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.

Chel hol,

Our usual portal, chaapa'ai HR9, whilst both worthy of admiration and deeply chel nak,  is nothing more than a transportation node and is situated far from any potential naquadah deposits.  In retrospect, that is probably just as well.

Nonetheless, we jumped at the opportunity to explore the active mine workings leading to chaapa’ai SN15 and managed, eventually, to activate the final gate and meet with the alien resident living in the rarefied surroundings of the final forbidden zone.

Segment by segment, coordinate information for the portal was gathered from throughout the subterranean Goa’uld realm and our hearts repeatedly went out to those responsible for the actual excavation - our fellow humans who have been mercilessly driven by the unfathomable greed of the interloper ha’taaka Goa’uld in their seemingly insatiable quest for yet more of the energetic superconductor.

All in all, we are deeply appreciative of our enlightening if sobering experience and we can only finish by expressing our solidarity to the oppressed and echoing their written sentiments -  Arik tree'ac te kek!

Another classic cache set by the CO. The puzzle itself took quite a bit of unpicking - after making good progress, we all ground to a halt, and I can't remember now how or who we got over the last hurdl?

As the other team members note, it took us three attempts to reach the final goal. The first attempt was thwarted by failing to follow the instructions correctly, so selber schuld for that one! As the main navigator, I could claim this one, although at the time, I remember being very pleased with getting us to where we wanted to be without too much mishap - and worse than that there were artefacts matching what we needed at the alternative site. In hindsight, we did the right thing by withdrawing for another day. There is nothing worse that being too tired and struggling on, only to make more mistakes.

Our second visit very quickly got us the additional info we required, and then we failed to interpret it correctly. As Amberel has pointed out, we spent far too long exploring areas looking for signs not realising we were completely in the wrong. We had an interesting route out that day - I love exploring.

So, onto today, and it was quite literally a stroll. We didn't worry too much with the maps - we've been here often enough that even when we get lost, we have a good idea of what to aim for. We could have completed it more quickly, but I think we were all enjoying being in the quarry. A small detour for Ecky, and then onto a quick find at the final. A few photos as mementos and a rest before setting back. I think we  were all quietly sad that the adventure had come to an end.

Excellent. I can't praise the cache highly enough. Many thanks for all the effort involved. I particularly liked one of the stages due to my technical interests. Many many thanks.

 

Yes, at last, we've managed. Amberel's log says it all. An epic journey that, unfortunately in some aspects, has finished now.

As always, amazed by the effort put in setting this one. The field puzzles were superb and we all had to engage our tired brains to go further.

The previous two failures were pretty stupid and we kicked ourselves when noticing why we got it wrong. I say we just wanted an excuse to come back.

I have a few more Above ground caches to do in the area and will be back, unfortunately, I don't think down here.

TFTC

After our second attempt on 30th Dec. last year we found it very hard to set a date that all the team could manage - but 7 months later our plans came to fruition. DizzyGirl drove down from Stanstead and stayed the night at my place. We departed at 05:30, picking up Smudge42 en route to Ecky's - then Ecky took over the driving duties to Box. A lovely summer's morning was so different to our last visit in mid-winter .

We had a clear idea of what we needed to do this time, so after tidying up Ecky's final Below Above cache we set off to the final destination of this one .

Not that much to say about today really. The hard yards, the mental effort, the difficult navigation, the tricky access, had all been done on our previous visits - today it was just a matter of going to the cache, albeit in an area none of us had visited before.

Thanks to the c/o for yet again coming up with an original idea for the theme, but also for finding new ways to test us in the quarries. Yet another high scoring TOP CACHE to add to the c/o's already large collection .

Rgds, Andy

The day after my birthday was chosen to complete this epic cache. I'm sorry to say that the intellect to solve this puzzle, andy many others by this CO is way beyond my capabilities but if I'm lucky enough to be invited along,who am I to argue?? with the Christmas festivities and harsh January frosts behind us, it was just a matter of time on our last visit, that we would actually find this cache. ☺️

As the others have well documented this was by no means easy. Although navigating is now much easier, going off survey and into layers I hadn't ever investigated does have a rather nerve wracking effect even on a seasoned traveller.  It wasnt to be such a long hard day as the two that built up to this, I had after all been keen to lay a breadcrumb trail along some of the worst unnavigated areas as well as small cairns... but we didnt need them, having been in the hands of extrememly competent navigators. 

 

A brilliant day and probably the longest time I've ever spent to work for A single cache, three days. 

Tftc 

Further, but not far enough. Nearly 7 more hours underground saw us get much further than last time - only to fall at the final hurdle. We failed to understand a vital Goa'uld technical reference and spent ages wandering around among items that half matched what we were looking for, but we were in completely the wrong place.

With so much time already invested we certainly will be back again to finish the job at some point in the future :-)

Rgds, Andy

As previously reported in my September update, the Goa’uld are known to be active again in our solar system. Well, firstly the Philae probe’s bumpy landing merely annoyed them … but after Team Amberel’s log, the Goa’uld poo really hit the fan (it’s green, by the way). They were livid. They immediately activated their Stargate and then beamed down using their ring transporter. But of course it was a false alarm. The so-called ‘game-piece’ (this term annoyed the Goa’uld too - these Earthlings don’t recognise extra-terrestrial technology when they see it) was just fine, lying quietly exactly where it is supposed too. The Stargate mission’s detailed instructions call for expert navigation, and expert navigation is indeed required. The challenge has been set, and the challenge remains …

Veni vidi defui. This cache has been nearly a year in the solving, and unfortunately the difficulties we had getting to the start point continued once we reached the physical stage. Looking at it in a maybe generous light, I reckon we managed about two thirds of it. It is possible one game piece may be missing or moved, or maybe we were just insufficiently observant. But the final problem was one of being unable to match our location to the map in areas we hadn't previously visited.

Having invested so much effort in solving the puzzle, I'm sure we will be back to finish the job .

Rgds, Andy

Dr Jackson is currently on secondment to the ESA. While the official line on the Rosetta/Philae/Osiris mission is to land a robot on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for scientific purposes, these not-so-subtle space/Egyptology links are not lost on those of us in the know. Dr Jackson’s theory is this ‘comet’ is cloaked Goa’uld technology, and that they may be returning to repair their Stargate SN13…

So he asked me to check the site. I can report that all is in order, in all Areas. We await Philae’s landing on 67P’s site J with much interest.

There was a long period there where I thought this and my other listings on this site had been lost forever beyond the event horizon of a black hole. However, fittingly in this case it appears that a wormhole has been navigated back out again, with no permanent damage. Professor Hawking should be notified, since I understand he’s been modifying his theories recently (although I don’t think he’s quite ready to embrace Stargates just yet).

I can’t reproduce my congratulatory message to the pioneering Stargateers in its original form here, since all solvers enter into a binding pact never to broach that particular subject again - but a plain old “Well done” will hopefully suffice.

And unfortunately no, there are (at least) two things over which I appear to have no control: the aurora borealis, and the availability of this listing site. (However, if the supposed naturally occurring “aurora” was in fact a result of commuting extraterrestrial lifeforms, that’s another matter entirely…)

I'm afraid I'm going to struggle to remain on theme for this log. I am only familiar with the topic due to the few propaganda messages still played on our monitors from time to time. The presence of Slave Mines is barely touched upon by Hawkins and McCamley, so I'm upset I missed the chance of attending Dr Jacksons lecture. Still, upon hearing of this bit of local history, no matter how hushed up it was, I had to know more. And so, after our recent success in tracking down Der Fahrers belongings I was invited to join habitual abanazar FTFers, pljg and bradlad. The homework was done and a date was set. I arrived at our rendezvous well before pljg and bradlad as they were held up by a crashed ship near fiveways junction.
We kitted up and headed through the first gate (with my improvised key - I seem to have temporarily mislaid my other) - The trickiest navigation was first and it was only here that we struggled but soon pljg discovered what was required resting by the skull of a poor slaves companion. Further clues as to the Goa'uld's use of the mine and the local populace we discovered until we reached the penultimate stage. Here it took quite a while to obtain the information we needed - firstly we needed to 'La Cucaracha the pig' - and then we forgot to use the most recently obtained information. But soon we knew what we had to do. 
We headed onwards, deeper and further than ever before. We discovered what must've been a temple, more likely Goa'uld rather than slave. We found ancient portals, no doubt leading to more nefarious locations of the slave mine. We braved poisonous gases. And eventually we reached our goal. Treasure was plundered (thanks very much) It was then time to seek the exit. This was achieved at near light speed and there was only a brief worry when my key initially failed to free us. We exited the mine at 1:20 am euphoric and tired. 
Another classic from the abanazar stable. Thank you so much for all the hard work that went into it and I hope we left things in such a way that others can follow. 
Post script: I particularly enjoyed one aspect of the puzzle and had a giggle at the idea of someone happening by whilst it was being created. 

A Goa'uld computer virus has prevented us from reporting our successful SG-BA15 mission to the slave mines and many elements of our adventure have been classed as state (or county) secrets.  I can reveal that steady progress was made with the puzzle in spite of me having lost interest after series 1 or so.  In fact, Colonel BradLad may have begun to lose patience with emails along the lines of, "I've solved stage X but I'm stuck now" every hour.

The puzzle was solved but Major antpeng was busy with a half-term expedition and it became clear that the mission would have to be attempted under cover of darkness.  We had travelled through this gate before but this trip took us into deeper and more dangerous regions than we had previously seen.  I can hardly bear to think about the lives of the Goa'uld's slaves.

Navigation proved tricky in places but we were well prepared and only once became briefly "misplaced".  In fact, the most nerve wracking time for me was the minutes spent attempting to dial up the final coordinates.  I worried for a while that our efforts had been for nothing and also had time to begin to contemplate the amount of rock a foot above my head.

Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a mission that, technically, spanned two days and I wonder now whether, what with all the wormhole travelling, we got the date wrong in our log entry.

Once we had found our quarry, we made for our exit gate.  It turned out that Dr Jackson's mission time estimate was very accurate including the few minutes (although it felt much longer) that Major antpeng spent trying to open that final stargate.  This was a worthy cache for my trusty military boots (Wickes regiment, Trowbridge platoon) finally to fall apart.

Thanks yet again to abanazar.  Was it mere coincidence that the aurora borealis was sighted over Wiltshire in the days following our mission?

I have been a bit naughty and left a couple of groundspeak-based trackables behind, since they seemed a good match for this adventure (Freestone Mask & Green Heinzi). But in a couple of weeks I'll probably feel guilty and go and fetch them back again, if no-one finds them in the meantime, so their owners needn't worry.