location. Sneaky hide TE! On the way out, I asked geoman why he was not using the caching path, like I was. He said (and I quote) "if land mines were going to be laid, they would be laid on paths like these". Sort of funny, and sort of not!

TFTC TankEngine and for keeping us on our toes!

Solved it for the Marathon of Mysteries. At first I made it too complicated for myself, but then I tried out the Australian way... Take it ease
That worked, green light for me! Thanks for the puzzle and kind regards from WayBay, Holland.

I had looked at this one a couple of times but never really focused on it and solved it. Today I decided to crack this one and make the collection. This afternoon, the skies opened up and rain decided to show its face, typical [:p]

I decided to shoot a text message over to specimenX to see if she wanted to join me in the find to add another TE find to our totals. The reply came back positive and we met at a said location. On arrival, we seen there was a wedding down the road and AFP patrolling. Its all good, we ain't doing anything illegal

We waited for a break in the rain and took off during a slow drizzle towards GZ. specimenX noticed the track to the GZ and soon we were in the vicinity. After a quick search, we soon had cache in hand. Log signed (no baggie on the book?), cache returned and back towards the car we went. We stood around chatting for a little while before departing ways and headed home.

Thanks for joining me specimenX, thanks for the puzzle and cache Tankengine another one bites the dust

I was just winding things up at work when the text came through from Rapidlywild asking if I'd like to join up to nab our respective dailys....of course!

I've looked at this in the past ages ago but it was nothing serious. But today I had another look...and strike a light! I came up with a set of coords that matched! (the check sums) - I was on fire! [:O)]

So with that I met up with RW near to GZ. Just as we got out of the cars it started bucketing down. But after a brief wait, the worst of it had passed so then off we strolled to GZ. We got close to GZ and I think RW wanted to go like a bull at a gate and go the straight line route I wasn't keen on taking I spied a more cacher friendly way into GZ so we went around and took that in. So then after a little bit of a search, RW came up with the goods for the signing [^] What??!! No trademark on the container!

Thanks for the neat little puzzle and for the hide, Tankengine Slowly but surely getting up to the TE ton!

Now we can set our house on fire, the matchstick are not longer needed for the puzzle, this one staring us in the eyes, but it toke a while before we saw it and sometime you see nothing at all Thanx for the puzzle, madness..........
Greeting from the Netherland (solving MOM)

Had this one solved, but struggled finding it. Seeing it was definitely back in action, I was keen to tick it off but took ages to find it. Tried another possibility l, but figured it had to be my original solution. Back I went for a good old fashioned rummage, then finally I uncovered it! Thanks for the madness TE, and you can ignore my email for help now!

Madness is right. Looking at it from a little distance it seemed some numbers were present, and after some "digital matchstick removal" I got to a number which seemed plausible. However, the geochecker at "Marathon of Mysteries" did not give a green light. Only after a friendly nudge from the CO the right answer was found. Thanks for the puzzle, sorry I am not in the neighborhood to try and pick it up .

Greetings from The Netherlands

Hello you all down under I got through most of the puzzle but needed a little nudge from the CO to get a green light. I visited the website during my quest of the "Marathon of Mysteries", GC4D92J. Sorry that picking up the actual cache will be somewhat problematic. But here's an idea, what if I start digging straight down, and one of you does the same over there, and then we can meet up in the middle

Found 8:55 pm with LuckyL10n. I had worked this out when we had done Tick Tock and fairly confident of what I thought the coords were. The checksum and match count all worked and the location was within the range as hinted. I like this type of puzzle. Arriving today at GZ, LuckyL10n had also now calculated, and we started to look along what seemed to be fairly dense entry. Finding a way through we soon located GZ where a suspicious location was found, taking the two opposite ends to look LuckyL10n was first to spot it. TFTC. LuckyL10n then bashed straight back out so much for the earlier dense bush view.

#2403 - 20:55; Solved this one over lunch a couple of weeks ago, but not really certain I had it nailed. MrDamage solved last week and was keen to test his calculations last night, but something else came up which meant we needed a quick park and grab last night. Tonight was the night and as MrDamage and I headed out on our nightly caching mission, we had our fingers crossed that we had jumped to the right conclusion with this one. Parked about 80 metres from our calculated GZ, but had to take a bit of a detour to find a path through the shrubbery. Finally reached GZ, where a short search soon saw cache in hand and log signed. Relieved, we took a slightly shorter but bushier path back to the geomobile for the trip home again. TFTC Tankengine

Working my way through Marathon of Mysteries, made rather a meal of this one. Thanks Tankengine for you advice.

This entry was edited by crosspath on Wednesday, 02 July 2014 at 21:41:58 UTC.

This one has been sitting in a pile to do for a while. Today we found a good place to park, got wet feet in the long grass, but found ourselves at the right spot. Log signed.
A nice puzzle cache Tankengine!

Thanks,

Domsky

KiwiFruitsNZ - Auckland, New Zealand logging this as a joint puzzle solve with MuzzaL53 (Nelson, New Zealand) . We are attempting to solve the Marathon of Mysteries and this puzzle was part of the series. Certainly I didn't solve it as quickly as the previous cacher and spent a little while playing with a drawing of matchsticks - but it was great fun and not a puzzle type I had come across before

Hopefully this is one of the Mysteries I can pick up one day

An easy puzzle. I didn't think they existed. I looked at the matchsticks, saw numbers, and didn't believe it could be that easy, so I was sort of convinced I must be wrong. Still, I went out and tried finding the cache, and wow, there it was. !!!
I dropped off a cute lighthouse TB, 'Weltenbummler - Globetrotter'.
I like easy puzzle caches. TFTC.

703 (264) Struggled a bit with this. Got some coords immediately, but they were incorrect, as I found out the hard way. Asked the CO for some clarification and produced some new coordinates. Today I found out that the second set of coords were correct (Yippee!). The drizzle was turning into something heavier as I made the find after lunch. Managed to keep everything dry though. Tks TE!

I got some of the numbers, and then hubby said "that's easy" and proceed to get the rest. Smartypants! I even made him count the number that he removed just to be sure. There were a few coords that could have come from this, but 2 were discounted immediately as they fell on private land. My hunch paid off with the first set, and I found the cache fairly easily in the evenign light. SL TNLN TFTC - it was a fun puzzle.

YEHAA... We got it, we thought we had it worked out prolly only to be discovered that it was missing, Ben on the watch list and as soon as it was reinstated Baja15 and I took the opportunity to have another look and came up smiling .
Great puzzle, and thanks for the PT.

Gotcha' this time, Yep we certainly looked there last time but today a cache was our reward. Thanks for another interesting puzzle and thanks for the fix T.E. SLTN..TFTC

Hmmm looks like cache is missing... Well, I'm not sure it's missing, but it can no longer be retrieved! So have replaced with a new one!

Forgot to look at the log again before attempting this, thought it was worth a hail mary search. Probably needs a look from the owner as its 2 years since last find?

Solved the puzzle and check sums worked out without too much difficulty once I realised the trick. At GZ, previous logs made sense, but the hint less so. Had a good look around before eventually giving up. Will check my answer and come back another day.

Worked out puzzle some time ago, collecting caches today, unfortunately this was not one of them, we looked for about 30 min. Looked over , under, and everything in between . We will look forward to trying this one once its been confirmed found. Cheers

Well The Rats and I thought that we had this one solved. Hwoever when we arrived, there was nothing matching the clue. So we will have to try again.

On the way in thankfully we chose a sensible entrance after seeing how dense the growth was here, but alas, a nasty thorny bush grabbed ahold of my arm stabbing and scratching me anyway . We searched for quite a long time for this one - over 20 mins I reckon. Finally as the_proton exclaimed that he was "over it" - luckily I had one more burst of energy in me and guess what I found, YES! TFTC.

This was another of those "solved a while ago" caches, but I think I might still have some matchsticks dancing in my head from the puzzle. We headed towards the cache, decided the direct approach was looking a bit difficult so headed on and soon found our way to approach from the other side. Much better!

And then we set to looking. And looking. And more looking. And a bit more looking. We searched under, over and around, pulled things apart and generally disassembled the area. Just as we were considering giving up, shinydragon came upon the cache (well that wasn't that hard in the end).

Thanks for another great puzzle Tankengine.

A beautiful spring day to be out caching. Solved this puzzle a while ago so it was time to go and find it today. And find it we did. We decided to walk around the long way rather than push our way straight through the scrub. A good decision considering how thick the scrub was. At GZ we quickly had the cache in hand and signed the log. TFTC.

Miss Stormcatcher loved puzzles like this growing up. Numbers Started to be revealed and before long all the required match sticks were removed. Now to pull Mr Stormcatcher away from his studying to grab a cache and have a stretch. We followed a likely path which lead us through a spooky dark area with lots of thorny bushes. Pushed through and found a clearing and an likely GZ was spotted and we narrowed in on the cache. As usual we found a much friendlier path to get back to the car. Thanks TE for a great puzzle.

1132. After dropping the daughter off for the local horsey event and having some time to kill, I thought I would go exploring. I turned on the Iphone app and "NO" network service! Arrrrrhhhh. So I then checked for some saved puzzles and this one appeared. I had calculated a couple of options so went to check them out. The first wasnt real promising, so I headed for the second. After checking out a previous log, I thought this one looks better as it matched the terrain mentioned. I soon spotted the hide and performed the log signing duties. Thanks TE for the cache and the adventure.

So how many different types of thorns can you encounter in getting to just one cache?

Like usual, saw a trail, and followed it in. 30m away from the GZ, the trail goes the wrong way. So I head straight for it. Thorns that hooked and an inch long.... 2 inch long thorns like needles!?!? And some blackberry for good measure.

I now look like a feral cat took a particular disliking to me.

Thanks..... I think.

Added needs pen to listing...

Lovely day today but coldest.... Great enjoyed trip around at curtin....easy to find as hide very well, thanks

Actually solved this one a year ago (with a little prod from TE) but only just got around to trying to find it. After 5 minutes tramping though thorny bushes amongst fallen trees, we backed out and reconsidered our route to the GZ. Reading over some of the previous logs, I can't help noticing that we're not the first ones to make the same error. Anyway, once we thought in a more roundabout way, a lovely walk to the GZ revealed itself. At the coords, there was so much leaf litter and bark around that we were a bit stumped for a while. But persistance paid off. Loved this one. Thanks TE.

Great puzzle, we had been putting this one off for awhile. Today while driving home we thought why not. So FF2 headed in while FF1 stayed in the car with the geohounds, which was the right decision in hindsight as the approach taken by FF2 was the incorrect one...she has the scratches to support her wrong decision.
TFTC and the puzzle Tankengine

5th find today. The area is so overgrown.

Mystery cache 5 out of 5 for the day, after Justjessie went on a cache solving spree last week.

Atempted access from wrong side and had to retreat and walk around to the cache. Then made a lucky quick find as there is quite a bit of ground cover there at the momment...

Solved a pile of these last week and headed out with O319 to find them. This was number 5 out of 5 and the most rewarding as I was not sure of the solution. TFTC

The closest unfound to home and that being a Tankengine cache - unbelievable. Always overlooking it on the map but now that I am using GSAK it kept pooping up on top. This was a fun puzzle to solve. Quickly solved and looked like a likely spot on the satellite picture. Turns out paths are fairly overgrow so I had more doubts when I was nearing reading more of the logs instead of searching. Once I put the phone away and went for it cache was found right aways as it was a bit exposed. SL and recovered a bit. Looks like some other cachers came soon after me the same day . Well done finding it. Thanks Tankengine for a great cache.

This was about as hard as A tale of two caches. When I first saw my coordinates for the cache, it seemed ridiculous! Then I realized my mistake, and the next GZ seemed a bit better. The first of 4 finds today. Thanks for the find.

This entry was edited by Nemo4 on Saturday, 14 April 2012 at 08:06:13 UTC.