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Thanks quisling. I was going north from the f. The version I have seems very north from there. But just checked the associated word and it is odd.

Just wasted most of an afternoon on the first half. Finally have it. Can't find a legible version of the second note anywhere. Brilliant.

This is a masterpiece of construction and a complete pain in the arse to finish.

Indeed, sh. The penultimate sentence of the preamble is key in this process. Without it you could easily assume north, but actually it’s north west

Google the second and third words of the first part and “futility closet” and you’ll find the one I used

Yes, I saw that one. A third of the symbols are indecipherable to me, including the first one. Could be one, two or three loops.

sh - are you reading it correctly. It doesn’t go too to bottom - it goes left to right if you turn the page

Thanks candledave, I was reading it top to bottom but had tried rotating it before I saw your note (for what reason??) and have now got 7 letters that make sense. I am guessing the next three I need complete an existing entry, but there is no way those symbols can get to those letters that I can see.

sh, I too used the futility closet version but found a lot of it illegible. I had convinced myself what the 2nd message must be due to both its relevance and its length. The start of that message is easy to identify from the cipher, so I just plotted a way though the grid to find it all and then back engineered my path to suit the cipher. That worked for me, and as stated earlier, there are no previously encountered cells which does simplify things. Like you say, a real pain in the bum.

Sorry SH, I have just rechecked my path and the 5th letter of the 2nd message is revisited.

Thanks Gitto

Is that definitely right on the second path? My first 7 letters seem to make sense and I haven't got any revisits?

My 7th letter is the L in the third column - is that right?

Based on my reading of the note and the associated words, the next four moves are:

2 N
2 E
2 E
2 NE

This seems to produce gobble de gook though. Can anyone confirm whether I'm in the right place, and correct any of the above that's incorrect?

Thanks