A secret cache in the hills above Wasdale is waiting to be discovered in a mystery challenge.
In spite of clues given away by the author of two Lakes-based crime novels, the cache – and a prize for the finder – has not yet been claimed.
So novelist Andrew Bibby has decided to give a full map reference to help walkers track it down.
He hid the cache near the scene of the alleged crime in his latest book In the Cold of the Night, which was published last week.
Bibby hides the secret cache
The story features a mystery in the fells and an investigative journalist who is a fellrunner and a member of the local mountain rescue team. Bibby spent some time with rescuers researching details for the book, and is donating a percentage of all sales fees to the LAMRT.
The publishers (Gritstone Publishing) have also reissued Bibby’s previous Lakeland crime novel in a companion volume, The Bad Step, another murder story set this time above the Langdale valley on the mountain ridge called the Crinkle Crags, which has to date been available only on Kindle. In that story, one of the runners in a championship fell race is found dead on the route.
Andrew Bibby is a professional writer and journalist, whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent and other national papers. He is the author of several non-fiction books about northern England landscapes, including the walking guide The Backbone of England. He’s a fell runner and has completed many of the classic Lakeland fell races, and the Joss Naylor challenge.
He said: “Working with the mountain rescue team has been great fun, and I’m pleased to be supporting them.
“I set the mystery near the route of one of the Lakes’ classic fell races.”
The first person to find it will win dinner for two at the Regent Hotel at Waterhead near Ambleside.
There’s a second page in the cache which walkers are asked to return to its hiding place – after taking a selfie with the clue. “If you find it, all the instructions are there. But the geocache is in rough mountainous terrain at over 1500 ft height and so people looking for it need appropriate mountain experience and clothing, and need to take account of the weather… and you look for it at your own risk.”
And that key map reference? 14532 09109.
If the cache is still not found, Bibby will release another clue next week.
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