Monthly Archives: June 2016

grand day out, road trip, solo

Day #340 – Sussex Smörgåsbord

Trad: 3 Multi: 5 Letterbox: 2 Earth: 1 Virtual: 3 Whereigo: 1
Walked: 11.9 miles

I was going to stay with muggle friends near Shoreham this evening, but having spent overnight in Chichester, that meant I had all day to have a potter around West Sussex, looking for several different tasty cache types.

My first was a Virtual inside the famous Goodwood Aerodrome (used for flying and racing) – at the statue of an iconic WWII pilot.

Virtual In Goodwood
Virtual In Goodwood

The next stop was Worthing, for a lovely walk around the town following a Whereigo:

Worthing Whereigo
Worthing Whereigo

Nearby were a couple of Letterbox hides which were easy finds after a nice little walk. I wasn’t so sure about the dude guarding this one!

Letterbox Hide
Letterbox Hide

The final location of the day was Shoreham-by-Sea, where I picked up another Virtual at the old lighthouse, and took a longer walk for some other types of cache.

Another Virtual In Shoreham
Another Virtual In Shoreham

Of course, there were a few Church Micro multis in the mix!

Church Micro Multi
Church Micro Multi

Then I relocated to Shoreham Beach to complete the Earthcache on the shingle. It wasn’t very cold but it was extremely windy out there!

Shoreham Beach Earth Cache
Shoreham Beach Earth Cache

Finally, I had a rest on a bench and found its secret hiding underneath. Ella was the view.

Seat With A View
Seat With A View

Originally, my reason for being in Shoreham this evening was to attend a Boat Only event, to christen my newly-acquired inflatable kayak, Boaty McBoat Face. But as the event time drew nearer (7:30pm) the weather got worse – threatening with rain and very cold and windy. I scouted the location and decided that, as a novice, I wasn’t really up to launching at any of the given points, so decided to bow out gracefully and go to meet my muggle friends a bit earlier. They were delighted to see me, and I was delighted to get warm again!

challenge cache, road trip

Day #339 – West Sussex Trio

Trad: 1 Challenge: 1 Virtual: 1
Walked: 3.6 miles

After attending a funeral of a local geocacher early this afternoon, I headed off to West Sussex for my planned trip away. On the way to Chichester, I stopped off to look for three Challenge caches, the Well-Rounded Cacher Challenge Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Unfortunately, I bombed out on Bronze (now proven missing and subsequently replaced) and Silver (just too much vegetation to search in the pouring rain). But I finally struck GOLD – wasn’t sure how, but there it was! Phew.

Well-Rounded Cacher Challenge - Gold
Well-Rounded Cacher Challenge – Gold

Nearer where I was staying, I climbed up Trundle Hill to bag a brace – an old Virtual and Trad. I got there to find the cloud base was almost the same height as the hill, and the wind was howling, but both caches were in the bag.

Trundle One (West Sussex)
Trundle One (West Sussex) – There’s The Trig Point!
Trundle Tots (West Sussex)
Trundle Tots (West Sussex) – Windswept Up Here!

Satisfied with today’s finds, I headed off to my hotel to warm up and have some dinner.

solo

Day #338 – The Doctor’s Lost His Tardis

Trad: 1
Walked: 4.4 miles

Having seen the weather forecast for this evening, I decided it was best to look for a cache before work this morning.

I parked up close by and went on a little wander. Eventually found the Doctor’s assistant Holly (she was everywhere!) but I managed to work my way to the Tardis. It was a quicker find than the time it took me to get around the M25 roundabout this morning!

Tardis Tin!
Tardis Tin!
solo

Day #337 – Potters Crouch Potter

Trad: 14
Walked: 8.2 miles

The Potters Crouch area was my target for this evening’s outing. There were a few caches with some great DT ratings and I earned my stars as the going was tough in places!

One of the first caches was Bedmond Rat Run 1 – with a rather scary guy guarding the pot:

Scary Cache Guardian
Scary Cache Guardian

Fallen Arrow, a D3/T5 hide. It was rather hard going to get to this one, so I was pleased to have ticked it off the list.

Tricky Fallen Arrow
Tricky Fallen Arrow

I saw some lovely poppies in the fields along the way.

Poppy Along The Way
Poppy Along The Way

All in all, a decent haul of 14 trads today, I went home happy.

solo

Day #336 – Farewell, Shenley

Trad: 3 Puzle: 1
Walked: 6.1 miles

I’ve been working near Shenley for most of June, and today was one of my last days in the area. So I thought I would attempt to mop up the remaining unfound caches in the village and pick up the Shenley Loop Bonus. This was a nice view from The View.

Shenley - The View
Shenley – The View

I had enough information for the Bonus cache and did the numbers – which plotted out to somewhere easily reached. By the time I was at GZ, it was beginning to rain quite hard, so I was very grateful for a quick find, especially given the previous two logs were “finds” but the cachers said they were “in the right place but couldn’t find anything – it must be missing”. That’s a DNF in my book…. Anyway…

Shenley Loop Bonus
Shenley Loop Bonus

Sure enough, the log showed that neither of the previous “finders” had signed it, but I was definitely in the right place. Hurrah!

Goodies Inside
Goodies Inside
solo

Day #334 – The Morning After The Night Before

Trad: 1
Walked: 5.0 miles

It think the country is in shock, given the “out” vote. It was very close! The Morning After The Night Before I was far too tired to find anything (having been up doing a Night Shift since yesterday), but after a little sleep at a nearby hotel, I headed off to find another of the Shenley Loop before meeting colleagues for dinner.

Des Res Near The Cache
Des Res Near The Cache
solo

Day #331 – Two “Greats” Gadabout

Trad: 16 Multi: 1 Puzzle: 1
Walked: 8.7 miles

I headed north today, to visit caches around Great Leighs and Great Notley. It was a productive day. My first stop was back to Infinson’s hide, Private Godfrey, which I had DNF’d a few days ago while doing his Walmington Wander. It was actually AWOL but he replaced it very quickly. And that made for a quick find this morning!

A Bit Flooded Here
A Bit Flooded Here

Then it was onto several of CHUNKY-BMW’s Ancient Byways series. I found Pooh guarding one box, happily smiling:

Pooh Is Always Smiling
Pooh Is Always Smiling

I was also pleased to be able to test my shiny (spotty!) new full-length wellies. I finally killed my half-calf pair last week!

New Wellies At A Waterfall!
New Wellies At A Waterfall!

This one was a tricky little whatsit at Great Notley, but luckily I had found a similar one recently in Kent, so it didn’t have me fooled for long.

You Are Tricky
You Are Tricky

This old nag was concealing the cache near the Chelmsford City Racecourse!

Gee-Up!
Gee-Up!

I polished off a few of Repton1973’s Metalhead Mysteries, which I had already solved, with a few more I need to work on now. There were some other tricky finds around Great Notley, I nearly missed this one in all the ivy.

Hiding In Plain Sight
Hiding In Plain Sight

And the last one I wrapped up with was a multi with Bryan the Snail guarding the final hide. He wasn’t real, but very much looked the part!

Bryan's New Home
Bryan’s New Home