I have been avoiding caching in the centre of Colchester for a long time now but I decided that the time had come and started planning. As always I had too long a list but too many is better than not enough! 😉
I started off in Stanway at a mystery cache that I’d solved some time ago but DNFed. This time I had a quick find of Soldiers Code. My next stop wasn’t for a cache but for a letter box.📮 I had to survey one for the LBSG. It turned out to be a “C” type (two apertures) 1055/2004 box as stated in the Directory but at least I could add the number from the other aperture to the records.
From here I picked up a couple of well placed trads including The good old days which commerates the old Layer Road Ground of Colchester United before driving over to some of the Surburban Street Art series near Blackheath.
However I realised that I was passing CM Berechurch which I had DNFed a couple of months ago some I decided to tackle this one again. It’s a multi in a very small disused chapel. It’s a fantastic slice of history with monuments maybe 300 years old hidden away but always open to the public.😀 I did the quiz again and searched for ages without luck almost to the point of giving up. The GPS was all over the place so I searched a lot of places. I thought I’ll just check that ————- over there and blow me that’s where it was. I was so pleased to have found it. 😀
I then got back on track, gathering up two Suburban Street Arts caches, three trads and the St Margaret CM before heading over to the Maldon Road for the Colchester - New church trad. I’d DNFed this one a year or so ago but my Geocaching antenna has become more tuned since and I had a quick find of a cunningly placed cache.
This had three more trads on my horizon before getting into Colchester town centre. They were quick finds including the well placed Not The Boat Race duo. One was situated right next to a type of letter box that I hadn’t seen before. This Anonymous box(it doesn’t have a royal cipher on it) could have been standing in this spot since 1879! 🤭
Parking in the Balkerne Gate long stay car park, I put four hours worth of money in the machine or rather tapped my credit card against it and set out on the next leg of my journey. I quickly put right the previous DNF of the Balkerne Gate View Nano. The Water Tower Multi was next and soon had the coords to hand. Now if there’s a choice of two paths to take, I‘ll invariably choose the wrong one so I had a circular route to GZ. I did, however, pick up the Roman Wall Cache on my journey before adding the very cleverly placed 3/3 multi to my tally.
I had planned to get the earthcache CM at Colchester - St Martin but there was a bunch of yoofs sitting right where I wanted to look so I had to give it a miss. I did get On The Run, a trad that made me chuckle when I became aware of what the cache was about. The thought of Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane dressed as nuns stayed with me for quite a while that day.😂 I added the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Nursery Rhyme Nano #2 multi to the list and moved on to Castle Park.
I found most of the A Walk In The Park series, failing on one and just realising that I missed another. On the walk around I also found two of The Viewfinder Trail series before tackling another Earthcache - Colchester Building Stone Tour - Septarian Nodules. This one fascinated me for about 30 minutes or so. This type of cache is my favourite! 🤔 I so enjoy learning about the geology and geography of our land. I gathered all the information that I needed to answer the COs specific questions and later in the day, I got the “perfect” message back to allow me to claim the cache.
I had now finished my long walk in the park but just outside was a new Virtual cache based on the War Memorial. I quickly gathered the answers and retired to a little coffee shop across the road for a well earned hot drink. I sent the answers to the CO and had an instant response from the CO before I’d had a sip of coffee! Reflecting on the day so far, I’d done well with just the one DNF but the day wasnt done yet!
I found two trads on the way to the Lion Rd URC CM which I’d DNF before. This time there was no problemo! The penultimate cache was the SideTracked at Colchester Old Station. This one had had its fair share of problems. I could see that it was missing so I put a replacement down hoping the CO would approve. (No complaints so far!)
I found the last cache of the day in the failing light. This was the Humpty Dumpty Nursery Rhyme Nano #1 cache. I found this very cunningly placed 3.5/1.5 multi tucked away near the old redundant church where the Colchester Art Centre is situated. The last time I went there, I saw Bob Brozman RIP.
1 Mystery, 1 Earthcache, 1 Virtual, 3 Multi, 28 Traditional
#6273