Quest for a new cipher Franklin, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By Plofessor on 01-Jul-14. Waypoint GC582HJ

I had calculated GZ quite a while ago and on my wander this morning I headed over. Location matched the description and the check sum but no cache to be found. This may be because I suck at finding hanging bisons, but given the length since last found I thought it best to post!

This cache was in a park and I reckon some kid took it.

Goodbye to my first hide.

What a shame. This was a great puzzle!

I wandered past this one the other day and saw that it had gone. CO might want to replace it.

#2244 I've started to look at some of these decoding puzzles. I've never been much good at them, but maybe with a bit of practise. I found this one to be a good step along the way.
I dropped by at lunchtime today on the way out to Fishwyck for emergency coffee bean supplies.
TFTC Plofessor

I like the way the description explained what had to be done for this puzzle. - I'm sure some of the other puzzlers out there would have just presented the numbers and let cachers go down all sorts of tracks! Solving still took a little while, but all quite elegant really. Today, made a quick find at GZ. All good. Thanks Plofessor.

I've looked at this many times and gone "ehhhh"

Suddenly, I find myself attacking puzzles, with close to 50 in my "solved, but needs collection" pile.

This, however, was not one of them. I re-read what was at stake. Frequency Analysis is one of my first ports of call, then I realised the next step, and then it all fell together quite nicely.

Having Co-Ords and a want to collect a cache tonight, collecting this was a no brainer. I arrived at GZ, and the container shone right back in the torchlight. Well, that was anti-climatic!

Log quickly signed and on my way again.

What an awesome puzzle. Favorited! TFTC!

#1137. 133 days in a row.

I stopped by this area after work, so that I could keep my streak going. I'd solved the puzzle a while ago, but hadn't got around to picking it up. Today was the day and it was a fairly easy find.

I set about solving some 'on route' puzzles in preparation for our geocaching visit to Canberra. This one had me stumped for a while but I eventually worked it out.
Gz was very quite today which made for an easy search and find. Thanks Plofessor
SL. TFTC

#5627 @1945
After this evenings Black Mountain caching excursion with ZQX, I dropped him home and then wandered over to find this one which I'd solved quite easily a couple of months ago. I liked the puzzle - very clever. TFTC.

Found with Coybear2000. Solved the puzzle some time ago and today went for the find. Didn't take long before we had CIH. Thanks for the puzzle - I'm giving it a favourite - and TFTC

#2 with Trodectus for the day. CIH soon after arriving at GZ. TFTC

Wow what a puzzle! I haven't found many as I am terrible at them, and I was almost as bad at this one too [8)]

I started working it out and couldn't think of a quick way to do it rather than doing it manually and guessing which would take a few hours to work out every number. After pondering over it for a few days I came back and did some googling. Finally I found a way to decipher the numbers with ease! What a great method, but then came the rest of it. I realised the pattern in the letters and slowly started to work out how the coords came from this mess.

I was super excited while working it out, and dropped here the very next day. Cache took about 5 mins to spot, gosh these geocaches always elude me and I usually take forever to find them. Then once you spot it you kick yourself as it seems to stand out in the open!

Adding a favourite for this one, loved how the method was described and I had to put it to work! Hopefully I will get better as puzzles soon.

Once we located the correct source the puzzle fell into place logically, which is something the Doctor always appreciates. The find, being just a stone's throw from our abode for the night - & having recently been found by our "landlord" - was the first on our hit list this morning. We did manage to search in all the wrong places before reading the description (why do we never do that first?); then it was "how could we have possibly missed seeing that"! TFTC&P Plofessor.

Took a while but finally solved and had a chance to go for this one this evening. Walked to GZ however once i arrived was a few places i thought i should look. After reviewing the cache again i knew where i needed to look and spotted the container immediately

TFTC Plofessor

I enjoyed the puzzle. Very nicely done.
As I had done the puzzle a while ago, I couldn't find the cache for quite a while until I reread the last paragraph of the description. Was only reading the hint. TFTC Plofessor.

This entry was edited by sacada on Wednesday, 06 May 2015 at 05:35:36 UTC.

This puzzle I can appreciate. The technique is explained and it's my task to figure out how to apply the technique from there. I'm not fond of the 'guess what technique I used' puzzles. Solved on the weekend and came past to sign the log this afternoon.

The fourth find whilst passing through the area, collecting a few puzzles. I had solved this one when it came out without too many difficulties but had overlooked finding it almost everytime I was out this way. Today whilst travelling through the area I took the opportunity to find this one. Once I arrived at GZ, the cache was found very quickly. Log signed and cache replaced. TFTC Plofessor!

My sort of puzzle! Tells you exactly what to do, just have to go through the workings [^]. Much easier than those elusive logic jumps! So in short order, we had a set of coords but it's taken us until today to make the find. After a bruised ego with 3/6 dnfs yesterday, it was nice to finally find something . Pagan spotted it in no time. Thanks Plofessor

#1273 Solved the puzzle a while ago but decided to pick this one up this afternoon after school. I stopped out front of where I thought the cache was, and the monkeys ran and collected a quick find. When we got home to log the find, I discovered that I had turned down the wrong street and the girls had found "Wally's Walk" instead.

Tonight on the way back from picking up some groceries, the big monkey and I stopped in, this time on the right street. We walked around for a minute or two without any luck. I began read out previous finder's logs, when the big monkey gave me that "tsk" noise that every embarrassing father will know well from their teen daughter. She walked straight up to me, reached past my shoulder to claim the find that was right behind me.

SL TNLN TFTC

Yay! I found my first cache... It was fun and not too hard. don't really know what else I'm supposed to say.

Solved by the brains trust (who is still away himself) before heading off for a recent trip but had to wait til I returned and had a reason to head over this side of town to collect. With lots of new caches on offer, spent the day out an about and headed past his one after a hoot of a time at the last one.

Not a bad effort for a first cache.........thanks for the continuing nightmare that puzzles are. Fav point added....

8702 + 999 = 9701. Found on the way home from work today.

This was one of those puzzles that slowly but surely you get through and when the final coords appear there is a sense of satisfaction ! The location was certainly good for me to get a cache find this evening. I walked up to GZ at the right angle and spotted the cache pretty quickly - happy about that !

Thanks Plofessor !

TNLN - TFTC !!

Cheers....

Well Kevin, it's very creative but I'm afraid that your cipher is never going to catch on for commercial use. Not too difficult to reverse the plaintext though, once you find a good place to start from and work outwards! I had a suspicion about what I was looking for at GZ, and it paid off. I'm starting to even be able to find these hides in the dark! Not too good at signing my name in the dark though, so that's going to look scrawly.

TNLN - Thanks Plofessor!

Found with Kittykatch. Wow that was a hard puzzle! Lucky finally worked it out and today Kittykatch made the find for us TFTC

Found with Mr Roo today on an afternoon cache run. We were ready to go and watch a movie for a puzzle cache for next weekend and found we had a bit of time to spare. Out to Gunghalin to pick up a few unfound caches. Thanks a lot - nice one

Hadn't got around to solving this one during a day out and about between (and directly underneath) rain showers on the weekend with Noikmeister, however as it was on his list I helped him search. We were discussing what on earth the clue meant and hadn't any idea at the time but now in retrospect (of course) it all makes perfect sense.

Had an hour free tonight (!!!!!!!!!) so after reading the listing dutifully followed the instructions and bingo out popped a nice solution. Thankfully I could see exactly where the instructions were telling me to seek the treasure (such a scrabble freak), and in less time than expected out popped a nice solution. Backwards but now solved and found - even though it was found and solved.... or maybe I found land doves.... then again, no dads loved fun.

Gets a fav from me. Thanks Plofessor.

My 34th last unfound ACT puzzle. 33 to go.

I solved this not long after it came out and thought I had a way to short cut the solving procedure, but it didn't turn out that it worked and I just ended up working through it as the cache page suggested. A unique and fun puzzle!

Today I went out in the drizzle with BatGirl after the rain put our bush caching adventure on hold. I have no idea what the clue is meant to mean, but I found the cache easily anyway.

Thanks Plofessor.

once you relise only 3 numbers can come from the answer it wasn't that hard
get setup well done and thankyou

I liked this puzzle, it was a bit tedious but it was actually solvable. Nice hide too. TFTC

Second souvenir of the day. SL TFTC

I solved this one not long after it was published. I knew straight away what I had to do to solve this one so off I went With the assistance of a couple of handy websites and good ol' Excel, it wasn't long before the coords started to appear. Then with checksums checked out and a good looking spot on Google Earth, up went the coords to GPS.

So after a big day in the lab, I decided to take advantage of the mild evening and swing by this one on the way home from work. Found a convenient place to park nearby then it was on with the torch and off I went to start the search, where it wasn't long before the cache was in hand for the signing

Congrats on your first cache and thanks Plofessor! I really enjoyed this clever puzzle-fave from me

first find on a day put with allrounder who talked me through the details of this one...bring on the coat tails...TFTC

This entry was edited by Shadow! on Saturday, 19 July 2014 at 07:51:04 UTC.

Found @ 1:16pm with Shadow! after footy on a windy afternoon

I enjoyed solving this puzzle (it gets a favourite from me on this basis alone) and managed to drag Shadow! out for the find. The coords and description were spot on.

Thanks Plofessor!!

#2387 - 21:10; I solved this one over lunch earlier in the week and with limited time this evening, headed off to try for the find. Made my way to my calculated GZ, then after parking the geomobile, headed across the road where I turned up the goods after a short search. Headed back to the geomobile to complete the log before returning it to its hide. A nice little puzzle to extend the current streak to 266 days. Only 100 days to go to qualify for the nearby challenge cache! TFTC Plofessor

3496. I really enjoyed sorting out Kevin's cipher and called into GZ on the way home from work. Must have missed the previous finders by just minutes.
Thanks Plofessor for the cache and the puzzle. A great way to start your cache hiding career. A favourite from me.

Solved this one not that long after it was published, had a fair idea of what was needed but just not the time to do it.
Decided to pick it up tonight after work in the fading daylight which soon faded to dark. Lucky I had the trusty torch in the car. Cache was soon located signed and back into the warmth of the car.
Well done on your first puzzle cache.

TFTC and puzzle Plofessor

(293) Congrats on your first hide, Plofessor! And I do like caches so close to bus stops. Keep up the good work.

And Congrats to RW for the First-to-find!

Published

(293) Congrats on your first hide, Plofessor! And I do like caches so close to bus stops. Keep up the good work.

Firstly, well done Plofessor on your first hide Welcome to the addiction of hiding caches lol

I did enjoy this puzzle as it struck my like of numbers. Once I read through the listing, it didn't take me long to formulate something in my mind on how to solve it. So I got to work on solving.

Took about 10-15 to come up with something that was gobblegook, then I started to play around with it.

Soon after that I had a set of cords. But the question was, were they the right cords? I was a little unsure due to no checksum or geochecker so I just had to wing it and see what I came up with.

Once work was over, I made my way to the GZ I had formulated. I was looking around for about 15 minutes and started to get that sinking feeling that maybe my cords were wrong. I was getting cold and hungry. I was about to pull the pin and concede to defeat when something caught my eye. Oh there you are you sneaky bugger.

As I opened the container, I was greeted by a nice blank log yippeeeee *FTF* @ 1752 on a 3.5 star puzzle, I was very chuffed with myself

Thanks for the interesting puzzle Plofessor, I look forward to seeing some more puzzles like this come our way - A fav added from me