Loads more walking today, before and after work. I started close to Liverpool Street by finally locating the elusive puzzle, O Where O Where Can That Little Cache Be? It had been bugging me for ages! The log was pretty full but I managed to cram my name in.
Squeezing My Name In
Another puzzle which had been outstanding for too long was Beck, based around the London Underground map. The other day, I finally made some progress with the solve and was rewarded with the little devil when I searched the correct spot this morning. Very satisfying to have ticked it off, at last!
Beck – The View At GZ
Work took up the majority of the day, but I went for a walk afterwards, firstly around Surrey Row and then to the north bank of the Thames to look for a couple of Swan to Canary series. The Shard and Tower Bridge looked impressively illuminated this evening.
The Shard At NightTower Bridge Goes Purple!
My final success was the Livchurch Street multi, which I had previously DNF’d but luckily had a brainwave about this evening. Then a weary walk back to Liverpool Street to get the train home.
I had been on a night shift in London all night, so what did I do? Yes, go for a caching expedition before heading home to bed! What do you mean, I’m mad?
Strand Lane Roman Baths were my first stop. You can’t have a bath there now, but you can work out where the cache is hidden!
Stagger Down The Steps
Next on my agenda was a trip to Brompton. I didn’t see any folding bikes, but I did spot some wonderful Autumnal colours while I was searching for CM2691 at Holy Trinity Brompton.
Lovely Autumn Colours
One of the many puzzle icons on the London map is Routemaster No. 9. For some reason, I had been putting off attempting this one for ages, probably due to how spread out the waypoints were, but a week or so in the capital had meant I could look for a few on foot each night on the way home from work. By this morning, I had enough info to head for the final destination.
I was rather hoping to spot one of the lovely old Routemaster buses, but I only saw a new “Boris Bus” variant today, as I made my way to GZ.
Routemaster No. 9
I do like it when the final key of a puzzle fits into place. And I was happy to have found the cache at the end point, after all that work.
Who Has The Key?
The TUBE SideTracked hide in Bayswater had a very nosy neighbour which kept looking at my while I was searching for the cache! I hope his bite is not as bad as it looks!
Big Cat Watching Me
By now I was almost dead on my feet, so I hopped on the nearest tube train back to Liverpool Street and made my way home to bed, at last.
My previous best cache-types-in-a-day was 5, a few years ago. But there are a few Challenge Caches which like you to have found 8 in one day, so I had been planning a trip to Greenwich, Lewisham and Central London for today, to coincide with an Event by a visiting Polish cacher and his daughter. Perfect! Sadly, I can’t go for 9 types in London as I’ve already found the only webcam cache at Abbey Road. I’ve also been saving London’s only Letterbox cache for such an outing. Here’s how my day panned out:
The first Virtual of the day was in Greenwich Foot Tunnel, SUBTERRANEAN SUB-AQUA (Isle of Dogs/Greenwich).
First Virtual Of The Day, Greenwich Foot Tunnel
The event was next, organised by krogulec, (+Amelka), First Caching In London. It was a nice little international gathering with visitors from Poland, Czech Republic, Germand and Italy, as well as a few locals.
Event In Greenwich
The Whereigo, Church Micro 3690…Greenwich-St Alfege, was a bit of a challenge as the cartridge should have been updated with a slightly different location hint, but thankfully the CO was quick to reply to my message and I found it soon after that. The Whereigo was also an excellent third type of CM for my mini 7-day streak.
Whereigo Finally Found!
I found a couple of trads too, the first was in a murky Isle of Dogs. By the time I got to Blackheath, the sun had come out as I found Ranger’s House.
Second Trad Of The Day
I picked up three Puzzle caches in Blackheath, this lovely square was the location of Icons Golden Oldies Challenge.
Puzzle In Greenwich
The Earth Cache I had targeted was on Point Hill, overlooking the city, one of the Battle of Britain Earthcaches.
Location Of The Earth Cache, Greenwich
Next stop was the Multi at Church Micro 8128…Blackheath – Ascension, with a surprising final GZ guarded by a fake crow!
First Multi, Blackheath
The final type on my list was the Letterbox Church Micro 7456. .. Blackfriars-St Andrew near St. Paul’s. Another surprising final GZ, but I won’t give that away, it would spoil the surprise.
Letterbox Success!
Having completed that challenge, I also wanted to make it 5 virtual finds today, for another challenge cache. I’d found two in Greenwich, two around Tower Bridge and then struck out at my final target – at 4:30pm on a Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t get anywhere near the location!
So, despite the distance, I decided Plan B was in order – I got on the Circle Line from Tower Hill to Paddington and quickly found Paddington Dare. Phew! 5 in the bag.
Final Virtual Of The Day, Number 5
However, the day wasn’t without cost – I felt like I was coming down with a fluey lurgy by the time I got to Paddington, so some hastily purchased drugs from Boots on the platform gave me the strength to get home, where I collapsed on the sofa!
