The Curse of the Hippo

In my short career as a geocacher I have had the pleasure of attempting / completing many caches set by local legends Team Hippo. All of their caches I have done regardless of type have been beautifully set, and inspirational. The downside of these caches is that they are very addictive! I have lost days stuck in mental anguish over some of these caches but there is a warning that comes with doing too many Team Hippo caches a curse of sorts, other caches are just not as fun and sadly often pale in comparison. Dare you try some of the caches listed below?

In Progress:

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Completed:

07/23/11 Hew'n'Cry Bruad (Bucks)  I have been working on this one on and off for a month I was determined to do it without any help. Having read the same Simon Singh book as mentioned by Kebabs, and spending many happy hours creating and cracking codes previously I felt I was well in my comfort zone. My confidence soon started to wane however, despite throwing everything at the puzzle I got exactly nowhere and was starting to resort to trying random keywords at it in desperation. In the end after a lot of work, I fired off an email to the owners asking for a small prod in the right direction. The owner was away but still managed to contact me to pass on some correct, incorrect, irrelevant type of answers to a list of things I knew or hoped I knew. When he got back home he sent a further email to further clarify a few things, I could tell I was amusing him with my wild theories. More head scratching and more wild ideas about how to crack it another week passed. I sent another email to the owner to confirm some more crazy theories. It was at this point the owner quite rightly assessed that I was not going to get it without a solid clue and gave me the same clue as he'd given several others. He said I would kick myself and I did all the clues were there from my initial work and the keyword was among the very first I tried and was sat there large as life in the original email. The rest of the cache unlocked easily and I collected the final with no drama with my 4 year old daughter in shorts without an injury or sting to speak of. Really great cache to finish with, it was quite exposed so I have made it a bit harder to spot with the naked eye. Overall an epic mentally difficult cache and a new favourite point easily earned. I just wish I had had that spark of genius at the start I was so close and yet a million miles away. Thanks for the cache and all your help Team Hippo as always amazingly friendly,  helpful and inspiring. One unexpected bonus I have got from doing this cache is the sheer amount of crazy ideas and avenues of enquiry I investigated needlessly will no doubt end up in a cache of my own someday... perhaps I'll call it Hippo Bait 

05/02/2011  Henton Badgers (Oxon)

Nice cache well tucked away. Lots of lambs and foals and all sorts of nature. Why are there no caches in the chilterns near Chinnor hill we had a nice walk but nothing to find up there, shame.
Dropped off Soldier stef TB. TFTC

05/29/2011  Midsomer Murder Meander (Bucks)

After working out the coordinates of the first micro and finding the onward coordinates we headed to them to "quiz Eli and Violet". We found a container easily enough but it did not contain any onward coordinates that we could find, possibly because the log book is so damp. We could not work out the Eli and Violet clue and properly confused we headed back to the car. Signed the log book and put it into a second bag to protect it from the elements a bit better TNLN. Will have a good think about this one and if I notice that people are still managing to do this with the log book in it's current state we might to and have another go sometime in the future.

NOTE: Hi to the second lot of geocachers who we met on the way down. Hope they have better luck than us getting to the final cache

UPDATE: Even more confused now after reading the logs there are people and even some pictures showing the container we found saying they found the final container!? Maybe this should be a "found it" log after all but I thought there was a final stage. I shall hire a detective forthwith

UPDATE2: Thanks for the messages from Team Hippo and Nobblyrob changing this to a found it log. Mental note read the description and don't read too much into things this a simple two stage cache... feel a bit daft for spending so much time examining everything purple in the vicinity of the cache and for searching the internet when I got home . Still it's definitely a memorable cache now

07/10/2011  Past Chilton Old Chapel (Bucks)

I escaped my lab today where I have been working day and night on Hew'n'Cry Bruad. I figured I would do a nearby cache for a change of pace. I started on Bear Huggers nearby but I did it much quicker than I thought I would so I did a search for nearby caches and this one popped up, so without any research I trundled along the road a bit and started it. About half way through I realised that this was another Team Hippo cache! My old nemesis, the Moriarty to my Holmes, the fly in my ointment!!! Surprisingly this turned out to be a very pleasant walk around a beautiful little village as promised with no mental torture in sight, I can only assume this is an early work from the master of terror . As always very well thought out and a wonderful attention to detail. Thanks for the cache, TNLNSL.

06/18/2011  Snakemoor Revisited (Bucks)

We attempted this one while actively avoiding Peter Andre who is opening the Thame carnival today, and the crowds of adoring weirdos / fans who are clogging up the place. No snakes today but lots of dog walking muggles at the micro, this felt harder than a two difficulty but having tried some other Team Hippo caches they are on a different level so knew what I was letting myself in for, even so I still went in shorts with the kids (3 and 5) so it's not that tough. They were a bit scared of finding snakes which turned to excitement once we were there not sure what would happen if they actually saw one. Got a very detailed account of what to expect from snakes including who would win in a fight a BATalisk or a FEEnix I suspect I know the source of this new found knowledge. Must admit I know much more about imaginary creatures than real ones and my kids seem to be the same. Took TB. TFTC.

06/23/2011  Changing Times...

The puzzle was a tricky one that took several weeks to crack I ended up asking my father who is the font of all knowledge. His speciality is History rather than maths so I had to sit through a lecture on what the Romans got up to in the area , (Unless there is treasure I don't care too much!). We realised quickly that we were dealing with an obfuscation cipher and would need some tools that we did not have at hand but a quick shop on Amazon and the items were sent by courier for same day delivery! I'm not sure how much I can say about how to solve it, the hint is useful but you might also want to reflect on the original coordinates and take a good look at the arial photography near the site, I've probably been a bit too bold by telling you this much and will be punished by the owner, but he'll have to catch me first .

Feeling smug about solving the puzzle. I headed off to the cache itself hoping for a quick cache and dash. I think that would have been on the cards if I had not barrelled in with my usual bravado. Half way through a crop field cut to ribbons on arms and legs I started to wish I had taken Dr. Sollys advise on wearing long trousers and then disaster! My phone case was missing I presume I have dropped it somewhere in the field so if you fancy a real treasure hunt feel free to have a go at that. Just got home and got a replacement £22 ye gads! The cache site itself was interesting I circled it looking for easy access and ended up barrelling in again. After a fair amount of time looking in the wrong area and very nearly mistaking a birds nest complete with egg for the cache it was eventually quite an easy find. I headed back doing two more trips through the crop field to try and find the missing case and am now bleeding freely from all manner of injuries. This is certainly a memorable cache for me if maybe not for all the right reasons. As always great stuff Team Hippo, I look forward to the next mystery .

06/21/2011  Lucky Horseshoe (Bucks)

Well lets start the next 100 as we left off the last with a Team Hippo cache! Taking it decidedly more easy today with fairly quick nip up the road to pick up the nearest one to home. Somehow when you are finishing an area and have done the easy ones then the tricky ones and you start to mop up the difficult ones it's always Team Hippo for the very last one 

06/20/2011  Two for the Price of One (Oxon)

A nice easy one! Picked up on the 19th while doing the Thame Town Teaser and logged along with it today, see that log entry for more details

06/20/2011  Chapter and Verse (Bucks)

After three visits and extensive research I have happily found this "easy" Team Hippo Cache. Really great find in the graveyard how do you do it! as always the brilliant Team Hippo never fail to impress and put a smile on my face. This was educational in many ways and was a nice little diversion from the main event (see next two logs!). TFTC