I’ve been meaning to tackle Mr Crow’s Great Braxted Wall series for literally years. But there always seemed to be other caches which moved higher up the to do list. Today I remedied that situation and had the company of the Corvine CO himself, who wanted to do some maintenance while we were out. A grand walk of just over 10 miles. Tiring at Crow’s pace but rewarding to finally get these turned into smilies.
Another Brick In The Wall
The walk out was fine, but we met a few obstructions along the way which had to be negotiated carefully!
Tree Obstruction
Did I mention Mr Crow’s frenetic pace? I think he slowed up a bit for me, but this was usually the view I had!
Mr Crow Strides Ahead
Once the wall itself was completed, we added a few more on the loop back, which were also orphans on my map.
E VII R Postbox
As well as a rare Edward VII Postbox, we also saw a crowd of bemused looking sheep who just stared at us as we went past. Silly creatures!
Bemused Sheep
A grand walk and good company too. Apart from the sheep!
I’ve been banging my head against a few more of Mr Crow‘s evil Rally Round puzzles recently. I finally had two more cracked, and was pretty sure of a third, so I set off for Tiptree today to see what I could find.
The first was RR212 – Unproven Conjcture which I had sorted out rather quicker than anticipated. No trouble with the find. Next on my list was RR218 – Disdyakis Triacontahedron. Yes, that’s a mouthful.
The “solve” entailed playing an online betting game enough times that you eventually came out “on top”. Well, thankfully no money was changing hands, or I might have been bankrupt! But eventually I beat the odds and was taken to a most intriguing location. I won’t say much more, but it’s a wonder how Mr Crow finds these hidden gems! A bit of poking about soon produced the goods.
Disdyakis Triacontahedron!
After my two certs, there was just RR213 – Brouwer left. This intriguing geo-spacial puzzle can be solved mathematically, but stuff that for a game of soldiers! I used some Ninja Photoshop skills which produced a loose plot worth looking at. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long before I had this delightful little duckie in hand!
Local caching buddy Kitty!! has family down in Eastbourne. She hates the drive there and back when it has to be done in a day, and was glad of some company. So I was able to hitch a ride, go and play on the seafront on my geo-bike while she went to do the family business.
I found plenty of caches along the way, including SideTracked, Church Micros and some solved puzzles which I had prepared for the trip.
SideTracked Eastbourne
Moving inland from the seafront to find some CMs…
CM8354
The bike made life a lot easier and I was able to cover much more ground than if I had just been on foot.
CM4435
We wrapped up with a quick find on the Downs under a great sunset, before heading back to Essex in Kitty’s car.
It’s been about 7 years since I started on McWomble‘s linked Church Micro series, scattered about on the Dengie peninsula. I’ve had a few of the numbers safely written down for ages, but made a concerted effort to gather a few more a couple of months ago. Then I promptly forgot about them again.
Today I decided to see if I could finally put the series to bed. Several Bonus churches needed collecting, and the Bonus Bonus! (McWomble doesn’t do things by halves). Actually, most of these have now been adopted by Bean & Sprout, but they remain evil and pretty much in their original locations.
The first target was CM541 Mayland which I found eventually after barking up the wrong place for several minutes. It’s a nice neat little church quite a way from the village centre.
CM541 Mayland
I stopped for another puzzle by Bean & Sprout next, Joker – which required a bit of bog snorkelling, but I had come prepared! It’s not a T4 for nothing… Then a quick trad on the way to CM538 Asheldham. Thankfully this was a quick find.
CM538 Asheldham
CM536 Tillingham was next, which led me a bit of a merry dance. Eventually I spotted it somewhere where I should have noticed it before.
CM536 Tillingham
One more bonus church to go – CM545 Bradwell St. Thomas. It’s a notoriously difficult one to find, even though it only gets a D2 rating. I’m sure the older ones are harder than some now! Anyway, after much grovelling all I came away with were damp knees and stung hands. Drat.
However, undeterred, I was only missing one bonus number, so I headed off to CM546 Bradwell St. Peter and sat in the car park to think about where it might be. Luck was on my side – the number I was missing was only going to be one of a couple of values, since it would be in the sea otherwise! So I made a guess and headed off to my GZ.
Silent Spinners – Near CM546
I was delighted to find the pot, exactly where it should be. Hurrah! So, just the one cache in the series still to find, but I’ll come back for that another day.
I headed over to St. Lawrence Bay today to look for a series of hides along the sea wall. The afternoon started off sunny, although the wind was rather keen in places!
Boats In The Bay
Being close to the Winter Solstice, the light didn’t last very long. The golden grasses were soon illuminated by orange light from the fading sun.
Golden Light On Grasses
The sunset happened at about the time I had just turned from the furthest point from the car, heading back. The clouds were rather good too.
Spectacular Sunset
Having had a DNF on a tricky D4 hide on the way out (think tupperware box under a pile of rocks), I finally bagged the tricky blighter by torchlight on the return leg. Hurrah!
I have been looking at the map and noticed several orphans around Rayleigh and Hullbridge, so today I set out to turn them into smileys. I had mixed success. This sad little box was found, out in the open, but no log or other bits. I re-hid it with some more camo, but I fear GZ may have been irrevocably compromised, since there was lots of rubbish strewn around the area.
A Sorry Little Box
The next target was a DNF – I’m pretty sure I found the right place but no cache. The only evidence was this bit of camo ribbon wrapped around a branch.
Vanished
Oh well, Hullbridge was a bit more productive, and I saw a lovely sunset as well, so worth staying out for!
Today’s little outing was to Wheatley Wood, a patch of land just to the west of Rayleigh. It’s a bit of a noman’s land, but there are public footpaths which crisscross the area.
Under The Pylon
One section is dominated by a huge pylon – but that was rather convenient for finding the cache, since it was at the bottom!
Autumn Colours
There were some lovely Autumnal colours on show today, as well as a few windfall apples on the ground. I must admit they didn’t look too appetising – so I left them where they were!
I noticed a couple of new multis have sprung up in Fyfield recently, so this afternoon I decided to head over the for a little walk.
The first was along a track to the north west of the village which I hadn’t really explored before. The cache was soon in hand once I had done the number-crunching.
Oak Leaf On The Path
The second was a multi starting at Canon’s Green. It was a bit tricky to spot the info I needed (the hint as to what I was looking for was pretty cryptic). But eventually the penny dropped and I headed off up a short section of The Essex Way – familiar territory here from a previous visit a while ago. The Viking Treasure was soon located!
Along The Essex Way
While I was in the area, I also scouted out resetting a section of The Essex Way between a stretch starting just south of Canon’s Green along to Willingale, to meet up with PeCeH‘s section there. All the pots were still in place from when they were originally archived, so I replaced the logs with fresh ones and went home to publish 15 caches under the title of Essex Way Redux. All in all a good day’s work.
