Magical Misdirection Grovedale, Victoria, Australia
By BFMC on 05-Oct-18. Waypoint GC7YKFT

Cache is fine. I nearly did myself an ouchie returning to terra firma but got away with it. Footwear with grip is important here, especially during the colder months.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

In Geelong for the weekend lured by a unique EVENT but also on a multi mission with some geobuddies to do something about the growing SOLVED puzzle pile. The DESCRIPTION which was a mini treatise on magic and misdirection underpinned the rather obscure strategy required to solve this more than obscure puzzling puzzle - and yes, it took more than one brain to throw light on the solution and the application of specific tools to get there...which we did!! Fast forward to GZ visit #1 when weirdobiker and I couldn't spot the prize but we never would have cos we didn't look out there haha. Being of short stature and having a stoopid risk averse streak in me, we came back armed to do the job and make the find with applaud or was it the distraction of the lorikeets alarmed at our shenanigans. All up..a memorable magical cache experience that I heartily award a FAVE to. TFTC BFMC and the FUN

I was in Geelong for a few days to collect some solve puzzle caches with Ronice88. This was a group solve on one of our zoom meetings and I was happy to be able to finally look for the cache. Ronice88 and I had a good look in all the obvious places and came up empty handed so we decided to come back. After a hint we soon spotted the hide and using some special equipment, Ronice88 did the honours to retrieve this one. While Ronice88 was doing the hard yards, we were entertained by 3 Lorikeets who were not happy to have us 'in their space'. This was a clever puzzle and I was glad that Ronice88 was there for the retrieval. Definitely worthy of a favourite point.

21/01/2024 12:30:00 PMMy second visit to Geelong in less than a week, helping my daughter move here for study.While the rest of the family hit the shops I took a wander to find a cache.Having solved this one back in 2018, it was good to get the name on the log.Thanks for the challenge BFMC.Find recorded using GCDroid and logged using GSAK

Another fab puzzle in Geelong. Initially I went to wrong side, another misdirection, then went to correct side, then couldnt find and was a little anxious climbing by myself. Luckily Eddie volunteered to come back with me, after a quick message to CO to confirm it was there, I just needed to look harder! Arrived and spotted straight away this time. A bit of an awkward scramble and log signed!Great job BFMC pointregards kbucky

Dropped by this morning to confirm all is well in order to reply to query via message. Cache in Situ & all good.

What a journey, i have been fumbling this puzzle for months, asking for multiple hints before i put the pieces together. Its not an idea i would have ever thought of, but its now on my radar is a possibility in the future.The GZ given lead me to the wrong place two weeks ago, but today was the day i finally got itThank you for the cache BFMC, and giving me all the help, it will increase my unloved total by 1 yearPika 4/11/23

Out and about running errands via caches. Spotted in situ.

We are self isolating due to the soon arrival of #3 crumb and what's something you can do to pass the time?? GEOCACHE!! It's a perfect thing to do that doesn't evolve crowds or indoors.

I went in the wrong direction many times with this puzzle but eventually had something that the checker was happy with.

Pulled up close to GZ and the coords had me not on the side I should be. I could see the hide so I knew where I needed to go and what i needed to do. A short stroll around was needed and then I made my way up. It was a little slippery due to the rain over night but got the cache easy enough.

Thanks for the puzzle and hide

Temporary fences recently removed. Council website checked and baiting program appears to be over. Good to go.

Disabled due to GZ inaccessible at the moment due to rabbit baiting.

13:25
After attending the fantastic "DO YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE", Community Celebration Event, we looked for a few nearby caches, having solved the puzzles quite some time back.

**FEEDBACK TO CO:** As we approached GZ we found the area surrounded by temporary wire fencing with notices that area closed off for rabbit bating.
Perhaps cache needs to be disabled until the area is opened up again?

Thanks BFMC for creating interesting puzzles.
31858

Yes a windy day for this one would be a bit of a difficult one but started then need to relocate and saw what we were looking for.

Misdirected twice here, first time solved then lost the coords, then had to do it all over again. These kind of puzzles are for people far smarter than me!

Did enjoy the finale, and can see why one wouldn't do on a windy day. That creek would suck to fall in, and you would certainly get infection out of it to I'd say! Good fun getting the retrieval, a FP from me.

Found by Rebel Acts

My good friends Ski Pair were heading down to Geelong for a few days and invited Me to join them, who could resist being chauffeured around and the company and laughs are always good. We had a great time touring the area discovering new locations while finding caches, We even managed dinner with Suscoe and Busfire.

This is one of the caches we found for the week. There was pleny on misdirection in this puzzle but got it solved in the end, GZ was a little challenging but we got the job done.

Logs signed as RASP (Rebel Acts Ski Pair)

Thanks BFMC for the cache.

At this time of year we usually pack up and head off for 6 months, chasing the armer weather. After being stuck at home all last year and not enjoying the cold and wet weather all that much we are looking forward to getting away this year even more.

For a change we thought we might roll the dice and try spending some time in Victoria as we have not travelled here to much and know there is plenty to see. A short trip to Geelong previously led us to decide to return and spend more time. Hope the weather is kind!

We mentioned this to our good mate Rebel Acts and he decided he would join us for a few days. A great bonus, because as a true professional he has an unbelievable searching sense and is a puzzle solver extraordinaire. Our puzzle solving ability is slowly improving, but we still need to call on him regularly for assistance.

Rebel was again of great assistance with this puzzle as it really had us tossed.
TFTC.

Logs signed as RASP (Rebel Acts Ski Pair)

Well, this took a while to solve. We quickly racked up our fair share of red crosses and eventually contacted the CO for a nudge. Hmm, but we've already looked there. Obviously not thoroughly enough and we soon had to look a little closer to find the cheeky coords. There was a bit of wind but no rain this afternoon which meant climbing up wasn't too bad - just needed to be careful coming back down. Thanks for the puzzle and all the ideas of where else to hide coords!

We came and saw the cache, but as it was very windy, neither of us were game to take that one big step required. We may have to return another day when it’s not as gusty.

After many, many misdirections, I eventually found the right direction. Dear me, what a headache. Realising we would be in the area tonight but worried that it might be a bit dark, we decided to try anyway. With a bit of guidance we spied the cache, made the climb and signed the log. Thanks BFMC, this has also qualified me for the Monkey Climb Challenge at Mt Beckworth. A favourite from me.

Certainly needed some direction in sorting this one. With some help from a fellow cacher, the correct directions were found. I was on board with McLookers for the find. Thanks BFMC a favourite is given.

On seeing some new caches in town we knew we would be making a trip so also looked a round to see what was already solved and what we needed to work on.
Plenty of misdirectiion was followed but in the end we got the right direction.
Saw a wild wabbit enroute to the cache which is usually luck for us. No issues making the climb and finding the hide at GZ. We completed the signing duties and re hid. TFTC.

Swung past here this morning for a quick check-up. Decided that a little more concealment was required, so up the tree I went (in thongs, such is unplanned maintenance trips). All ready & waiting.

nice find

With a day planned with DAB to collect some solved caches, we met up early and heading off. It was a great day out with reasonable but still hot weather and plenty of laughs.

Well this puzzle certainly misdirected me. I started working on it and had about five red herrings within my first look. I put it away and took it back up with a few chats with DAB. The CO gave me a hint and with that I went to work again. With another cache we had done elsewhere, I went to work on a way to solve this one I had to use a few different online tools to finally get a result and then with my downloaded tool that I still had from the previous puzzle like this, I was able to make a few numbers appear. It wasn't quite right and another quick turn of numbers and finally the checker liked me. Now to today, our GPSr had us on the other side, as did our maps. Hmmm, we looked and pointed to the spot we thought it must be as we were only standing on dry land with nothing around. Around the location we went and with a nasty little climb here we spotted the cache. Other than the ants, thankfully no dramas here today. I wouldn't want to drop below The GPSr had us about 13 meters away. Thanks for the brain bender, I think

**Thanks to BFMC for hiding this cache for us to find and enjoy**

A day of work off and a pocketful of solved puzzles.......... let the fun begin !! I joined forces today with Na'wal, hoping to clean up some icons on the map. We were initially worried about the early grey skies, but ended up having to put on sunscreen by mid morning !! Thankfully we had no DNF's and even picked up a few bonus hides as well. Thanks to all of the CO's for the brain bending puzzles and clever hides.

The retrieval at GZ was a bit hairy, but we signed the log without incident. TFTC BFMC

Had a reminder from a friend about a method I had used once before to extract co-ordinates . That was all I needed to solve this one .
I was in Geelong a while ago and sussed out the area but headed back home without trying to get to GZ.
I found I was on the wrong side and also needed moral support to reach the cache.
Met up with Feathertop, who is very good at that type of retrieving, so now my name is in the book.
Thanks for a very clever puzzle and another vertical challenge for me _BFMC_
A FP coming your way.

Well I tried so many things here. The trouble is we all have different ways to go through our regular checking for coords and who knew what had to be discarded and what was worth investigating.
In the end I resorted to a technique I have used once or twice and lo and behold, just like magic I had the first half of the coords and shortly after the second string.
This area of Geelong has become a hotbed for puzzles and yet again I was in familiar territory, but this time up a tree.
I met 6Hinemoa2 here as she was unable to ascend recently but I had no trouble with the free climb though it was not in the place I expected, somewhat higher but safely reachable.
Thanks _BFMC_ for this one
A fav point

Solved, GZ inspected and I decided this little grey duck will leave it for another day. Thanks.

In the area so dropped by.for a quick check. All good.

**text**Well this was a fair ground attraction.
At first I visited the magic show and as I stared and stared I could not spot the illusion. The slight of hand was to obvious for me to see.
Then on to the fair ground ride which was made more intresting with the weather added in for effect today.
Fair attendance signed and returned.

Thanks for the Magic trick BFMC
????. #4,431

Favorite point added or did I

Well this was a fair ground attraction.
At first I visited the magic show and as I stared and stared I could not spot the illusion. The slight of hand was to obvious for me to see.
Then on to the fair ground ride which was made more intresting with the weather added in for effect today.
Fair attendance signed and returned.

Thanks for the Magic trick _BFMC_
. #4,431

Favorite point added or did I

Google is not my friend anymore due to having my email address locked last Wednesday night and not getting it back until a few days ago.
This caused me a lot of hassles during my caching trip to St Arnaud last weekend by not receiving any notifications of new caches and having to rely on my mates.
Also on returning home my printer decided to go to sleep.
A week later I think everything including my tablet is back to normal, so phone, tablet and computer are all finally working as you would expect them to.
All my finds have been logged so now to finally catch up on the Geelong caches.
When this guy was published the first thing you noticed was all the red herrings and like others they were checked and discarded and I got close to getting the first part but gave that idea away when my security did not like what I was doing.
When the number one puzzle solvers in Geelong returned from Qld they quickly sorted out the cache and grabbed the FTF and we all were still scratching our bald heads about how they had done it.
This was when the CO gave a small hint to another smart cacher who is familiar with computers and that led to another group to have the correct answer. I should have got my daughter and son in law onto the job as this is what they do everyday.
Finally with a lot of pushing and shoving the ageing bushfire finally had an answer and with the offer of some help to retrieve the cache was finally signed. Phew it is great to have good mates.
Thanks _BFMC_ for giving us a head scratching puzzle that used ideas that some of us have never seen before.
Another F.P. if I have any left after St Arnaud is well and truly due.
Thanks I think.

This one took a lot more time than I had originally bargained for!
I got the e-mail as I was arriving home from school and even though it was a 4.5 difficulty I set about trying to get FTF because it was so close. I spent about an hour on it making no progress and gave up knowing that someone else would grab FTF because I'm not that experienced. A few days went by and still no FTF but a green tick on the checker. I spent some more time on it with no luck.

I saw that The_Tritonz had picked up FTF and messaged the CO for a hint. I found out that all that time that I spent on it were all in the wrong direction, I was letting myself be misdirected. Once I knew what to look for I set about trying to solve this once and for all but I still had no luck! Until I was playing around and soon I looked through the misdirection and spotted what I needed. A few tries and I soon had the green tick from the checker.

Now it was just a matter of when to pick it up. We all went for a walk today after school to find the tree to climb. Having done a few and hidden a few tree climbs and knowing how the CO is with them it was going to be easy. An excellent tree choice at GZ, with the added bonus on what would happen when you found but luckily it was not long until I had the cache in hand.

Altogether, an excellent cache and first puzzle, TFTC -BFMC-

Suscoe had spent many hours pondering this puzzle.
Got close to what we needed early on but unlocking the key was the dilemma.
So after many tries and fails we finally got a nudge in the right direction and located the misdirection that was the one that we didn't see.
Cache found and all good here this evening.
Thanks to _BFMC_ for this splendid puzzle and cache, we do love a great magic show and we got one here.
Thanks to our caching mates for their help at GZ too.

To say I am annoyed at myself for not solving this one sooner is an understatement. When this one was published I was on annual leave and had plenty of time to work thought the puzzle. Seeing possible coordinates everywhere I looked, I knew that the obvious one were only going to be misdirection but to be thorough I worked through them all anyway just to be sure. So red cross after red cross I ticked off the misdirected coordinates being told by the checker cheekily that I was indeed being misdirected.
In the end I had found two things and I was convinced that one of those two must contain the information I needed but search as I might, I just could not find what I was looking for. A week later and the Tritonz (The puzzle masters) had returned form their holidays and grabbed the first to find. With the slightest of hints form the CO I saw what I was missing and still I can't believe I missed that (Grrrrrr).
Today after work Neville_devil and I headed to GZ to try and find the little blighter. The CO had used his magic on my GPS as well it seems as when it reached zero I was misdirected to the wrong side of where I needed to be and nothing was there. Using some geologic I suspected where it would be an bingo there it was.
Thank you -BFMC- for a well thought out puzzle deserving of a favourite point

Nice find

Many "Misdirection"s and red crosses helped us to make a judgement call on where to look first, but being on holidays and needing a computer, as Smart Phone's are not always smart, we waited until we got home to pursue our line of thought. Once we found what we were looking for it took awhile to find the correct manner to locate the coordinates needed to make another green tick in the checker. Suffice to say without giving the puzzle away , we had some prior knowledge of the CO's pastimes. So with a wave of the magic wand we had the numbers needed to get us to GZ.
With some consultation with the "first to solve" it seemed we had both used different tools but with the same outcome.....we just had one extra step!
The fit Triton made the find this afternoon after he finished work , looking quite official in his hi-vis uniform he added our name to the fresh log.
Thanks _BFMC_ for the {FTF} mystical Mystery , a sneaky first puzzle that deserves a favourite for the way the magician reveals the coordinates.

Note: The difficulty rating for this cache was changed shortly after publication. This was due to consultation with the reviewer during the review process, I was unable to update it whilst it was in the review queue. Nothing else has changed.

Have fun y'all

Published