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The plan was to start off early in Grove Park and work my way towards Croydon via Beckenham. I knew that parking was dear in Croydon so I would find some parking and then get a £3.50 All Day Rover ticket for the trams. Here’s how it went.
I drove down to Grove Park and it became apparent that opportunities for parking would be as rare as hens teeth around here. I found a space about a mile from the Grove Park ST trad and joined the early morning commuters walking down to the station. I passed the CM Grove Park - Kings multi on the way so worked out the coords and saw that it would be a slight deviation on the return journey.
I found the ST at a very busy road junction but the drivers were too busy watching for the lights to change to notice me. 😀 I walked up to the final stage of the CM but it was missing.🥴 I had seen another multi down the road apiece so walked down to the Leisure Centre and did the sums for the I Can See For Miles. That takes me back to The Who but I always preferred The Kids Are Alright. At the final I could indeed see for miles and miles and miles and... but I couldn’t spot the cache.🙁
I had been thinking about the Kings CM and decided that I would see if I had a replacement cache in the car. I knew that jazzyjessups now moved down to Edenbridge and it would be a trek up to check this one. I did have a spare so did a swift drop down where it needed to be. If the CO wanted to remove my entry, c‘est la vie. Thankfully Andrew sent me a message thanking me for replacing the cache.😀
I had noticed that there was an AdLab series nearby so I parked up near the start of the Downham Woodland Walk series and set about visiting the stages. I completed the walk gathering the info for the bonus cache. I carried on to look for the Durham Hill trad a few hundred yards away but this was missing in action too. I walked down to the AdLab Bonus and luckily this was in situ.
I drove on to my next stop which would be the ST Beckenham Hill trad. Again parking was at a premium and I had to park right at the other end of Blacklands Road and walk back for a very quick find. I noticed that there was a big park here, Beckenham Place Park with a series of trads, an AdLab series plus bonus so I decided to stay here and not worry about parking.
I strode up the road to BPP Beckenham Hill trad and then carried on to the Haddon Hall trad. The cache was missing here but I could see that there was plenty of free parking up here. I now knew that I had replacement caches so I sent the CO a message asking if they wanted me to bring this one back to life. 🤔 I got a swift response. The CO would be delighted to keep this going as it had something to do with David Bowie.🤔 The CO had moved away from the area and was now an infrequent visitor to these parts.
I walked back down to one of the entrances to the park. I intermingled some of the BPP series with the AdLab series. I picked up Entrance, the 1.5/3 Up Yew Go and Steps before popping out of the park for the ST Ravensbourne trad. Back inside, I found Tweet Tweet and then completed the AdLabs. I had all the info for the bonus but I was fast running out of iPhone battery and had stupidly left my power pack in the car. I had to leave the rest of the BPP series and the bonus for another day.
I walked back to the motor and let the battery charge for a while before setting off. I drove up to replace the Haddon Hall trad and carried right into Beckenham and again struggled to get parked. In the end, I found a free space in Hayne Road which would do as my base for the rest of the day.
I walked up to my first EC of the day, Millennium Stone - A Gift from the Highlands. I gathered the info to claim the prize and carried on walking up to the ST Clock House trad. I did a circular walk from here picking up ST and TRAM ST trads until I reached to centre of town. I added the VS trad and the EC WM to the list and then found a pleasant cafe for lunch.
Feeling heavier, I continued walking up to the cunningly placed CM Beckenham- St Edmunds trad. Now here’s a funny thing, I could hear the commentary on a tennis match and remembered that it was Wimbledon fortnight. There was a time that I would be glued to the tv screen especially when Bjorn Borg was on court but those days are long gone. In the park near the church was a huge outside screen showing the tennis with deckchairs etc. I recalled that Beckenham does have a grass court championship all of its own before Wimbledon so this is obviously a tennis stronghold.
Declining the recline, I took the long walk up to ST TRAM Beckenham Junction trad and then the CM Beckenham - St George trad and decided that I had had enough of walking so made my way back to the car.
Next stop was Elmers End. I had worked out the VS multi remotely and luckily made a quick find here. The nearby CM Elmers End trad was soon spotted and I got back in the car and drove over to the ST trad. As usual, parking was miles away so I had a long walk back to the station but at least the cache was a quick find. I traipsed back up the road realising that I had parked next to the ST TRAM Elmers End. Unfortunately I couldn’t find this trad but it has been checked out as ok so at least I can park next to it next time.😀
1 Mystery 2 Earthcache 2 Multi 10 AdLab 19 Traditional
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