XWord Muggles Forum

Okay.... so how is orienteering different than just going on a hike? I'm having a real conceptual disconnect.

DeMOATed... and DisORIENTed. ;) Thanks, Ben.

ANother 24 hours, another 6 solvers, bringing us to 11:

Berto
markhr
woozy
JM
Ninji
Tyrpmom

OK, OK, now I'll release the nudges!

Nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:

1. Your only clue is the title, but you might have noticed that the grid is even more symmetric than usual.

2. 4 significantly-located entries are missing some letters.

3. Orienteering requires a compass.

4. What you are looking for would be much harder to find if it was hidden in a haystack!

Needed that last nudge (knew all the other stuff) — but still took a few tries to get it right.. PHEW, glad that’s solved. All my very clever other guesses are on the Crosshare comments.

Ben you stumped a lot of us this week!

Made it across the MOAT after getting re-oriented. Had all the pieces of this “build-it-yourself “ answer but could not follow the right steps. Clever and novel as is the Aussie’s norm, obviously cleverer than this Yank. Thanks Ben.

Well, finally crossed the moat, but only because a kind Muggle took pity on my and loaded me onto an oxcart and towed me across the drawbridge. Even with the nudges I was still hopelessly lost. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben (I guess)!

Needed nudge 4 to find my way to the castle - tricky, but clever in several different ways, Ben!

Whew!! FINALLY found my way out! (with the nudges)


Very clever, Ben. Thanks!

Never solved since I've been traveling in Lithuania since Tuesday.
I have done orienteering in the past, and here's a plaque from a park in Vilnius we happened upon!
(I seriously doubt there are any spoilers here!)

Solver update:

HeadinHome
Mg305
LarsCaine
Pair O Ducks
DrTom
DCBilly
kymike
lbray53
omnilynx
Johnny Luau
Cindy Weatherman
Meg
MatthewL
Tyler Stokes
rjy
Abide
Danny K Bernstein
kurtalert
atsiricajr111191
KayW
G1ng3rBr43d

That's a total of 32. Final update before the answer reveal in less than 24 hours...

One additional solver:

Laura M

That's 33, and it's time for the answer reveal...

Here's the solution to "Let's Go Orienteering":


This one proved more difficult than I anticipated. Hopefully, though, the next time you are lost in the woods with a compass you will be prepared!

I had a lot of trouble finding an entry for SOUTH. It had to be a word or phrase that fitted into a 5-letter entry once the direction was omitted. In the end, I stumbled across this movie quote and breathed a sigh of relief:


And I have a surprise for you! A bonus MOAT puzzle that's related to this one!

Apparently I don’t know how a compass works. Figured the needle was pointing southwest or northeast depending on how you interpreted the direction of the needle…

Then again I don’t go to any woods and don’t own a compass so… still a very nicely constructed meta. Nice job, Ben!