So I was up nice an early for today’s ride and cache attempt. I had been told about a place to get an early brekky, but it was not yet open when I went past, so I thought what the heck, I have a packet of Oreo’s, that’ll do me 🙂 [Just a quick note, I was planning on uploading some video footage of the race track National Park Road, but due to the dismal internet I have been experiencing lately, it won’t happen until later, maybe when I get back to Thailand]

So, today I was intending having fun on the road, hopefully with no people or cars, but also to attempt my first ever Multi Cache. What is this? It is a normal cache, hidden somewhere, but a container with a log book and maybe other stuff. One crucial difference is, you only get a set of co-ordinates of a start point, after that, if you can work out the puzzle, you will work out the next set of co-ords and from that location the next and so on, until eventually you arrive at the cache site and can start looking. In this case there are 8 stages. I don’t normally go for these because I am usually riding past and prefer to just pick up the quick ones, drive in style 😉

Anyway, I was given the first set of co-ordinates to find the Wat A Vu cache and just to annoy those that don’t like caching, I am going to describe it in detail 😆

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……..Bokor Mtn Wat A Vu Puzzle Geocache……..
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all full degrees + full minutes are given — eg. N10* 34.xxx’ — E104* 07.yyy’

any/all decimal minutes will be found in the location clues

a – b – c – d – e – f – g – h – i – j – k – m – n – p may represent a single number OR a double digit number

decimals minutes may be given by just one number OR you might add/subtract/multiply numbers
eg. — [a]=? — [b+c]=? — [d-e]=? — [2g-a]=?

btw – any/all decimal zeros [0] are always given as freebies…!

So, the general rules seem simple enough, probably as clear as mud to you and most of it will not make sense until the actual locations are seen. The starting point was easy, it was at the turn off to the park from the main highway, there is a statue there and I arrived at 06.21. I had yesterday printed out the instructions so I could write on them as I went.

start@1st point — N10* 34.076′ E104* 07.607′

total # of human torsos in the statue —?=a  = 1
total # of legs in the statue —?=b  = 2
total # of arms in the statue —?=c  =8

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btw – you’ll need to pay a road fee, just after you cross the rail tracks
2000r for a moto – keep the receipt – you need to show it at a higher gate

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then go to pt.2— N10* 37. [2b+a] [c+a] [c-b-a] E104* 05. [3b][0] [0]

my calculations  for North (2xb +a> 2×2+1=5)  ( c+a > 8+1=9) ( c-b-a >> 8-2-1=5)

my calculations for East, only one digit needed (3xb >> 3×2=6)

@2nd point — N10* 37.__5_ _9__ _5__’ E104* 05._6__ 0 0′

Next way point – N10 37.595  E104 05.600

After warming the tyres along the 1 kilometre straight, I paid my 2,000Riel(50c) entry fee and launched up the hill, the next 15 minutes or so were a blast, no time for photos 😉 There was very minimal traffic, it is too early for them, so I nearly had the road to myself, just a few straining work trucks taking building gear up top to the resort development. I was soon at the next way point and I know my calculations and observations were correct, because the next clue was very distinctive.

how many posts {standing AND fallen} are on the left side of the old bridge —?=d  14
how many spillways are under the new bridge —?=e  3
subtract e from d to give you the digit —?=f  11

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then go to pt.3— N10* 37. [f-c] [e+a] [e-a] E104* 04. [f-e] [f-a] [f-3b]

my calculations for N  (f-c > 11 – 8 = 3) (e+a > 3 + 1 = 4)  (e-a > 3 – 1 = 2)

my calculations for E  (f-e > 11 – 3 = 8)  (f-a > 11 – 1 = 10)  (f-3xb >  11 – [3 x 2] = 5)

arrive @3rd point — N10* 37.__3_ __4_ _2__’ E104* 04._8__ _10__ __5_’

I was momentarily stumped on the East because I had a 10, but I just made that a zero and added 1 to the 8

Next Way Point is  N10 37.342   E104 04.905

I plugged that into my GPS and headed for that point, it was a fast 5km away, up near the big Buddha statue but when I got there I was stumped?  It pointed me up into them trees and there was no way I could see anything that matched the next clue ❓

how many windows are on the longest wall —?=g

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then go to pt.4— N10* 38. [g-e] [f] [e] E104* 04. [0] [3e] [d-e-a]

arrive @4th point — N10* 38.___ ___ ___’ E104* 01.0 ___ ___’

Well, I rode back and forth, then changed the digits a bit in case the 10 was not to be added to the 8 and I still ended up nowhere. I should have realised something was not right because the initial instructions said ALL zeros were given free. So, I called a friend 😉 Yep, I called Greg the cache owner for a small tip, basically where did my calculations go wrong and as it turns out there has been a change up here since the cache was put online. One of the previous clues was as follows

how many posts {standing AND fallen} are on the left side of the old bridge —?=d

I had counted 14, well they fixed the bloody thing didn’t they, there were no fallen ones(which should have rang some bells) but originally there were only 12 posts, so my calculations were well out. Lucky I actually met Greg or he would not have known it needs modifying. With a new set of co-ords in the GPS

N10 37.142   E104 04.683

I soon found the right spot, it is actually an abandoned building and this place had some brilliant views, it needs some TLC though!

how many windows are on the longest wall —?=g  4

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then go to pt.4— N10* 38. [g-e] [f] [e] E104* 04. [0] [3e] [d-e-a]

my calculations for N  (g-e > 4 – 3 = 1) (f = 9) (e = 3)

my calculations for E  (0) (3xe > 3 x 3 = 9) (d-e-a > 12 – 3 – 1 = 8)

arrive @4th point — N10* 38._1__ _9__ __3_’ E104* 01.0 _9__ _8__’

New way point  N10 38.193  E104 01.098

I plugged that into the GPS and headed off, it was only 5km of extreme fun before I hit the check point, here they stub your entry ticket but never ask if I have hand grenades, I reckon they should, I might have you know 😉 The next location was correct, I knew that by the questions, so my co-ords should all be OK from now on 🙂

how many phallic symbols lead up from the fountains —?=h  6
how many lions do you see —?=i  2
how many fish do you see —?=j  4

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then go to pt.5 — N10* 37. [h] [g-b] [e-i] E104* 01. [i+a] [e+b] [g+a]

my calculations for N (h> 6) (g-b > 4 – 2 = 2) (e-i > 3 – 2 = 1)

my calculations for E  (i+a > 2 + 1 = 3) (e+b > 3 + 2 = 5) (g+a > 4 + 1 = 5)

arrive @5th point — N10* 37.__6_ _2__ _1__’ E104* 01.__3_ _5__ 5_’

New way point N10 37.621  E104 01.355

So, I headed to that location and it turned out to be a very old small church whose walls were heavily covered in graffiti

how many windows are in the main area —?=k  4

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then go to pt.6— N10* 37. [e+i] [h+e] [k+i] E104* 01. [f-h] [e-b] [f-c]

N  (e+1 > 3 + 2 = 5) (h+e > 6 + 3 = 9) (k+i > 4 + 2 = 6)

E  (f-h > 9 – 6 = 3)  (e-b > 3 – 2 = 1)  (f-c > 9 – 8 = 1)

arrive @6th point — N10* 37._5__ _9__ __6_’ E104* 01._3__ __1_ _1__’

New way point  N10 37.596  E104 01.311
I headed back down to the bike but then realised the new point was very close and up the hill behind the church. That is as far as I will go with the calculations, but the views from the hill were great, in fact except for a small amount of haze they were terrific 🙂

From here I picked up another way point and headed there, this actually took me back towards the new resort complex and I ended up actually behind it up the hill at a temple site.

It is the next clue that caught me out again, check out the clue and the following photo.
you will see two dates –– each date has four digits…
add all the eight digits — what is the sum —?=n

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Well, I saw two dates all right, 1010 and 2010, adding all digits together I got 5 for point n, but I could not do the calculations because the numbers went negative?

then go to pt.8— N10* 37. [n-f-i] [n-h-j] [2m] E104* 04. [0] [h-i] [g-e]

my calculations for N   (n-f-i > 5 – 9 – 2 =???)  
I nearly called Greg again, but looked at the next clue and realised I was so close to where I needed to be I could answer the following question without needing point N 😉

So, I proceeded to the next step and the end result was I found the cache, it was my first ever attempt at a Multi cache and it was also a First To Find, how cool is that 🙂 And the name for this cache is excellent, Wat A Vu or What A View and they were brilliant, trust the monks to get the best ones 😉

Well, the cache was done and dusted, so now for some fun 🙂 So, I blasted back down the hill, past the checkpoint, there were a few more people starting to head up to the resort area now and back to the bottom of the hill 🙂 Then because I felt like it, I went up again, passed all those cars and bikes that were going up, got to the checkpoint where they knew me and waved me on through(they still did not check for hand grenades though, they might have found my IED’s instead 😉 ) I immediately turned around and blasted back down the hill 🙂

Then I went for breakfast, well, an early lunch really 🙂 The rest of the day I spent blogging, I was preparing to leave the next day, but then, I had some news.

My Drift 170 HD camera has failed on a few occasions recently and I had been in contact with the supplier in England, mainly to do with warranty, they have not been forthcoming in that department this time 😦 The original camera was bought on January 22nd last year, so it is just outside the 12 months. But, it failed after 7 months and a new one was sent to Ulan Batar in Mongolia(it cost me 50 quid in shipping) and that has now failed, after 5 months.

The battery hold in clip failed last month, the remote failed after 2 days last year and lately I have been occasionally getting real crap images, banging it fixes it but that will get worse and worse over time.

I was in constant email contact with Rubens from Drift and trying nicely to get something done and lucky for me I deleted the ‘you arsehole’ email before I sent it. Because I had a solution, Neil(from the China trip) was coming to Bangkok and after a few back and forth emails between Neil and myself and Rubens(from Drift), they shipped a brand new later version camera to Neil’s place, he would bring it to Bangkok and when I swapped them, take the old crap one back to England, result!!! Of course that means I now need to stay here in Cambodia for a few more days as he does not arrive in BK until next week. So, you may have noticed the name I call this town, Krabpot, well it is, once you are in here, it is real hard to get out, just like a real crab pot 🙂

I decided to use the time wisely and play blog catch up, and maybe go and play on the mountain a few more times and drink some rum, which I did tonight to celebrate a successful day;)

Cheers from Krabpot Kampot
TravellingStrom