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7th November 2023
I set off early and parked up in West Malling at seven o'clock. I quickly sorted out the VS multi and then set about the main prize in town, the 2006 golden oldie, The Turner Prize multi. I had managed to sort out some of the ten or so pieces of info required at home but I needed to visit quite a few bases here though. I never did find the info at the Old Leper Colony.☹️ I had to busk that one to give me some decent coords. I drove down to the final stage but there were all tight lanes so I drove back into town and walked the good part of a mile back.🥴 I eventually spotted this very well hidden cache doubly protected by autumn leaves.
My next port of call was Nettlestead and I was after the 4/2.5 VS mystery that I had solved at home. Unfortunately it was school traffic time and the unfortunate positioning of the railway station meant a virtual gridlock.🤬 Once I got out of that, I realised that the T for this one was for the difficulty of approaching it.
I worked out a route, parked up and headed to a trail head, only to find the footpath blocked by a livestock lorry. I asked the driver if that was the foopath and he said that it was but asked me how far I was going up the footpath? I said about 400 yards and then returning. He then said that he was a farmer and about to unload a flock of 150 sheep to graze.🤔 He said that there was a gate up there and asked me to use a code to open the gate lock so him and his sheep dog could get them in to the next field quicker 😀😀 Nothing like this has never happened to me before.🤣🤣 By the way, guess where the cache was?
I was heading to Collier Street next for a trio of multis but on the way, I spotted a cafe on the side of the Medway near Twyford Bridge and stopped there for brunch.😀 Suitably refreshed, I continued on. I passed through Laddingford and stopped for the VS mystery. I realised that the coords had been reworked so did the sums again only to find that the cache was MIA.☹️ I had to make do with one of the Early Queen Tracks series of trads down the road.
I parked in the Collier Street village car park and solved the multis before setting out on the hunt. I found the VS and then one of a series that I hadn't come across before. This was Royal Mail Postbox #6 - George V.🤔 However the CM eluded me and the CO went put later to check but somehow I had missed it.☹️
I drove over to the west of Marden for another golden oldie, the 2006 Twin Oak trad. It had been DNFed recently but as I was in the area, I had to give it a whirl. I couldn't park nearby so it was a bit of a trek out of the village to cross the railway line. It was quite tricky getting past the barbed wire to get to the search area🤔 I eventually found the container on the floor a couple of yards away from the tree under leaves but unfortunately the log sheet was mush so I put a replacement log sheet inside a plastic bag and replaced the cache as per the hint.
It was now 1145 and I had five miles to travel to get to the event in Cranbrook. I managed to park up and as I walked down to the meeting point, I grabbed a base of the Cranbrook's Historic Buildings AdLab series at the George Hotel. We met near the Church and then relocated to a splendid little cafe just down the road. I spent most of the hour chatting to The Moor We Hunt about Canada, geocaching and letterboxing. 😀Lynanda and noos4 came in later and DeepDiggingMole went off to speak to them and I never got the chance to pick his brains about some of his caches but maybe I will get the chance again.🤔 I left the event and strode the short distance over to the CM... Cranbrook ~ St Dunstan's multi. I had a quick find of the well hidden cache and its delightful container.
I was now heading towards Frittendon for a series of DDM's mysteries in a wooded area. I was off to a quick start with Mole's a fun guy to cache with, soon finding the obvious before comtinuing onto the challenge caches that I was after. I found all the series but only qualified for three of the five.
I qualified for Mole's Attribute Challenge - GARNET but not the RUBY. I also qualified for Mole's FA Challenge - Bronze, a 3.5/1.5, Silver, a 4/1.5 but I still have to work on the Gold. I worked my way out of the woods and with the time drawing on, set sail for home.
1 AdLab 1 Event 2 Traditional 5 Multi 5 Mystery
#17017