Tag Archives: billericay

first to find, solo

Billericay & Boo!

Trad: 5 Puzzle: 1
Walked: 6.6 miles

Around lunchtime today I noticed a few new caches had been published in Billericay, so I had something to eat and then headed out on the hunt for FTF. I bombed out on one, but managed to locate Caching Crew #5 by ljgeofinder935, which I discovered had a nice blank log sheet on arrival. Hurrah, FTF No. 49.

FTF No. 49
FTF No. 49

Then I headed over to Colchester to explore Westlands Country Park – not an area I have ever visited before. There is a series of caches locally by Boo!!!, which I thought I would look for, and grab any others which were on my way. One such was The Gates Of Eden by foxscout, which was a bit of a pain to find, but I got there in the end.

The Gates Of Eden
The Gates Of Eden

Some of the other Boo hides were guarded by interesting characters! I spotted this duck…

Quacking Good Cache
Quacking Good Cache

… and also this bunny, which was quite difficult to spot. I persevered and eventually found him tucked in a hole.

Bunny Hops!
Bunny Hops!

The evenings are drawing in now, so the sun had set by the time I had finished my searches. I also ended up with a few DNFs – but I suspect that was more to do with my incompetence rather than the fading light.

Sunset Over Westlands Country Park
Sunset Over Westlands Country Park
hq duck dash, solo

Day #382 – Musical Girls’ Medley

Trad: 4 Letterbox: 1
Walked: 2.9 miles

I went for a short stroll near Billericay this afternoon, to collect a few of the replaced UK Mega caches around Barleylands. The new hides, by Musical Girls, were imaginative and fun.

LQ Takes A Bite
LQ Takes A Bite

The letterbox hide was definitely a must for today, as I was trying to maintain my Unusual types streak. Job done here!

Stamp It Up
Stamp It Up

Little Quacker was delighted to find a new place to live! Perfect fit. Although in the end, he decided to make it just a holiday place, and came home with me.

LQ Finds The Perfect Birdhouse!
LQ Finds The Perfect Birdhouse!
hq duck dash, solo

Day #367 – Evening Trio

Trad: 3
Walked: 1.3 miles

I was stuck at home working all day, unable to play. But I skipped out a bit early this evening on the way to my friend’s for dinner, and headed to Crays Hill and Noak Bridge to search out handful of caches. With just one DNF, I managed to bag three quickly. Job done.

First up was a musical girls’ cache, where Little Quacker was pleased to make the acquaintance of a Mr S. Cargo.

LQ And Mr S Cargo
LQ And Mr S Cargo

We found an older cache in the little nature reserve at Noak Bridge – LQ was very surprised to see Santa!

LQ Meets Santa!
LQ Meets Santa!
solo

Day #182 – Stuck In The Mud

2 Comments

Trad: 1
Walked: 1.7 miles

I had a rather sticky experience this morning, trying to find Peachick’s Puzzle in Mill Meadows Nature Reserve in Billericay. It’s been several years since I was last there for a previous cache, which took several fruitless visits before finally locating the prize. But that cache got archived ages ago.

Today I made the mistake of heading into the reserve from the nearest footpath to where I had parked. This turned out to be at the bottom of a very steep, muddy hill. It was a quagmire of boot-sucking mud which, at times, I wasn’t sure if I would get out of with both Wellies still on my feet!

Eventually made my way up the hill but found myself obstructed by a fence running around the little patch of woods, with 190-odd feet still to go. Argh!

So I had to backtrack through some more evil mud, and finally made it to a much firmer (but still muddy) path. Once at GZ I was most relieved to find the cache quite quickly. Phew!

Finally Got It - Phew!
Finally Got It – Phew!
What's In The Box
What’s In The Box

The way back was much more obvious (I wasn’t going back the way I came in!) and the path led out to the main road without much mud at all. Now why hadn’t I found that in the first place?

solo

Day #137 – Drizzle At Sun Corner

Trad: 1
Walked: 2.3 miles

10th December 2015
10th December 2015

Another caching trip by bus today…

On The Bus In Stock
On The Bus In Stock

This time to Billericay to pick up the Sun Corner Park Cache & Dash hide. Pity Sun Corner wasn’t sunny at all – it started to drizzle just as I arrived, but another quick find, thankfully. I enjoyed a panini for lunch in the town before hopping on the bus home again.

with friends

Day #111 – Bailey’s Trail

Multi: 1
Walked: 3.3 miles

14th November 2015
14th November 2015

I’ve been meaning to get together with nearby cacher rachel’n’rio for ages to go out for a tupperware walk. Today we finally managed to co-ordinate our diaries.

We decided to go and look for Bailey’s Trail, a multi just on the northern boundary of Billericay, which neither of us had attempted before.

Found One!
Found One!

Originally there were 5 stages but one went missing before we searched, and we had terrible trouble finding another couple, so in the end we only found two of the hides. A pity, but we thought that was enough to claim the find!