Bermondsey

I got off the train at Fenchurch Street and walked down to the No. 15 bus stop. There was no problem jumping a bus this week and in no time at all, I was getting off at St Paul's Gardens. I was looking for a cherub with a necklace for another part of the One Day in London multi. After a swift find and count up, I moved to the front of the cathedral for the CM letterbox. I sorted out the coords and had a quick find a few hundred yards away.

Now I was heading south to the river. I passed the war memorial to the WW2 firefighters and thought about their sacrifice. I was reminded of a programme that I had watched on television some years ago about a fireman and a sixteen year old auxiliary who had saved the dome of the cathedral from burning down during one air ,raid. I watched this old man reliving the tale of when he was carrying buckets of water up to the dome as a teenager. As they showed his name, Richard Holsgrove, it struck me that he lived not 80 yards from me as I was growing up. I played football with his son Keith. Around Armistice Day, I always like that drawing of the hunched up old boy leaning on his stick and his shadow as a fighting fit soldier.

I crossed the river using the Millenium Bridge and noticed that the tide was out.😀 This meant that I could have a try for the 4/4 ST - Blackfriars mystery.👏 I got down onto the foreshore and walked past the many mudlarks looking for their particular treasure. I spotted something out of place on one of the structures and there was the very cunning cache. This was an unexpected bonus for the day.😀

Back at the Millenium Bridge, I failed to find the wobbly bridge trad. I was in the right place, the hint fitted, the ledge was there but no cache.🥴 I headed towards London Bridge and visited the final three bases of the London Bridge Wander AL series. I passed a grisly reminder of torture from the good old days when I spotted a gibbet down one alleyway.🥴

I had an interesting wander completing the ST - London Bridge AL series and then walked a few streets away for the cunningly placed Weston Street trad. I followed this up with the 2007 golden oldie Hide and Souk mystery. I then embarked on a long tour of the Bermondsey Beer Mile AL series. I lost count of the number of small artisan breweries brewing away in the arches under the railway line.🤔 I think that would be difficult not to visit at least one of the tap rooms if it had been opening time.🥴 I found all the bases though and all the clues for a successful find of the bonus cache.

I walked back to Tower Bridge Road and caught a 78 bus heading towards Nunhead. I alighted near Burgess Park and embarked on an epic tour of the park. I found the two AL series here and their bonus caches. I found the delightful Has Anyone Seen Elvis multi and the Cave Ursum trad. This was near a small community cafe which did a splendid artisan sandwich and capuccino so that was lunch sorted.😀

I found the WM - Burgess Park trad, realising that I had sat next to it earlier when sorting out the coords for one of the AL series. I walked back across the park to try to catch a bus back to the City. I caught one going up to the Old Kent Road but quickly realised that it was going past two caches on my list so jumped off near to the T-34 Tank trad. Unfortunately the tank has been taken away for restoration🙁  but the cache was still there.

Just up the road was the final stage of the My Finds mystery. This had been placed too high but I managed to pull it down with a tape measure that I had in my bag. It was more difficult replacing it but it went back out of sight. I had noticed a 42 bus that was going to Liverpool Street so I waited until one of those to come along.😀

I hadn't mentioned it but earlier, I had worked out where the final stage of the golden oldie 2003 London Team Quest 2 was. I didn't want to give the game away but the 42 took me close to the final so I jumped off nearby. I soon found the info that I needed to claim this one.😀 

 I got back on another 42 which took to Liverpool Street for my final caches of the day. I set off on a journey visiting the bases of Spitalfields : "a cradle of migration." So many alleys, old pubs and synagogues to see, I could imagine my dad wandering around here too.🤔