Tag Archives: tiptree

Backs Against The (Braxted) Wall

Friday, 9th December 2016 Caz

Trad: 4 Puzzle: 7
Walked: 10.5 miles

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.

The walk out was fine, but we met a few obstructions along the way which had to be negotiated carefully!

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!

Once the wall itself was completed, we added a few more on the loop back, which were also orphans on my map.

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!

A grand walk and good company too. Apart from the sheep!

solo

Corvine Trio

Thursday, 8th December 2016 Caz

Puzzle: 3
Walked: 1.8 miles

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.

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!

challenge cache, solo, with friends

Amwell Amble & Tiptree Totter

Saturday, 24th September 2016 Caz

Trad: 4 Multi: 1 Puzzle: 6 Challenge: 1
Walked: 5 miles

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.

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 :-) — 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!

There was a bit of fine industrial architecture too; the old Victorian Pumping Station along the New River.

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!

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!

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.

solo

Day #395 – Golden Encounter

Wednesday, 24th August 2016 Caz

Trad: 4
Walked: 2 miles

I spent much of the day lurking inside as it was too hot to go out. I’m a wallflower which wilts when it gets above 25C!

Having solved the riddle for Stumped! 48 Wickham Bishops, my plan was to look for that one this evening, once it got a bit cooler. On arrival, this plan was thwarted by the world and his muggle dog lurking around GZ. So I gave up and went to Tiptree to pick up a few others instead.

The last find of the day, at EH – Pink/Purple/Gold, I had a brilliant encounter with the muggle home-owner nearby. It went like this…

I parked a little way up the road so as not to look too obvious outside the property. Having retrieved the pot quickly and walked along a bit further to sign it so I wasn’t lurking around GZ, disaster struck – I was muggled by the home owner who had appeared from nowhere, in full ninja-stealth-mode, to water his plants!

“Are you looking for Pokémon?” he asked…

Hmmm. Tell the truth or go with the lie? As I know next to nothing about Pokémon and he might have started asking which ones I’d already found and how many eggs I was hatching, or whatever, I decided to come clean.

“Actually, I’m looking for a geocache” I replied.

“Oh, I’ve heard of them!” he says. “It must be a good place for a geocache, it’s not like you can miss the house, is it?”

“Um, yes, you certainly have a unique property!” I blethered.

Anyway, he seemed delighted by the fact that there’s a cache opposite his house, so all is good! He even gave me a cheery wave as I drove past on my way home. Best muggle encounter I’ve had in ages, I had to give it a fave. My only regret was not taking a photo of the purple palace.

by bike, solo

Day #393 – Tiptree On Two Wheels

Monday, 22nd August 2016 Caz

Trad: 10
Cycled: 2 miles

Mr Crow is most renowned for setting fiendishly difficult puzzles, only some of which I’ve been able to crack. But he recently published a series of trads in Coneyfield Wood, which I decided to tackle today.

I drove to Tiptree and then unfolded my Get Thi’ Sen There GeoBike and took a ride around the lanes, picking up a few others before heading into the woods.

The hides all had great containers, but these were some of my favourites:

A fun outing, and 10 trads in the bag today.

by scooter, hq duck dash, solo

Day #362 – Tiptree Scoot

Friday, 22nd July 2016 Caz

Trad: 7 Multi: 1
Walked: 2.5 miles

This evening’s trip was to Tiptree to try and mop up a few more boxes there which are still outstanding. After finally bagging a very old Church Micro, I scooted off to Simple Command – a keysafe hidden on the back of a Give Way sign. However, finding the sign was the hard bit – it was buried deep in the hedge! Still, I’m used to hedge fiddling in this game, so it didn’t deter me much.

I have pimped up my scooter a little bit, with the addition of a mounting bracket for my GPS. Perfect for urban caching. Little Quacker seemed to think so too…

We also had to walk some footpaths in the countryside to find a couple of other boxes, but that’s no problem since the scooter folds up easily and isn’t too heavy to carry when not in use.

LQ found a little lizard to befriend in the box – he looked quite real but is just as plasticky as the duck!

Another enjoyable outing by scooter, which was rounded off by popping in to see Mr Crow on the way home for a welcome cup of tea.

solo

Day #346 – A Stinker & Multi Madness

Wednesday, 6th July 2016 Caz

Trad: 3 Multi: 4 Letterbox: 1 Earth: 1
Walked: 4.9 miles

Well that’s a relief! Finally, after three unsuccessful visits, I’ve found infinson’s wretched 2! I was being rubbish only on the first visit, as it seems it was missing for two and three. Ian had recently replaced it, so I thought I would strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. Here’s the evidence, although it won’t help you much!

Bouyed by the success there, I headed to Tiptree for a new earthcache which has only been out a few weeks.

I was also chasing any four multi caches, to complete my qualification for the 30 Days & 30 Nights Challenge. A few church micros later, and I had done it.

The most fun cache of the day was this cheeky Letterbox hide – easy enough to find the big bucket, but then you had to wade through all the little eggs to find the logbook!

I lucked out – it only took 10 eggs to find what I was looking for!

solo

Day #251 – Tiptree Totter

Saturday, 2nd April 2016 Caz

Trad: 10
Walked: 5.3 miles

I decided to take it easy today after yesterday’s epic haul and long drive home from Newcastle. Tiptree was my chosen location, as I haven’t cached there in ages and all of the previous caches I had found in the area have been archived now.

I enjoyed a pleasant walk around west and north Tiptree, bagging 10 finds. Some of the paths were a bit muddy, but it was OK for the most part.

I had a couple of DNF’s, one sadly right by a bird’s nest which had been abandoned. I do hope that it wasn’t my search in the area which caused the bird to abandon the three, perfect, blue, speckled eggs 🙁

After my walk, I enjoyed tea an bikkies at the new Crow’s Nest where Mr Crow has recently moved. A lovely end to my geo-wanderings.

with friends

Day #200 – Two New DTs

Thursday, 11th February 2016 Caz 2 Comments

Trad: 3 Puzzle: 4
Walked: 4.9 miles

I planned a day out with Kitty!! and Mr Crow today, initially to find The Tapper near Hatfield Peverel, which required some wading and me being part of the brawn to pull Kitty out of the river!

It was freezing in the river, so I was glad Kitty had volunteered to do the wading. She retrieved the big box quite quickly.

There was a fab method of “signing” the log! We loved it.

Once we had done that one, we dropped Mr Crow off for a walk to do some maintenance on some of his caches and we headed off to A Bad Sine – which I had solved ages ago but had been putting off finding. Since it filled a DT grid square, I had resolved to try it soon. Kitty agreed to accompany me, even though she had already found it.

Job done, we retired to a nearby garden centre for a hearty late lunch and to wait for Mr Crow!

The we went onto Rally Round 80 Mr Crow and a few others, but RR80 filled a second DT grid square for me. We also picked up a few more along the way.

Now I only have 12 squares left to go:

Daily Cache

Tag Archives: tiptree

Backs Against The (Braxted) Wall

Corvine Trio

Amwell Amble & Tiptree Totter

Day #395 – Golden Encounter

Day #393 – Tiptree On Two Wheels

Day #362 – Tiptree Scoot

Day #346 – A Stinker & Multi Madness

Day #251 – Tiptree Totter

Day #200 – Two New DTs

My Tupperware-Hunting Adventures