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I had it in mind to finish off the D’oh! series in West Cambridgeshire. This power trail of mystery caches is based on The Simpsons cartoon series and I only had a few left to do. Luckily they were all between Barrington and Orwell plus I knew of a decent place to park so I could do them in one hit.
Just before dawn, I pulled off the M11 at Duxford and carried on into Foxton. There were three multis here to sort, a WM, a VS and a VHs as well as a ST trad. These were soon done and on the way out of town, I picked up the Barrington mystery and a trad of the Little Bridges series.
I drove through Barrington and out to my favoured parking spot. Unfortunately I had to make what was left of the D’oh! series from linear routes into a circular but heyho. I picked up #85 at just gone seven and made good progress up to #92, the natural end of the series. I then had to get over to #82 but there wasn’t a footpath so I made my way along field edges until I reached the Orwell Road. I marched in the direction of Orwell and then cut left along the footpath.
I followed this down to the outskirts of the village of Orwell to #76 picking up both a trad and a mystery LB on the way. I now had a mile and a half walk back to the car along the Barrington Road. I was hoping that one of the passing vehicles would offer me a lift. They didn’t which probably wasn’t a bad thing. I’ve done my fair share of hitch hiking the length and breadth of this count but it was all much safer back then in the distant past.🤔
Back at the car, I had a drink of water and then drove down into Orwell. I had the coords of the VHs multi from a previous visit so quickly found that. There was another multi down at the CM Orwell ~ Methodist. However I couldn’t make the sums to work and my conclusion was that the hint item have been replaced with different info so I moved on. I was right as the CO confirmed that it had been.
I drove back into Barrington to set about the Queen Elizabeth II Woodland AdLab series. The series itself was straight forward but the phone signal was poor and it took a while to complete. There was a bonus and this also took a time to find. It could have been that the previous cachers had put down a replacement cache with the COs permission but not as originally intended.🤔
I set off for Haslingfield but there were two of the Congratulations series of mystery caches on the way. Once in Haslingfield, I soon had the WM multi under control and was thinking about what was next.
I wanted to get up to the ST trad at Lord’s Bridge Station and picked off three more mysteries - two Congratulations and a Trigtastic, on the way. The trad was cunningly placed and I could see the line of the former railway line on both sides of the busy A603, the Wimpole Road. There must have been a level crossing here in the old days. Evidently the former Station building still exists behind the trees.
Now further on down the A603 on the other side of Wimpole was a cafe that I had visited before, in fact, I even held an event there once. So I was going to stop there for lunch. As always there was a cache on the way, another of the Congratulations series. I found that and set off for the cafe. Imagine my disappointment when I saw that not only was the cafe closed but it was up for sale.🥴
So I drove on and stopped at the next lay-by to eat some fruit. After a while I realised that I was parked next to the Bassingbourn Geo Chest trad. I had failed miserably here before and I was determined to put things right. The GPS signal was jumpy but I found the hint item and concentrated on that. I was on the point of giving up when I spotted something untoward at my feet. There was the cunningly placed cache and boy, had I struck lucky. I hadn't seen one quite like this before so it had to have a fave point.
I now headed in the direction of Meldreth but soon stopped again to collect a trad LB and then another Congratulations mystery on the outskirts of Whaddon. In Meldreth, I almost went through the card of series caches. I found a trad LB, then VHs, WM multis, a trad ST and finished up with a trad VS. All I needed for a full house was a CM.
So all in all, I'd had a good day but I had to say goodbye to the D'oh! series, finally. Bye Bye Bart.
5 AdLab 7 Multi 9 Traditional 25 Mystery
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