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!
Another rainy start to the day meant we stayed indoors until it had cleared up a bit. But the temporary dog needed a walk and once the precipitation had ceased, we all headed out along the seafront for a stroll.
It was rather blustery but pleasant enough. The old Regent cinema is always worth a photo or two – and then I remembered there was a cache next door, Hello, Sailor!
I’m staying in Deal with a friend for a few days, and once the overnight storms had passed we headed to St. Margaret’s Bay for a nice lunch in the Pines Café. My friend was dog-sitting for another friend, so after our lunch we took the hound for a walk on the cliffs.
We just happened to be passing the hide at the Lighthouse, Get To The Point, so it would have been rude not to stop and find it!
I had a bunch of gillywig puzzles sitting on the solved-not-found pile, so thought today would be a good opportunity to go and pick them up.
On a whim, I contacted Grahame who happened to be free, so we met up and he was a great guide to the area. One of the best of his we looked for was the hilarious If I Can You Can. Seeing the CO unable to get the log out was worth the FP in itself.
Doing The Can-Can
Tri-Via-L Pursuit was also on the agenda. A most ingenious puzzle which it was great to tick off the list.
Tri-Via? But Which Way First?
A non-gillywig hide was eventually spotted under this pile of crumbling bark – where I had a DNF last summer. GZ had changed significantly, but at least I located it this time.
Remains Of A Tree
There was some odd swag in one cache but the tie looked a tad mouldy. I left it be!
I teamed up with Kitty!! and Mr Crow for another outing today. We decided to go for the latest section of Essex Way caches to be revived, between Cressing and Coggeshall. Handy having two cars, leaving one at each end.
The Long Path Ahead
Most of the pots were easy enough but one or two needed a bit more of a search.
Hmm. Where’s The Cache?
Mr Crow was usually up ahead so we often spotted him grovelling in a bush or behind a telegraph pole before emerging with a pot in hand.
Mr Crow Found It
We spotted some fluffy friends along the way – Alpacas, I think.
Fuzzy Locals!
Occasionally, when Mr Crow couldn’t find one, Kitty would dive in and have a look instead. I think I got to look for a couple!
Send Kitty In…
We enjoyed our walk and the views – especially the rickety old bridge along the river.
Kitty & Crow Near Coggeshall
There was also a hilarious incident at No. 18, which is probably best explained by reading my log. A fave for sure! Forty in the bag today, but that was definitely the most memorable.
It’s CITO weekend so a few of us headed to Danbury Country Park to help the rangers clear some invasive shrubs. There were lots of willing volunteers!
Danbury CITO Working Hard
Ian was hard at work digging a drainage ditch too.
Ian Shovelling
Jill got busy hacking bushes while Rob cleared up.
Rob & Jill Hard At Work
Meanwhile, Shifty Duck was doing his best to “help” clear up the cakes which had been left unattended!
Shifty Duck “Helping”
After a couple of hours hard work we all posed for a picture!
CITO Crew
The event done, I headed towards Southminster to find some caches by bike. Village signs, Church Micros and other random hides which had been staring at me on the map.
Southminster Sign
It was quiet at the station today – hardly any traffic at all!
End Of The Line
The bike was handy to get to a few outliers around the town.
Kitty and I may be ladies who are approaching a certain age, but we’re not beyond having a little adventure from time to time. Today as Kitty’s birthday, and we had earmarked a few highter DT caches to have a got it – either with a ladder or our waders.
With an aggregate age of 100, the pair of us decided that pure tree climbs were rather too much for us, so we came “tooled up” and ready to scale new heights. This D5/T5 was soon in the bag – and we replaced a soggy log while we were about it.
Up There Somewhere!Soggy Damp Log – We Replaced It
Bouyed by our success, we headed to the next target with renewed vigour. This time it was my turn to go up the tree. Undoing the pot one-handed was OK but doing it up again was rather tricky!
The Little Prize 🙂
We had scouted out Do Look Down!!!, a wading cache, a few weeks ago but didn’t have our gear with us. So we came well prepared today. Kitty went in first to grab the cache, then it was my turn to put it back again.
Kitty Goes In FirstMy Turn
Marvellous! Job done. I’m looking rather pleased with myself to have bagged this D2.5/D4.5 pot!
Done It! 🙂
Our final location was around an old gravel pit at Bradwell. I had had a little trad on my GPS for ages, which I picked up quickly on the way – only to discover when I got home that it had been archived the day before due to a non-responsive CO to maintenance! Ah well, it’s still there.
Then we walked around to the main attraction. Gone Fishing!! 4. The GPS was all over the place around GZ but we hacked our way through lots of brambles and eventually got to somewhere which fitted the hints. Kitty gamely walked the plank. I wasn’t going anywhere near it. But to no avail. We scouted another one, much thinner and more feeble, but decided that couldn’t be it. On reflection, it probably was, but neither of us was keen to teeter out on that one, with the evil-looking black gloop below. Hmmm. Might have to give up on this one after all! It was a disappointing end to the outing, but we know our limits!
Today’s outing was a brief solo foray into Hertfordshire to pick up some caches around Amwell, followed by a nice walk around Tiptree Heath back in Essex with geo-buddy Kitty.
My first target in Amwell was a Challenge cache, Spread the Love Challenge (UK) all about resuscitating unloved caches which haven’t been found for over a year. Well I qualified easily enough, but also noted that this cache itself had been unfound since 5th September 2015, even though someone had tried in the interim. Challenge Accepted!
I wandered around for ages and eventually found the box, very sorry for itself, a little way from the co-ords and only just as described by the hint. The contents were pretty soggy.
Soggy Box
However, I unfolded the log and was delighted to find nobody else had signed the book since the last recorded find online – so I had just managed to Resuscitate The Resuscitator Cache! Do I get extra points for that?
Yay! Resuscitate The Resuscitator Cache 🙂
Since I was in the area, and there were some other interesting caches nearby, I made it a little circular walk to pick up a few more. The next one was placed close to the marker for the Greenwich Meridian – but the GPS seemed to think this was a little way off the correct location for E/W 0° 00.000!
GPS At The Post
There was a bit of fine industrial architecture too; the old Victorian Pumping Station along the New River.
Pumped Up At The Pumping Sation
Having finished my walk in Herts, I had a rendez-vous planned with Kitty in Tiptree Heath, to search out a quartet of Mr Crow’s puzzles relating to the tree carvings in the area. There were some great examples. Not sure this lady wanted to be disturbed though!
Do Not Disturb The Lady
Talking of Crows – Corvus plasticus was guarding one of his other puzzles which we had also solved. With the aid of a ladder we had in the car, we soon made quick work of finding the pot and wresting it from the avian beak!
Corvus plasticus Is At Home
Our final port of call this evening was Sing It Again Rod (Encour), an audio conundrum by Fenners1984. We had both had a hand in solving it, so a joint find was a nice way to round off our outing.
I had a day off caching yesterday, as I had to go to London for work. But today I went out for a great 44-cache stroll around Mr Crow‘s Essex 100 – Loop 5 between Tollsebury, Salcott and Tolleshunt D’Arcy. Neither myself nor Kitty had previously done this section of the extended series, and Crow said it needed a maintenance walk, so we agreed to wander round and replace any missing pots where necessary. In the end it was a splendid day out.
Lovely Blue Sky
For reasons I never really understood, Kitty had kidnapped Mr Crow’s Raccoon and was threatening to post it back to him. We just couldn’t fit the damned thing through the slot!
Unexpected Critter In The Posting Area
This penguin was a rather more modest critter found lurking in one of the pots.
Funky Penguin In The Cache
We ended our walk just as some glorious light was highlighting the fields, with moody sky behind. We were glad to get back to the car!
Just the one “find” today, I went to Essex Meet 41 which was fairly close by at The Bull pub in Danbury. Lots of the usual suspects in attendance and much geo-chit-chat, an enjoyable evening out.
