I needed a cache for the day and I noted that this new one had been published over in Wat Tyler Country Park. A few of the local FTF hounds had left it alone for various reasons but I’m not really bothered about a FTF. However, I though that I‘d go over and have a look. I parked up near the centre and walked over to a building that is decorated with different wildlife habitat. This was the search area and a CO could easily set a 5/1 trad here with a nano. However, I wasn’t looking for one of those and quickly found the well placed cache. I was really pleased but very surprised to see a blank log sheet. So I claimed the FTF for AMP - Take The Shot.😀 1 Traditional #8122

I had been planning a day out in Buckinghamshire for a long time now. As I couldn’t get to the Geolympix, I decided to come over before the winter weather set in and try to find some old caches to fill some gaps on my Jasmer grid. I had a plan of action taking in Jasmers, Church Micros and a few virtuals. There were probably too many on my list but hey, ho.😀 I started off early to beat the traffic on the A127 and the M25. I didn’t do too badly but got lost on the approach to Coombe Hill where I picked up the oldest remaining cache in England - View From Coombe Hill, an Earthcache - Chiltern Scarp and a couple of trads. I then drove over to find another golden oldie - The Intermissendens. Once this was in the bag, I started on my list of CMs for the day. I found one at The Lee and came down into Chesham to have a go at the long list of multis in the town. I found one CM and solved a couple of others but the coords seemed to be way out of town. 🤔 I decided that I didn’t have time to mess around so called Chesham a day and drove out to the CM at Bellingdon. I found that one and did a couple of the nearby Chiltern Hundred series. I did a few more CMs and the Fly By (Bucks) virtual on the way to the Ashbridge Estate. Once I was there, I had enough time to get the info for the Bridgewater Monument virtual and the another golden oldie trad - Tim & Jon’s 1st Re-stashed (UK’s 3rd oldest/Eng #2).😀 When I had finished in the Ashbridge Estate, I set off for Kings Langley to look for Hidden Sword not-so-virtual cache. As much as I tried, I just could not see the hidden sword so I had to resort to the other requirements that the CO had stipulated. Just look at the photo, can you see a sword? This was my last cache of the day. I got nowhere near those caches on my list but I got all the biggies that I wanted.👍🏻 1 Earthcache 3 Virtual 5 Multi 7 Traditional #8121

I needed a qualifying cache for the Fine Pair 7th Anniversary souvenir and the Fine Pair cache in Chignal Smealey, north west of Chelmsford was the nearest unfound one to me.🙁 It was a bit of drive just for one cache but I’m a bit of a souvenir and challenge hound so I had to go for it.🤔 Just for the record, a Fine Pair cache is one that has a postbox and a red telephone box in very close proximity. It doesn’t say but as all UK post boxes are also red, I take this as read. ☹️This is another of those fine series that have sprung up over the years. My favourites are the Church Micros and the SideTracked caches. I parked up near the church and set about gathering up the information needed for the multi. Once I had some decent coords to hand, I set off on the short walk to the search area. I noted the clever hint and quickly found the well placed cache. I carried out the admin duties and then replaced everything as I had found it. 1 Multi #8105

I had to pop up to Chelmsford today to deliver something to a friend on mine who lives On the Rainsford Road. Whilst I was up there, I took the opportunity to look for a few local caches. I found the 341 Miles From Home cache, Cazmockett’s Andy Wins Wimbledon Puzzle and then the new Brookfield Boundary Revisited before driving over to this new development just off the A130. Although I’d been up and down this drag a million times, I hadn’t noticed all these buildings right back from the road. 🤔 I parked where I could and walked out past the herd of deer to the footpath leading out to the cache. The search area brought me to an old Trig point which concealed the cache. After the paper work , I headed back to the car and home. 1 Mystery 3 Traditional #8104

It’s just after dawn, it’s at the weekend so I must be somewhere in Kent. I’ve come over here for a couple of hours to find some more caches. The darker mornings are compressing the time I have available as I still have to be back home by 1000.🙁 The plan is to pick up some challenge caches and an elusive church micro that has been bugging me for a while. I started off in Swanley and had found some of the challenge caches around the M25 Junction 3 roundabout. I then collected some of the Cellular Motion and WTF series of challenge caches that run alongside the M25 down near Crockenhill. I wished that I qualified for more of these but at least I’ve got the lie of the land for my return. Next up was the AEIOU CM Challenge in Eynsford. I had only been working on this one for a couple of years, obtaining the final U in Underwood, Nottinghamshire on the way up to the Yorkshire Mega. Once I found this one, I decided that I had enough time to get drive down to Shoreham to try to tick off one of my nemesis caches. I had solved the CM Shoreham multi some time ago but had failed to find the cache maybe three times. The CO had even confirmed the coords for me so I knew that I was in the right place. However I didn’t realise that there were more hint items tucked away round the back of the bushes on the well hidden footpath. This time I managed to spot the well placed cache.😀 1 Multi 8 Mystery #8100

We had come to Corfu to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary in one of our favourite places. There are so many “off the track” places in Corfu that I would not have been able to visit unless I was looking for geocaches. We were having a three centre holiday and have a hire car so I hope to pick up a few more Greek cache icons while we are on the island. I had a number of successful caching mornings around Arrillas, Agios Georgios, Pelekas and Paleokastritsa. I had fulfilled a long time wish in visiting the Venetian Shipyards at Gouvia, not far from Corfu Town. While I was there I found the trad and a Wherigo and then set out up the coast going through familiar towns such as Dassia, Ipsos, Pyrgi, Barbarti and Nissaki Up to our final stop at Kassiop. I was able to clear up most of the caches around the town and had even held an event where people turned up. I am most grateful to Hanss benHarm, Hermine van de Maan and Harkfast, two geocaching couples from Berlin for attending. 👏👏 So this was our last day on the island. We had a midday flight and my plan was to drive back down the east coast and fill up with fuel at a petrol station that I knew just above Ipsos. There just happened to be a trad 100 yards from there - Above Ypsos.🤔 I had a quick find of a cache in a less than salubrious setting. This was to be my last cache on the island but as I filled in a part log into the app, it loaded on all the local caches and I noticed one down the road, the trad Polish Cache - Ipsos that had been published for a couple of days and as yet it hadn’t been found.😀 So we parked up on the main drag at Ipsos, overlooking the beach and I had a quick find of a cleverly placed cache with an equally clever hint. Oh yes, and I claimed the FTF. So that was it, caching over. We’d had a great holiday here and hope to come back here soon. It will have to be in another part of the island though as I’ve done almost all of the caches around here.🤔 2 Traditional #8091

This was our third day in Kassiopi and I was up early to find a few caches before an event that I arranged for nine o’clock. I walked out of town to the main coastal road and started going south until I got to the turn off for Avlaki. I picked up the Mythos TB Hotel, Avlaki beach road and the way to Kassiopi #2 caches over the next hour or so before yomping back to town. I arrived here on the stroke of nine and I was on my own for a few minutes. However, a car pulled and asked if I was a geocacher. The car contained Hans benHarm and Hermine van de Maan. Hermine got out while Hans went to park the car. Then another car pulled up with the caching duo Harkfast on board and they went to park the car too. We were all together for about forty five minutes talking about local caches and caching in Iceland and Germany. The two couples were from Berlin but they didn’t know each other. When we went our different ways, they went off to cache together for the day. 1 Event 3 Traditional #8089

Today we went out on a boat trip from the harbour and we got back late afternoon. Just to make sure that my legs were ok, I went out for a walk up to the castle. The steps were just down the road from our hotel and I set off up the climb to the Kassiopi Sunset cache. After I had found this, I carried on around the perimeter of the castle walls until I found a path down to this cove, which I had never visited before. This was the location for the Dreamy rocky bay cove cache. I got down to the beach and edged along the waterside rocks towards the search area. I didn’t have much luck here for ages as the cache was very well hidden and protected by prickly cactus. I only found it thanks to a photo in a log. When I got back to the beach, a Russian couple started chatting to me asking if I was a geologist. They were bemused when I told them that I was a geocacher and explained our hobby to them. I then set off through the back lanes of Kassiopi to the hotel. 2 Traditional #8085

I was up early this morning with the plan to pick up some caches before breakfast. I drove up the windy road from Paleo up to the Bella Vista to Paleokastritsa. It was cold and misty but I still had great views from here. I spent some time here admiring the view and gathering the information for the cache owner. After this, I continued up the winding roads to visit a Moorish castle for the trad, Angelokastro View and then up to the Agios Giorgios View. I could see over towards where I had walked a couple of days ago hunting for Pirates Bay - Corfu. 🙁 I drove down into Pagoi to find the Pagoi Waterfalls trad. This was as dry as a bone here.😀 I then had to drive up and down the winding road retracing my route back to the hotel for breakfast. We were leaving today and heading up the east side of the island to Kassiopi, our final stop on the holiday. We were planning to take a leisurely drive via Gouvia and Nissaki, hopefully to find a few caches on the way. Even before I was caching, I had wanted to visit the Venetian Shipyards (see the photo) at Gouvia, not far from Corfu Town. Now I knew that there was a trad and a Wherigo here, this was now a must visit.😀 The Venetian Shipyards was a tricky find as the GPS was all over the place. The Venetian shipyard Wherigo took some time too and it was difficult to get into the zones but eventually the final coords popped out and I had a short walk to sign the logsheet. Sad to say, this one has now been archived because someone couldn’t find the cache. We drove up through familiar coastal villages, Dassia, Ipsos, Pirgi, Barbarti and finally into Nissaki, where we had spent a week in a villa a couple of years ago. We lunched in one of our favourite tavernas, admiring the fabulous view over the sea to Corfu Town. When we left, I walked up the road to the church to find the well hidden For All The Saints cache. 😀 We carried up along the coast road to Kassiopi and found our hotel. 1 Earthcache 1 Wherigo 5 Traditional #8078

We are now staying in Paleokastritsa. There wasn’t an early start for me this morning as we had already decided to visit the Emperor’s Throne and I could get the two caches up here. As we drove up here from Paleo, the road was becoming familiar. We had stayed for a few days in Pelekas, five years ago when we were island hopping for five weeks. If only I had been Geocaching then. ☹️ We drove up the winding road from Pelekas and parked in the car park near the Emperor’s Throne. I had a quick find of the well hidden trad here and then climbed up the steps to the spectacular viewpoint. I quickly found the info to qualify for the virtual and sent it off to the CO. We then went to the nearby restaurant for lunch and to enjoy more of the fantastic view from here.😀 Later on in the afternoon, we drove down to the harbour at Paleo for dinner. However I couldn’t resist the chance of go looking for Kloster Paleokastritsa, a trad cache up near the monastery, overlooking the harbour. I left my wife in the restaurant near the beach and I set off for the trek up to the monastery (see the photograp). I followed the GPS and eventually found the path to the cache. Once I‘d found the well hidden cache, I then set off back up the path and then down to the restaurant.😀 1 Virtual 2 Traditional #8075