Cross Number - Melbourne Glen Iris, Victoria, Australia
By flukey71 on 13-Jun-14. Waypoint GC56WYG

I found this today on my Mega Walk #31 - a 22,500 step walk through Gardiner, Glen Iris and Ashburton. I had three goes at solving this one. The first time, I got a little way through, the second I got to the end with an error but the third, I got it. It was a fair while back since I made the solve but I got the prize today and the cache s still in good nick, despite now being over 10 years old and almost a year since the last finder. Thanks from D B-A

Found with Moonb1. I struggled with this one and eventually Paf'd for some help which was fortunately forthcoming. All is well with the hide.

Having finals with Alansee - located cache easily and then quickly ejected out of my hand as some earwigs were guarding.Thanks for the cache flukey71

We headed to Melbourne today to attend the GIFF Event and another important event close by but not before collecting a few presolved puzzles in the area. This was the first cache for the day which like many other Mysteries, has been solved for a very long time. The puzzle solver of the team enjoys math solving so really enjoyed the puzzle. At GZ the fit Triton made the find and we now have our name in the logbook.Thanks very much flukey71 for the Mystery placement.

Chook travelled down to Melbourne for a uni reunion, so of course some caching was planned with her son LazyAde as well. This nice little number puzzle was solved quite a while ago, waiting for such a trip. No problems finding the cache today with LazyAde doing the honours. TFTC and puzzle flukey71.

I had to visit Camberwell, so I grabbed the GPS to do some caches afterwards. The Cross Number was solved some time ago, but it was only today that it actually cropped up on my radar. Once at GZ, the cache was an easy find.



My thanks to flukey71 for the cache.

Second DNF cleanup of the day. No idea why we didn't find it last time.

Finally fixed this DNF that was bugging me for so long! No idea how I missed it last time.

This was my final find for the day as if looked like heavy rain was threatening. I solved the puzzle some time ago and was pleased to make a quick find. Thanks for placing the cache

In the area for sport and I thought I would collect a few more geocaches in the Stonnington LGA for a challenge I am working on.

I also needed a Mystery cache for today for the Puzzle Calendar Challenge. This was my closest pre-solved Mystery, so I come to this one first. Very busy area, but quiet near the final. It was taking a little while for my GPSr to settle and before it did, I found it.

Thanks for the cache Flukey 71
Hunter

Tftc! Lots of fun solving the puzzle and hunting for the cache

I’d started solving this a couple of months ago, but made a mistake part way through.
I started again yesterday and realised I’d made a different error and managed to backtrack just a little and work my way though to the end.
A simple find today after going for a walk to wait out a nearby muggle.
Thanks

Initially I thought there was some trick with the puzzle but there was no trick. I just had to put my head down and get stuck in.
When we arrived at GZ, it looked like a fair bit of water had come through and we were worried about the caches condition. But again there was no problem. It was safely tucked away.
Thanks flukey71 for the nice puzzle and cache.
Chiefton!!!

This doesn't seem to be my day today. Two DNFs in a row. I tried various spots and opted to intensify the search at higher grounds since I could tell the lower part gets flooded. No luck with any of the potential hiding holes or branches.

My kind of puzzle to solve (didn't take too long, IIRC), but a failure at GZ.

I signed this cache earlier in the week on a joint caching trip but had not solved the puzzle at the time. This particular puzzle got my attention as I enjoy both maths and logic style puzzles.

I had some time to attempt solving this after a late dinner. I got stuck a couple of times after incorrectly assuming that a couple of the questions had too many answers to narrow them down. Surprisingly one of them only had two possibilities given some other consequential info, when I would have guessed it might have had dozens of not hundreds of possibilities.

The witching hour had already struck but I was determined to complete this before going to bed, and complete it I did.

With the puzzle solved and a set of coordinates that looked about where I had found the cache previously, I was now comfortable to log my find!

Thanks flukey71 for placing this gamepiece in the wild for us to find.

A bit of time to kill before heading out to dinner for my son’s birthday.
I like this sort of puzzle, and happy today to finally be able to turn this into a smiley.
Well done on your first cache. A nice location too. Quite warm out here today, so was tempted to jump in the water.
Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache, flukey71

TFTC! Had a lot of fun solving this one. Can across this puzzle during lockdowns and started, printed a few copies and got some of the number solved. Nicer weather got in the way and more time to be outside. Sorting through papers on my desk this afternoon, and finished it off. Didn’t take too long as I had the right approach!

Wish there was more of these puzzles. Still some daylight left and hadn’t found any caches today, so off on public transport, and found it easily. Fab point for the puzzle!

It must be half a century ago that I last did one of these puzzles.
I had several attempts at solving this one, but made mistakes along the way.
The final attempt took about 90 minutes and gave me very plausible results.
At the GZ the cache was found in minutes.
Thanks for the cache flukey71

I had looked at this puzzle many times over the several years since it was published. I managed to work out a few numbers but during lockdown, with nothing much else to do, I worked out enough numbers to pinpoint a location that looked good on Google maps.

Today the geobeagles needed walkies and I needed my daily cache so we dropped by for a look. We parked down the road and walked the short distance to GZ. We noticed a likely spot and worked out the easiest approach to retrieve the cache. My friend held the beagles while I retrieved the cache and signed the log at 3:50 pm. TNLN. I then returned the cache to its hiding spot. I used hand sanitiser before and after finding the cache.

Thanks flukey71 for the very clever and fun puzzle and the well-hidden cache. After finding the cache we went for a walk in the nearby parklands and saw lots of rainbow lorikeets (see accompanying photo). I really enjoyed the puzzle, the good hide and the lovely walk in a very picturesque location so this cache gets a fave from me.

Today we found Cross Number - Melbourne on our travels. This has been on our list of solveds for a while and today was the day to come sign the log!

Thanks flukey71 for being part of our geocaching fun.

I started working on this one a few years ago but had put it in the 'to be completed' pile after some fruitless work. With Covid-19 restrictions in place though, I had another look at my previous workings and at long last, I obtained that little bit of info I needed resulting in a set of coordinates that looked pretty darn good.

I decided to take a bike ride to have a search for it on this glorious winter's day, a bike ride of a length that might no longer be permitted for quite some time courtesy of the 5 km radius for exercise restriction to be imposed tonight and once at GZ, I was soon signing the log at 14:55.

TNLNSL, although our geocaching licence had a visit to mark our first find of August. Thanks (at last ) flukey71.

I have had a couple of goes at solving this puzzle over the years but deemed it way too hard. Being forced to stay home to avoid the covid monster I decided to have another go. It was slow but surprisingly logical and solvable. This is one of my favorite puzzles. I was not able to grab the cache immediately after solving, but corona is under control so today was the day. Great spot for a cache

Heading to the city for an appointment, and some
Lab caches with Micaparamedic, we detoured to find a few solved puzzles. This was second on our list today. Thanks for placing the cache flukey71.

Like others I printed this out last year and got a few numbers from trial and error as you have to do. I sometimes start the Suduko’s in the weekend newspapers but don’t always finish them. My patience seems to run out or I get frustrated by the time it takes. At a recent puzzle solving function I did ask for some help for this one. Was given a few clues to help finish the puzzle to reveal the desired solution. I hoped I was right with no checker but on the map it seemed a very realistic gz. I was in the area tonight - and in the dark after 5 mins ,and having read a few logs , I found the excellent natural hide. All dry. Added my name to another puzzle. Thanks flukey71 for the frustrating cross number puzzle - by the comments of 22 down it sounds a labour of the love of math by you too ! ( Everybody’s been waiting for the sequel! )

Solved a while back. Glad to see it is still here. Picked up a trackable. HNT

We had parked not far away to look for another cache and noticed that this wasn't far away, so we took the lovely walk here. We had to be careful, as a nearby school had recently finished for the day. Thanks for the cache and the lovely stroll.

Don't know when we solved this one but we were at a cache nearby and noticed that this had solved coordinates. A nice stroll and quick find. Thanks for the cache.

Not sure how how l overlooked this one but this was one l found a while ago but forgot to log it. Had some time up my sleeve today and decided to head into town to grab few caches. This one was attempted ages ago but didn't get too far. Fast forward a couple of years and tried again and seemed to get something. In the area today and swung past the gz and managed a quick find. Happy to tick this one off my to do list, thanks flukey71 for the puzzle and the hide.

Found with Winniethebear. Got a DNF in June 2017. We did look at night at that time and couldn't find anything. Tonight we had a bit more light, but was fading. It wasn't long before we had the cache in hand. A very challenging puzzle and nice hidy hole. TFTC.

Found with legoman9x. He did all the solving and finding..I just tagged along :p nice snug hide! Tftc

flukey71! How do you do it? How do you construct such a puzzle? How do you lead through, placing stumbling block after stumbling block until there is only one path through and a unique solution. I am in awe of this. Needless to say, it took quite some time to solve this puzzle, but I got there in the end and had to go out as soon as possible to make the find. I wasn't going to invest so much time in the puzzle and not get the find. Today I grabbed geotoddler from daycare and we went out for this one. Unfortunately it was getting dark when we got to GZ. Fortunately it didn't take us too long to find it. Geotoddler was thrilled to make a swap (well I made the swap and she got the spoils). Many thanks flukey71 for a terrific challenge for the old grey matter and a smiley on the map.

This puzzle! Haha, this puzzle has been in my to-do pile for about three years! I'd filled out about a quarter of it on my own but I couldn't seem to get any further.
A few weeks ago I was with my brother (he got the brains in the family, I got the looks.... I wish!), and asked him to have a crack. A little while later, it was all filled out.
Today it was time to make the find, so I went for a walk with the same colleague who accompanied me out this way a few months ago. Always good to catch up about work and home, we were so busy talking we almost passed GZ - I fired up the app and it was only 25m away. As I got closer I spotted something and there it was. I found you, at long last!
Thanks for the cool puzzle flukey71.

After attending the [EOM Morning Coffee Kickstart](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC7TB7M_eom-morning-coffee-kickstart) event I decided it was about time to cross this number off.
Interesting camouflage.
Thanks for the puzzle and the cache flukey71
.
.
.
[Big Things Are Happening.](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75D90_the-parkville-event-2018) [Are you joining in the fun?](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75D90_the-parkville-event-2018)
Remember to log your "Will Attend" for [GC75D90](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75D90_the-parkville-event-2018) [The Parkville Event](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75D90_the-parkville-event-2018)
[17th and 18th November 2018](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75D90_the-parkville-event-2018)
[Royal Park, Parkville, Victoria - Australia](https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75D90_the-parkville-event-2018)

I was in Melbourne with geoson for a few days. The lad was busy with some sort of gaming convention thingy at the Convention Centre in the heart of the City so I set about making plans to tackle a few caches on my travels. Fortunately I was mobile and able to hit up some relatives for accommodation in West Footscray and Croydon which allowed a few easy distance day trips!

I had solved a massive amount of puzzles (many more than I needed) and also targeted old caches, letterboxes, a few GCA caches and any others I happened to be passing by.

I claimed the smiley on this cache on my travels. Cheers and TFTC.

G’day there flukey71, I was in this area today and found your cache Cross Number - Melbourne GC56WYG. I added my name to the log book at 4:13 pm on 17 May 2018. A huge thanks to you for placing this cache here for us (and others) to find!

After the challenging but enjoyable puzzle was solved yesterday, we walked down here early this morning to make a quick find. TFTC!

This one has been on my solve list for way too long and as I was passing nearby I thought a little detour was in order. Nice hide and a good size container. Thanks Flukey71.

I solved this puzzle a little while back and had been waiting for a time when I was back in a neighbourhood with which I am very familiar. I went to high school up the hill at Korowa and a friend from my year level lived near gz. Today, in the hunt for some unlove, and passing through on our way to Prahran, I persuaded Daddy Long Legs to detour slightly and let me have a go. We pulled up in the perfect place, waited till the prams passed and commenced searching right on 0m. No success. We expanded our search then expanded again when I spotted a really pretty feature of nature.......then decided to have a look even further afield. Removing an unusual piece of camouflage turned up a happy little box! Hoorah! Unlove!! 352 days in fact!!!! TFTC and the puzzle flukey71.

Checked up on Dad's cache - all well.

This took me a long time to solve and found hints from other peoples work on it. I doubt I would have come up with any co-ords without their help. finally got around to getting to the co-ords, but had no such luck, there was a weird stacking of sticks, but couldn't see a cache in there.

Having had a solve for this a while back we headed over for a short break to make the find. We parked close and soon spotted a touch of camo to make the find. We added our name and re hid. TFTC.

We enjoyed working our way through this different type of puzzle. It wasn't long before we had a plausible set of coordinates. Today we went to look for the cache. Our GPS wanted us down near a swiftly flowing creek (it had been raining over night) but geocaching sense told us that another location was more likely. A search of this location revealed the cache. The cache and contents were in good condition. Thanks flukey71 for the puzzle and cache.

Nice location. Thanks for the puzzle

AWESOME puzzle, I was obsessed until I had finished. I went for a desperate search for hints a few times, and once messed it up and had to start over (utter devastation) but got there in the end. To anyone else having trouble: just concentrate and go through the clues one by one and you'll find a way to narrow down the possibilities. Felt fantastic to solve it. I think it's amazing how easy it must be for mathematicians to use complex combinations of numbers and patterns and options, I wish I were like that!!
As for the cache, there were a few spiders and earwigs around that I had to brush away but a good hiding spot. TFTC!

Very fun puzzle I really enjoyed solving this. Some of the clues are rather frustrating but eventually got there after a bit of work. The hide may need to be checked as there were alot of bugs. Very nice spot TFTC

This was an enjoyable puzzle that I have worked on at different times, chipping away with the numbers unlocking themself. With my answer all sorted today was the day to have a try at finding the container. This is a lovely location, and one that I knew was here, but had never actually visited before.
Thanks to flukey71 for the cache.

yes yes yes!! #30 out of 30 for the Mystery Cache Monthly Challenge (GC5MTHY), and what better than completing a challenge and saving the best till last. What an excellent puzzle! I've never seen these before and within 5 minutes of starting to solve it, I knew I was hooked. Took heart from danozz's log that it only took an hour to solve.
.... an hour!?!?!?
Including one false start where I messed up one of the answers which pretty much fouled up the rest of the puzzle losing an hour or so before I discovered the mistake and started again, this puzzle took me at least 6 hours over two days to solve.
Great puzzle flukey, a favourite from us! TFTC

Spent an hour at home working on this puzzle, once I got started I couldn't stop. It reminded me a lot of complicated sudoku work, slowly solving just 1 possible number in each box to slightly change the way you look at another clue. It all flowed smoothly and I managed to make it all the way without a mistake! Easy enough hide at GZ.

Out Caching with PantherX. fun day of cahcing all around. Sorry, took me a while to gwt around to publishing the log on this one.

#1502 @16:33

I was out caching with Hawley3 this afternoon and we figured the cold weather might make it easier to search some of the parks we've been logging DNFs' at previously. We didn't really have a plan but we ended up with 4 finds which wasn't too bad for a quick run.

This puzzle certainly kept me occupied for many an evening and it took quite a bit of trial and error to finally get some working coords. I had visited this cache late one night previously but didn't make the find on that occasion. Today, in daylight, it was a straightforward park and grab. Thanks for the cache, flukey71!

My plan was to find enough mysteries to qualify for the monthly mystery challenge cache but I fell short by a few.
This was the next on my list of solved mystery caches to be attempted today.
On parking fairly close by and with not a muggle to be seen it was a quick grab, sign and return before any arrived.
Thanks flukey71for this cache.

Looked at this puzzle many times, always getting cross and putting it away. Eventually, I reached out to a friend who gave me his spreadsheet, but I still struggled with only a few numbers locked in. Became cross and put it away again.

Yesterday, I took it out again and this time, found a few more numbers, enough to make a little search of an area that turned out to be wrong. Reached out to another friend who pointed me in the right direction, so now I had the spot marked x. Today, on a drive with L-Plate daughter, I came upon GZ and found the cache in its nice little hidey hole.

Thanks for the cache, flukey71. After many hours on this one, it is good to cross it off!

Solving the puzzle made our brains hurt...but after a few false starts we got it all out this morning. Coordinates were spot on for a easy find. Geokid took parachute man and left domino. Great puzzle to challenge us!

A week ago, Mrs Tokass asked Mrs LinearZZ to help solve the crossword coords. Mrs T had figured out a few numbers but Mrs L worked day and night to complete the puzzle almost, she thought, down to a searchable area. Today was the test and the two teams approached a possible GZ anticipating a widening pattern. It was not to be as Mr T said "Here 'tis", an easier find than expected at 11:05! TFTC

The puzzle kept us going but the cache was easy to find

I had worked this out last week and today I was out and about on the bike in the right area so I decided to grab it. I really enjoyed doing the puzzle...it plays to my strengths. A quick find once at the GZ. TFTC.

Find #717

I had seen the puzzle before but never really gave it a go. I printed off a few copies earlier in the week and started to work on it. I tackled it in a few stages with much iteration to get digit by digit and rule numbers out here and there. I still had to take the leap of faith near the end and had a few options for GZ. When I picked up the puzzle the next day I was able to narrow it down to one set of coordinates. I had been here recently but took the opportunity to do a mini puzzle pick up run this morning. Plenty of rain around and the creek flowing strong but no problems with making the find here. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log. Thanks for a clever puzzle and for the cache flukey71. A favourite point from me.

15220
After caching the coastal trail in the morning I picked my daughter up from Monash (Clayton campus) and took her to an exam at the racecourse. I had solved this one at home (in the US) and it took me quite some time so I was happy to be in the area and to make the find

TFTC - TNLNSL

Super puzzle that took me a few goes, screwing up a couple of pieces of paper in my attempts, today I was in the area grabbing some other caches, this was a quick find, grabbed tb , thanks for the puzzle and the cache fav point

Finally, a puzzle right up my alley! Back in Number Theory class at Uni I used to do the crosswords in the newspaper because the class was boring. Oh the irony of having to use some of that theory in a crossword itself.

I first gave this a shot a few months back but about half way through realised I had made a mistake, and backtracking was going to be difficult. So I got around to it again last night and plotted out many of the numbers. This morning with clearer eyes and a bit of deduction I worked through the rest and solved the puzzle. Co-ords look reasonable so I grabbed the bike and rode down for a quick find.

A nice cache there Flukey. Good level of difficulty and cross-referencing of clues to make you think.

Dropped off trackable.

This entry was edited by paultheball on Sunday, 28 September 2014 at 08:18:23 UTC.

Spiffy- brought this puzzle to my attention a while back so I printed a couple of copies and my dad an I worked on it a bit at a time. I could not solve one number and ended up with 3 possibilities but a likely GZ was determined. I few weeks later I went to pick up the cache but made the rookie mistake of going tontge published coordinates and searched for 10 minutes. I realised what I had done on my way back to work and recieved the appropriate mocking from spiffy-. Today I got it right and finally was able to sign the log. Thanks Flukey71 for the cache and the puzzle.

Belated log - found with drjim7. Forgot the yoga mat.

At my first attempt at this puzzle I could not narrow down my answers to just one. I stored the most likely looking one, then over a week or two made two rushed attempts at solutions which ended up in disaster. Yesterday and this morning I did a careful solution, doucmenting every logical step. This helped as I made one error but was soon able to correct it. My soltuion was the same as my first one. At least I was more certain this one was correct this time.
Early this afternoon JosieY and I popped over to GZ and confirmed my work was done correctly. Thanks flukey71 for a good challenging puzzle.

When this was published in my 10km zone I had to take a look at it sooner rather than later. I had a quick look that day at work and found a couple of numbers and then another quick look a day or so later and didn't find much else.
My caching buddy TurnerFamilyFTG then took it to continue on with it and a few days later managed to get everything except for one number which when narrowed down on the map didn't look like too much of an area to search.
Today I needed a cache for my P366 so a quick few minute trip up the freeway without my buddy to arrive near my list of GZ's and after jumping out of the car, a 10 second search had the cache in hand in the first place I looked. Very happy, back to 6 items left in my 10km zone again.
Thanks flukey71 for the cache, the tough (for me) puzzle, the hunt and the fun.

Find #1452. Found @ 19:05.

When this was published, I showed the puzzle to The Good Lady Wife. She was intrigued by the challenge and we both spent quite a while collaborating on a solution. We got most of it out before life got in the way and the puzzle was put to one side.

A few nights later, I picked it up again and eventually got numbers that fit. The coordinates looked plausible so put them into my GPSr for the next time I was in the area.

Tonight on the way home, I engineered my track to include this (and another caches) location. My GPSr decided to lead me on a merry dance in the dark, but I soon zeroed in on the correct spot.

A great puzzle that we had a lot of fun solving, and for that you get a favourite point.

Took nothing, left trackable, signed log and visited some other trackables.
Thanks for the cache flukey71.

Found with trailrunning on another Monday caching adventure, It was a rather cold one and we put in a few KM's picking up some caches. Thanks flukey71 for the cache.

On a very cold afternoon and night, Rebel Acts and I collected this cache. I enjoyed solving this one to a point, but I had enough to go by for us to find it today. Thanks for the find and smilie

I was checking on puzzles I hadn't solved yet and happened upon this one; I had missed it when it was published. I do love a good crossword and am pretty good at them but I do also love number puzzles and this one was a great one that really tested the logic and number solving part of the mind.

The first challenge was finding a starting point and that took a little while but once I had that out of the way it was just a matter of crunching the numbers, step by step, filling in the blanks, until I had the last set of numbers to complete - and they didn't fit. Attempt one was a failure !! Going back over my workings I discovered my mistake and so started the whole process again. This time I didn't make the same mistake and finally I had the Cross Number filled in. I then extracted the numbers from the puzzle into coordinates and GZ looked very promising.

I parked and followed the direction the GPS was pointing. Exact coords lead me to a nice easy find.
Well done on your first cache flukey71 and a really nice puzzle too.
A fav for me and thanks.

I gave this some time during the week and only managed to work out a couple of numbers. Still I was feeling lucky today so I just lined up the couple of numbers I had and walked in a straight line until I found a hiding spot. It only took me 10 minutes!

Thanks for the fun puzzle and for the buzz of brute forcing a cache find today.

R - B

Found at 14:08
So after a couple of false starts I finally got the numbers this morning so I headed out early to pick it up. Quickly found once at gz although the terrain was a bit more than 1.5 with a little rain. Once signed I just had to wait out a couple of dog walkers before replacing.
Thanks flukey71 for the puzzle and the cache. I too like the number puzzles more than the word ones.

Solved! Ha ha! A tricky puzzle.
I'm impressed it only took me a day and chuffed to have got co-ords spot on.
It can most definitely be done with a little help from a computer, for the fancy numbers, a calculator, a pencil and an eraser! Even if there was no help from hubby!

Nice hide too.

Thanks Flukey71

FTF gone - I saw this one published this morning and gave it a bit of a go but decided to leave it for one of our regular puzzling sessions. However, a phone call later in the morning changed my mind and I was happy to tag along with G' of GJMMelb who had crunched the numbers enough to get a workable area to search. In the end his possible coordinates were only 30 metres or so off and our cacher instincts lead us straight to GZ for an easy find!

This entry was edited by quiet1_au on Saturday, 21 June 2014 at 03:51:06 UTC.

*FTF* JMelb alerted me when this cache was published. I had nothing on so started to look at it. It proved more difficult than I anticipated. I started to google and check lists and got some numbers. Rechecking the puzzle I did not think it was actually solvable (for a unique set of co-ords). Having some of the numbers I had a look at likely locations and found one. I rang Quiet1_au to see if he was interested in a FTF hunt and convinced him to come out and help look. What could have been along search was made somewhat easier by knowing where the surrounding caches were. As we were walking to the calculated Gz Q spied a likely spot and indeed it was. I soon had the cache and the very generous FTF prize in hand. Thanks flukey71
GJMMelb

Published - Congratulations on your first cache placement.

Adding 'Alfie' trackable