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I really need to boost my Wherigo numbers and I had spotted a series of twelve down in Jubilee Country Park near Bromley, which I still class as being in Kent, but it isn’t.🤔 At 0600 this morning, I watched the Council worker open up the gates to the Park and then drove in. I fired up the Wherigo app and 🤬🤬🤬🤬 it wouldn’t work🤯🤯🤯🤯. I left a write note and moved to plan B for the morning.
I had solved the nearby QE Unknown beforehand and drove down there for a quick find which cheered me up a little. There was a CM Bromley Common ~ St Augustine multi a mile or so away but it turned out that my interpretation of left and right was wrong so I couldn’t get any decent coords.🤔
SkiCycle, the CO of all the caches that I’d looked for so far got in touch later with info on the Wherigos but I still couldn’t make it work. He also gave me a pointer on the CM.
I moved on to the trad WM ~ St Luke’s Cemetery and then drove down to Locksbottom after a short detour to pick up the 2/2 trad, Stumped. Parking up along a parade of shops near the CM, I was disappointed that a coffee shop wasn’t open so I made do with the water that I had with me. I walked up to the church and sorted out the multi. I enjoyed the very cunning third question though. I had solved another Unknown, Goddendene before I came and as the final stage was close, I found that one too.😀
I drove down into the picturesque Farnborough Village and parked up opposite The Woodman pub. This was my second visit here and I had the solved coords for the multi VHS in hand for later. However, I was keen to try the 14 HEW Farnborough Village Wherigo after the problems that I had earlier. Ping, the app started first time and I had a splendid 12 zone walk. Part of the walk took me down to the local church, St Giles the Abbot. I had found the CM and the WM multis on the previous visit and one of the WM questions had led me to a particular memorial. I had subsequently regretted not taking a photo of it but now I could put that right.😀
Lieutenant Gilbert Willan Morris was the first Scout Officer (it was Officer not Master back then) of the 1st Farnborough Scout Troop. He was called up for service in the Army and joined the 8th Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was positioned with his men in Thiepval Wood or Authuille Wood as it is known locally on the 1st July 1916.
Unfortunately, this was the first day of the Battle of the Somme in northern France. It was the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army and one of the most infamous days of World War One. The British forces suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 fatalities. They gained just three square miles of territory.
Gilbert fell in the first charge across “No Man’s Land“ aged just 25. He is buried in the nearby Blighty Valley Cemetery. I was particularly touched by the tribute from his Scout troop on the memorial stone in St Giles’s churchyard. It is fitting that the new Explorer Unit of the 1st Farnborough are called the Morris Explorers.
I returned to the centre of the village and worked out the coords for the Letterbox VS Farnborough Village and the multi Kent Lost Pubs 15: The George and Dragon. It turned out that the final stages of these caches were a drive away so I quickly collected the VS multi before setting off. I had no problems finding the Letterbox and the Multi.
I had just enough time left to pop up into Orpington for three CMs. I had easy finds at the Holy Innocents and the Baptist trads plus the Methodist multi. I also took a photo of the info for the WM multi before I had to tear myself away.
PS Back at home, I noted that SkiCycle had sent me some screenshots for the JCP Wherigos. I couldn’t get them so I discarded the game and tried again. Bing, there they all were.🤔 I know where I will be early next Sunday morning.😀
1 Letterbox 1 Wherigo 3 Multi 3 Unknown 4 Traditional
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