Cycle Leicestershire - No.1 - Watermead
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A kid-friendly, cycleable (or walkable) multi-cache of about 4 to 4.5 miles in length around Watermead Country Park in Leicestershire. Please note that there is water all around the Park so please take care with children. There is no necessity to get too close to the water to collect any of the clues. Watermead Country Park has a fantastic Facebook page with some great photos. Well worth a look too.
*** CONGRATULATIONS TO PLASMAWAVE AND LAVAFLOW FOR A VERY EARLY MORNING JOINT FIRST-TO-FIND (I bet the Park looked stunning so early in the day)*** The main co-ordinates give the location for the first of the clues. This is my first cache aimed primarily at cyclists although, having said that, it can easily be completed on foot too, although this might take the best part of a couple of hours. It is designed to bring more people into the wonderful Watermead Country Park, North of Leicester. The cache has been compiled with Geokids in mind with a range of (hopefully) simple clues along flat, traffic-free cycle routes, and with a little mental arithmetic thrown in along the way. In time, I would like to expand this series to include other cycleable areas in the County. Indeed, I'm more than happy for others to supplement this series too with other caches primarily aimed at cycling within the County.
Watermead has a number of other caches within its boundaries, so do have a look at those too. Additionally, there are ducks, swans and geese galore so don't forget the bread to feed them.
The suggested starting point is at the Mill Lane Car Park, off Melton Road in Thurmaston, LE4 8AF (N52.40.794 W001.06.027). Melton Road in turn is just off the A607. This car park is free. There are numerous other car parks or entries to the Park should you prefer but at some of them there is a fee payable on entry (£2.50).
The cache involves collecting ten numbers from ten distinct clues on a circular-ish (well, a figure 8-ish) route before the final cache co-ordinates can be computed.
The cache is a small clip-box container in a camo bag. It has been well stocked to start with, including the following items - Union Jack car air freshener, National Lottery scratch card for the FTF, adhesive hearts, Estonian coins, guitar plectrum, electronic currency converter, tile game, bangles, luminous necklace, key ring, eraser and a Musical Beaver Travel Bug to start its adventures. Please replace with items of similar quality ... no tat please.
From the start / parking area, head into the park via the bridge and to N52.40.786 W001.06.134. Note how far it is in miles to Leicester. Call this A.
Take the path Northwards alongside the water to King Lear's Lake. At N52.41.233 W001.06.178 find the species of the dinosaur and count the number of vowels in its name. Call this B.
Continue around King Lear's Lake following the red line until N52.41.211 W001.06.363. Look for a little bit of Shakespeare in the water and note how many of the characters are standing up. Call this C.
Cross the bridge to N52.41.129 W001.06.380. Here there are some distances to note. Add the two distances together and double your answer. Call this D.
Carry on to point N52.40.857 W001.06.581. Look for part of the orienteering trial. What is the lower value of the two numbers shown? Call this E.
HINT - If you need a check-digit at this stage, then A+B+C+D+E should equal 19.
Staying on Route 1 (signposted Leicester) continue out of the Park to the outskirts of Birstall village. At N52.40.429 W001.06.970 note the bridge number. Take the smaller digit from the larger digit and call this F.
If you look carefully you should now see a boardwalk (direction NE) which you need to take towards N52.40.503 W001.06.929. Can you discover for how many hundred million years (or more) dragonflies have been in existence? Call this G.
Continue around Turnery Lake, stopping at N52.40.247 W001.06.668 to note how many pieces of ivory can be seen in the distance on the hillside. Call this H.
Continue to circumnavigate the Lake coming back to familiar territory. At N52.40.427 W001.06.966 note the number of the locks (n.b. NOT the number of locks). Add the two digits together and call this I.
Head back towards and into the Park along Route 1. At N52.40.837 W001.06.412 note the six distances on the waymarker, add them together then multiply the answer by 4 then deduct 2 from the total. Call this J.
HINT - If you need a check-digit at this stage, then F+G+H+I+J should equal 23.
The final location is not too far away at N52.E(A-B).(G+J)AB W001.(F-E)(F+H).(C+D)(H+J)I It's pretty much a five minute ride back to your starting point and in a straight direction cycling between the two lakes - fun in itself, particularly after rain!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh'yy svaq zr, va n gerr, qba'g ybbx uvture guna lbhe xarr