Cache archived automatically

I have been warned by The System that this and its neighbouring opencaches will soon be automatically archived since they have been Temporarily Disabled for too long. So be it. These caches are still checked and maintained but it remains the case that I do not wish them to be publicly logged, should an adventurer be resourceful enough to find them. Since it is not straightforward (or possible?) to view archived opencaches, I believe the html copy at http://abanazar.com/opencaching/OC_ARCHIVE/menu.html will suffice as a starting point, so long as the lure of the adventure outweighs the ability to log online.

This will be disabled for a while and should not be logged.

There is an important update regarding certain aspects of local accessibility. Please revisit the final stage of the solved instructions for more details, if this is on your ready-to-attempt pile.

Inspired by the Gandalfs from last December’s Unexpected Party, Gandalfazar passed by Thrór's Treasure to check all was well. After pausing for some Old Toby, he concluded that yes, it was.

 

‘An Unexpected Party.’

We’ve had some recent experience of other Abanazar underground adventures in the same general locality and therefore knew that the more expert assistance we could recruit, the more likely it would be that we would be able to complete the whole, undoubtedly tortuous, Quest; to that end, we were lucky to obtain the services of no less than two Gandalfs and they proved an indispensable part of our adventure.

 

‘Over Hill And Under Hill.’

Our party of five (two adult hobbits, one very small hobbit and the two Gandalfs) entered the underground realm via a somewhat bat infested portal and immediately set off to find Smaug; this was a rewarding journey in itself especially as his lair was situated in very interesting surroundings and very much set the tone of things to come: stage after stage, most of which would qualify as an entire Quest in of themselves.

 

‘Riddles In The Dark.’

All the stages were excellent but two of them were especially memorable:  the search for Gollum’s precious - that provided much amusement for a passing group of exploring trolls, and the wonderful (surprisingly pristine) landscape of the Misty Mountains.

 

‘A Short Rest.’

It was getting late and the Gandalfs were rapidly tiring by the time we had collected all the required information so a planned short rest in order to determine our next steps ended up as being a rather longer overnight one spent back home in the Herefordshire Smials.  It did, of course, also provide us with a far more comfortable environment in which to decipher our final instructions and in that sense we were far more fortunate than Mr Baggins -  “I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!” 

 

‘Inside Information.’

We returned the following day to continue the adventure with yet more twists, turns, vertical and mental exertions.  An encounter with a particularly cunning device pointed the way towards the location of the final treasure.

 

‘The Last Stage’

Some enthusiastic plundering took place prior to the return to the real, non-magical and muggle infested, world above.

Another tremendous quest, the completion of which begs the question:

Whose magic is more potent, Gandalf’s or Abanazar’s?

The two Gandalfs accompanying us were spellbound the whole way which does suggest that maybe the powers of the Istari have finally met their match ...

The end of an epic adventure. I think that this was the fifth underground instalment although we have also said hello to Bilbo at Bag End on various occasions to check that he is well and there have been other journeys when we meant to find stages but were diverted for one reason or another.

The story begins almost three years ago, in July 2013. I was immediately drawn into embarking on the adventure and I managed to navigate the puzzling twists and turns quite quickly. Unfortunately, my usual adventuring companion was busy and within days I had to travel to the far off Isles of Scilly. I wasn’t surprised to find that by the time I had returned a group of brave warriors had already found the treasure.

For a long time we were distracted by other underground or overground journeys but eventually BradLad and I made a start. We visited the Carrock on our first trip and found all of the required fragments quite quickly. Like other finders, I won’t say too much about the various wonders that we discovered along the way. From then though, events seemed to conspire against us. We either ran out of time on other epic missions or, in the most eventful visit, we ended up aiding other Hobbits to find the mine’s exit.

Today we decided that this would be our priority. We had heard stories of a roof collapse in our target area and we did see what seemed to be a new fall but things seemed stable enough not to worry too much. I was the designated “climber” and I very much enjoyed a bit of clambering although I would have been a little more worried if I was alone. I must admit to hurling some expletives in Khuzdûl in the direction of the wizard abanazar when one stage took an unexpected turn but we soon had our hands on the ring of power and many delightful presents.

Thank you for a journey full of unexpected, exciting and cleverly thought out moments. It was well worth the perils and pitfalls along the way.

 

Thanks to Amberel for recovering our logs.

I've had trouble logging onto opencache so this is a late log.

This cache, for BradLad and I, seems to be "There and back and there and back and..."  We hoped to finish today but were thwarted once more.  We did battle Smaug though and then continued "round" as suggested.  A very exciting area.

Next time??

We read some news recently that prompted us to enquire further with a funny Hobbit.  It seems that, due to a rock fall, Thror's treasure may be more tricky to find than was previously the case.  It doesn't sound as if the treasure itself is affected at all, just the straightforeward route to it.  Hopefullly we can scrmable our way there next time we are in the mines.

Our expected journey was to find this treasure but unexpected events thwarted us.  We checked in successfully at Bag End and made our way through the caverns.  We managed to get as far as deciphering the location of the final treasure and were making our way in that direction when we stumbled upon some lost hobbits.  By the time we had escorted them there and back again we had run out of time.  We seem to be spending as long on this quest as Peter Jackson.

After a Could-Not-Decipher email last month regarding one of the later stages, I decided to take a look as I was passing. The stage worked as designed. Admittedly it is quite tricky, but then again it’s supposed to be.

We had a listen at the door to Bag End and heard voices.  Then we embarked on a mini quest whilst on a larger quest.  Tonight, in the dark, we found four more inscriptions.  We passed very close to two more but, by then, we had had enough adventuring and wanted to get home for some pipeweed in front of a roaring fire (or bed).

"Them nassty Middle-Land hobbitses thinks they're tricksy, but we tricked them, my preciousss, yesss. We needsss to watch out for them though, in case they returnsss to steal our treasures. We must never let them take our treasures, never, my preciousss."

Well done Mr Abanazar, you have created a marvellous cache. We enjoyed every aspect of our search but were finally defeated on the last bit of deciphering. The standard was so high that on one part we thought something was missing until we considered the high quality of the other clues we had found and with some more head scratching Hulk found the best puzzle ever!

 

We will return...

Our journey into Middle Earth was unsuccesful in terms of the final treasure. But what a journey, evey twist and their are many.... fragments are now arranged and understood. We will be returning for what is rightfully ours!

Like the film version, it seems that our journey there an back again will be in more than one part. 

During today's adventure we couldn't resisit making a couple of visits.  We explored Mirkwood and then received an interesting message at The Carrock.  At Bag End, the door was answered, but Bilbo wasn't keen on any more adventuring so it was back home for some ale and pipeweed.

 

A brilliant puzzle, excellent field components. Great fun all round. Found as a team with staticman1 and antpeng. Soprry for the late log. I don;t usually find or log opencaching ones, but this was great!

Apologies firstly for the late premier of this epic but I had rather a few long scripts to write after a weekend of blockbuster caches and another week of work related travel. Also despite having gone to the same school as J.R.R. Tolkien (we were a few years apart) I only have a read once, watched once understanding of the subject matter but hopefully I should be able to make the minimum number of LOTR references mandated for a cache themed as such.

 

Not too much trouble working through the puzzle bit especially as I am a lot more knowledgable of  things when I have Google next to me. I was quite impressed with my progress especially from hearing through the grapevines of others struggles on this part.

 

The fellowship of Antpeng, Dwalin and myself was convened to journey to wherever it was needed for us to journey. We arrived at the entrance and tested out communication skills but after failing to receive the message from Bag End on the first attempt we decided, in true Hobbit style that we didn’t need to waste any time getting it exact and soon got onto the mission. It was a bit of a medley of movies here today so the cache was not done continuously as one and probably not in the order intended but we made it to all of the stages.

 

Some of the highlights that can make it into the trailer include the amount of time, effort and teamwork we spent trying to incorrectly and futilely retrieve an empty cider bottle from deep below, no doubt discarded during the dwarves merriments. Some extreme underground cryptography and the shining of torches, often pointlessly at different things at different angles added to any comic relied needed during such a long journey.

 

Some new areas discovered, much of which has yet to be mapped by mere mortals hands.  I think this is certainly the deepest and furthest I have been in here and my first time over the top of the areas most famous feature. Thankfully we managed to make it both there and back.

 

We soon located the cache after much scrambling and readjusting and we soon managed to find the treasures which were hidden within. Discovered the two Geocoins, both very nice and my fist ring, unfortunately I wrote the code down wrong for one but will hopefully be able to brute force my mistake away eventually. We safely returned all as found and exited and returned home to Hobbiton. Another tough, both physically and mentally, cache with a great theme. I wonder what the CO is going to think of next. Just wish I had found enough caches to recommend/favourite.

 

TFTC

 

 

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I too apologise for the lateness of my log. I was planning to write it in the style of Tolkien, but have now thought better of it. I shall just tell the story, speaking of which, I think I was probably the most well versed in Middle Earth Lore having read both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings multiple times. I became aware of the cache as soon as it was published and right from the off (given the subject matter and the CO) it was obvious that this cache was going to be of epic proportions. I'm used to the multi stage puzzles at the start of caches by the CO and in this case it neatly cleared up any potential ambiguity before the adventure began. Due to the epic proportions mentioned above, it was decided by the Mega Breakfast/Los Juicios Brotherhood to reform for this and another lanky bird related cache in this mine. The route for the latter passed nearby most of the waypoints for the former with only a few more major diversions needed for the initial key finding mission. It shows the COs broad knowledge of both the mine and the story and his skill at building complex caches, that each stage was cleverly and carefully themed. The field puzzle elements were excellent, requiring just the right amount of thinking/puzzling/fishing to allow us to continue. The suggested party skill set was covered well as we were all pretty good at each ability but one role in particular fell to me for the final two stages. We despaired a little at the penultimate stage, not quite working out how to employ the method learned at my favourite puzzle stage during the key finding. But eventually I had the Eureka moment and I rejoined the group to head for the final. This was harder to reach than the preceding stage but was still not too much trouble and we finally had the cache in hand. Inside was the usual good quality swag, and two excellent geocoins and a logbook that now bears our signatures.The caches from the CO are always excellent and this one is up there with the best. I love how it is not too proscriptive, allowing us to decide how to do it (as with Los Juicios), and I love how cleverly the field puzzles are constructed, and I love how many caches the CO has set. I'm working on something similar and I'll be pleased if it's published by 2015.All in all we had an absolutely fantastic time going There and Back Again and would join Amberel in calling this a Top Cache.

'You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. antpeng, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!'‘Thank goodness!’ said antpeng laughing, and handed him the tobacco jar.

Many thanks to the lapidary Amberel for his fine craftmanship.

This is an adventure, and I cannot rate it highly enough. If there is a reason to go caching, this is a prime example.

I originally wrote an acount of the day (this is the second attempt at a log), but to do so, would give too much away, so I will keep things brief so as not to spoil the experience for others.

Huge thanks to the CO (yet again) for the time and effort in placing a very well constructed puzzle. Superb.

WOW - What a cache, what an adventure!  Along with those who have written of our ADVENTURE before, I will not spoil it for anyone that follows. However, this cache did something very very difficult: it trumped "Los Juicios de la Inquisición", an utterly superb cache, that I loved. How harsh is that? I can't split hairs, so can't place "there and Back Again" above or below "Earnanæs, þæs wyrmes denn" in my rating, but frankly, with these three caches I'm talking about the very very best of the best of the 2000 caches I have found. Abanazar gets my gold, silver and bronze medals. These are all truly epic, demanding adventures that are a long day out all by themselves. This is why I go caching and this is why I will carry on caching! 

The pint of Dragons Gold at the Quarryman's Arms was the fitting end to a superb day.

If others who follow struggle to find someone up for this amazing experience just because it is not listed on the Lily Pad, then just get in touch as I'd be delighted to do it again. By the way, I have lost weight and I am now slimmer than I was when I tackled "Lasciate..." so when I have made significant extra progress, I will be looking for company on "il Nono Cerchio" and maybe, just maybe, one of the top 3 will then have to make way!

The only thing that could have made this experience even better would have been for me to be up to date with my cache logging and to be able to log this one as a milestone cache. As I didn't, it's find #2092.  Many thanks, Sandvika

Wow! What an epic cache! Abanazar caches are always special, but this one was special amongst specials.

We marked it up for a visit as soon as we saw it published. And it was obvious from the start of the puzzle phase that this was going to exceed our already high expectations.

All members of the group are veterans of 5 / 5 caches, but this one made some of the others look easy by comparison. We included a couple of EarthCaches while we were on our adventure, and were underground for a little over 8 hours.

I've yet to do the sums, but it seems likely to me that this will be the second TOP CACHE ( http://www.amberel.com/topcache.htm ) to get maximum marks. The only reason for not saying more is not to give too much away to future finders.

To round off an amazing adventure in the most appropriate manner we were delighted to find Dragon's Gold beer in the QuarryMen's Arms

As there were several in our group we put our names into an envelope, and asked the barmaid to select one to take the FTF prize, Matthew of pig,dog,boyandgirls being the lucky winner

Thanks for a truly outstanding cache,

Rgds, Andy

I must admit that I don't really follow open caching and was put on to this one by a friend. What an excellent puzzle that was pretty rapidly solved (well compared to others of the CO's). Both having solved it, I wanted to get out quickly and have a play but unfortunately he couldn't get the time to go and he put me in contact with Amberel and the team.

• "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."

"I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"

Met up with Amberel, Smudge42, Nom&jeep and Sandvika. So the Unexpected party set off over hill and under hill into the mines (sadly not Moria this time). A bit of a shaky start that required a short rest(but no roast mutton) before solving a few riddles in the dark. Flies and Spiders, barrels and even queer lodgings were all in there.

There were even a few Out of the frying-pan into the fire moments and times when we wished for some inside information and cursed the thief in the night for stealing the last stage!

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

Log signed we made the return journey a rather long one and once again emerged into the outside world, not to a gathering of clouds but the heat and humidity of fire and water. 

No Rivendell or prancing pony but the Quarrymans arms, where we partook of Dragons Gold and pipe weed (well I did) before heading off to our various parts of the Shire.

• Eyes that fire and sword have seen
  And horror in the walls of stone
  Look at last on meadows green
  And trees and hills they have long known.
•  

Many thanks for an epic day.

 

I find that getting the balance right in logs is difficult.  I'd love to rave about why this cache is one of the best I've ever done (if not "the best"), but at the same time I need to be careful to not spoil it for future burglars.

For that reason, I can't mention any of the very memorable parts to this adventure - and I'm not using the word lightly here.  There were so many parts to this journey and we could quite easily have failed at any of them.  So as well as a huge thanks to abanazar for creating this, thank you also goes to the rest of the party as well for such an amazing 8 hours underground.

I cannot recommend this cache highly enough.  Being a relative OC newbie, I can't "recommend" it using the site tools.  Pretend that I have