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!
It had been raining for most of the day but it finally stopped around 4:30pm, so I headed out to find a few boxes before the Essex Meet #40 near Braintree. I hit the A12 just as the slow slog commute began, so arrived in Rivenhall End a little later than I had hoped.
Parking the car, I headed towards gillywig’sAmber along the railway line. It was a multi with puzzle element thrown in – and of course, railway themed. It didn’t take long to locate the shiny amber pot after working out what to do with the numbers!
Shiny Amber!
Despite being quite wet after my waddle through damp undergrowth, I then headed towards Silver End to pick up a Church Micro which was missing when I last passed.
CM2789 – Silver End
From the modern, to the ancient, my next stop was a very quick cache and dash at Church Micro 1102, Bradwell.
CM1102 Bradwell
I found another couple of trads around Bradwell, as well as scoping out some hides near the meet which will need my waders again.
Echoes In Time
Finally, I got to Essex Meet 40 about 7pm, just in time to bag the last car park space and order some dinner before the event began at 8pm!
I had a great evening chatting to folks and was delighted with my 6000 Finds certificate, which Shifty The Mega Duck sat guarding for me for the rest of the evening!
The main reason for heading to deepest gillywig country today was to attend another of Mr Geotrowel’s silly events, this time in Eight Ash Green. There were flying saucers! But sadly I missed them as I was a bit late arriving, having got caught up in caching on the way.
Extra-Terrestrial Eventing
My other finds before the event were mostly gillywig puzzles. I had a few on the solved-not-found pile, one or two of which I had previously DNF’d. But I managed to locate all but one today, so not bad.
A Tussle With Dr Who
I very nearly DNF’d 297mm x 210mmtwice today! But just as I thought I was completely losing the plot, the pesky duck finally showed itself!
Another Pesky Duck!
After the meetup, I took a longer drive around to try and locate the six Knights in geotrowel’s Grail Quest series. I was doing well, bagging four, but my luck ran out, finally, just as the sun was setting. The last two, and their secrets which will unlock the bonus, will have to wait for another day!
After writing my two DNF logs on the Tricky Triskaideka hides yesterday, Mr Mercator confirmed that I was almost certainly at the right places where the caches should have been. He wanted to do a maintenance check on them anyway and suggested we meet up for a stroll this morning.
Having arrived at the rendez-vous point, I navigated us to the first suspect. Sure enough, Rob confirmed that it was the right GZ and after a thorough search of the vicinity, he admitted the cache was gone.
Rob Checks For The Cache
So he replaced it with a new box and I signed the fresh log sheet before we moved on. Great to have my calculations confirmed for 13a!
Shortly afterwards, Rob had a call from one half of gillywig, Grahame, who had seen my DNF on two of the hides yesterday and been spurred into action. He had previously found the one we had just replaced, with Mr Crow, but although he had worked out the co-ords for 13b and 13c, he’d never had the opportunity to pick those up until now. No time like the present! He was on the trail and promised to meet us as we walked in his direction.
Sure enough, a short while later there he was, happy to have found 13b at last (the one I picked up yesterday).
Tricky Trio (aka Three Grinning Fools)
The band of fools chatted happily as they made their way towards our plot for 13c – thankfully Grahame’s and my calculations agreed and we had both frisked the tree in question already. So Rob had to concede again that the cache had gone AWOL and allowed us both to sign the replacement.
We then walked on to pick up a couple more of Rob’s hides which I had solved recently. Grahame drove us back to our cars and then Rob and I headed off to grab one last puzzle of his which I finally worked out last night.
Not In That Tree!
All in all a grand day out, with great company along the way. And I’m feeling super-smug to have solved this Tricky Trio (and a few others) – I’m in very limited but quite esteemed company!
I planned another long walk today around Chappel & Wakes Colne. The route kicked off with the Summer Afternoon Railway Flashmob at Chappel Station – a great opportunity to say hello to some friends and great to see Yorkie63 up and on his feet after his spell in hospital.
I had been busy during the preceding few days and solved some more railway-themed puzzles by gillywig. I really enjoyed finding 888, Once Upon A Line and Hidden Well. The best cache of the day was the amazing multi, Walk The Line. I won’t say too much in case I give anything away, but it certainly is a spectacular final location – and I was so pleased to have managed it on my own.
There were also some enjoyable regular hides around the route, mainly by Box Teddies this time. Balls was fun – a big box full of golf balls and you had to hunt through them to find the one containing the log.
I finished off with VIA-DUCK, a great little hide in a plastic duck, in view of the impressive Chappel Viaduct.
I was in Highwoods Country Park this morning for a quick Flash Mob organised by Mr BEASTMARSTA. It’s a while since I’ve found any caches in the park (the old ones have all been archived by now) so I stayed on afterwards to have a walk and look for some new hides.
Whispy Clouds In Highwoods
I had also solved three puzzles around Colchester which I decided to look for too – gillywig‘s excellent Romaes eunt domus, BEASTMARSTA‘s X Marks The Spot and Murrkin‘s Sidetracked Lexden & Stanway – a location I last visited years ago before there was a cache there. The Sidetracked cache was my 3400th find, a mere fortnight after the 3300th. I mopped up a few stray trads while in Lexden as well. All in all an excellent day’s caching.
