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Last week, I went caching in West Sussex to meet part of a challenge and signed the log of #2 Wizardario‘s Challenge - Bugs, Bugs, Bugs. I didn’t qualify for the cache and want to sort that soonest. So I needed to find eight more caches with Bug in the title. I scanned the Eastern England area and cacme up with a series of trads called Bugs Wander in a place called Sacombe just below Buntingford in Hertfordshire.👍🏻
So I devised a plan for the day and set off nice and early to miss the traffic. Unbeknown to me, there were many road closures from the A602 to get to Sacombe that I spent about thirty minutes trying to negotiate a way around the village lanes to get to Sacombe Church which would be my base for the Bugs Wander. I eventually parked up outside the church which was in Sacombe Park estate.
There was a trad CM here which I quickly found and then set off on the shortest route to get the Bugs. Each cache had a different insect on the container which was a nice touch. Unfortunately I couldn’t make a circular route but a couple of linears so I kept travelling familiar estate roads. After about an hour I had found the required eight and was able to claim the 5/1.5 cache down in West Sussex.😀
During my frantic route finding journey earlier, I had passed Dane End Church which reminded me that there was a CM Earthcache here. I made this my next port of call and soon found the information I needed. Thanks to these Easthcaches, I am becoming quite knowledgeable about rock and even spotted some basalt in the church yard walls.🤔 Just across the road from where I had parked was #1 of the local Village Mayhem series of trads on a street sign so it was a case of silly not to.
The street sign pointed towards Haultwick which was my next stop. There was a Fine Pair Unknown here but although I had solved the puzzle, I couldn’t find the cache. The hint was a bit vague for me so I took a punt and sent the CO a message for help.😀 Well, it was a 4/1.5 and I was here.
I set off for Buntingford as there was an AdLab here plus some other bits and bobs. I found a car park that gave ninety minutes for free and set off on a wander. I gathered all the info for the AdLab bonus and settled down in an independent cafe for coffee and a sausage sambo.
As I sat, checking out what else was in town, I realised that there was a CM Unknown in town that I’d missed so I did the jigsaw puzzle over breakfast.😀 I also did the sums for the AdLab bonus but much to my surprise, the coords wouldn’t go through the checker. I put a write note on the cache log and the CO came back to me almost immediately. It seems that a piece of info in the AdLab was wrong bit no one had ever put the coords through the checker.🥴 As it turned out, I only had time to pick up the CM Unknown so the bonus cache would have to wait for another day.
As I got up to leave the cafe, I saw that the CO of the Fine Pair had come back to me so I would soon be heading back to Haultwick. I drove down to the final stage of the CM Buntingford ~ St Richard for a quick find and then set the satnav for Haultwick. When I reached the search area I had a very quick find of the excellent cache shown in the photo.
I headed south down to Wadesmill to finally collect the Wiffywoo Jigidi Unknown. I was now on a homeward bound drive by meander.🤔 I found the CM Wareside ~ Holy Trinity multi and then the Much Hadham VHs multi where I dropped off a travel bug that I had been carrying around.
I was on the outskirts of Harlow so picked up the CM Eastwick Unknown that I had solved previously. On the other side of the New Town was the older part of Potter Street where I had solved a couple of jigidi puzzles.
As I parked the car near some new shops, I noticed the 18th century Baptist Chapel across the road. I soon found the CM associated with the Chapel and moved on to the final cache of the day at the WM. I lucked out here, unfortunately. This Unknown cache was a 1.5/1.5 but it was across a ditch in thick undergrowth and I just couldn’t spot it.☹️
1 Earthcache 2 Multi 5 AdLabs 6 Unknown 10 Traditional
#12650