Finishing Off Fingringhoe!

Well that's the plan!😎 I'm not in a tearing rush today and I need to cut the day short to get home for a tradesman at 4pm. I start the day around 0745 in Layer Breton where I have another go at the VS. How I missed it last time, I will never know but there it is staring me in the face.😢 As I walked back to the car, I spotted the vintage village water pump.

Next stop was Layer de la Haye, where I'm hoping to find a puzzle that I'd worked out some time ago. Based on chemical symbols, Reggie's Walk #2 turned out to be a quick find in the local park. Buoyed with success, I had a go at Reggie's Walk #2, a multi down a footpath. The gist of this one is find Stage 1, get the coords of Stage 2 and find the cache. Easy Pease lemon squeezy! It took me ages at Stage 1 to find what I was looking for. ☹️ What a cunning idea or was it just bloody devious! Before I set off for the next stage, I walked further east to quickly find Grail Quest - Cei. Noting the bonus number, it's time to backtrack for the next stage.

Stage 2 was a good mile away back, across a main road and into the Roman River nature reserve. The hint is "from a tree but not a tree." Now that was very useful in mixed coniferous/deciduous woodland. The GPS was bouncing about and I looked for ages. On the point of giving up, I saw a solitary post standing there and guess where the cache was?😀

Nearby was the Malting Green series. This was a circular walk some of which I had found before. I walked down a bridleway and found #5, #5A and #6 before I extended the walk to find the Colchester Coin Exchange.

Backtracking to the main road, I did a mini circular walk to find #7 but had a problem at #8 -The Oasis. There were two oak trees in the middle of a field filled with broad beans. The OS map definitely showed a footpath crossing the field but I normally swerve crops. However I saw a path through and I followed it. GZ was at the farthest oak but I just could not find the cache. It hadn't been found for about a year and previous finders had remarked on an easy find. I doubt that I'll return. 😢

Working back across the broad beans, I head for Ohhhh Nuts Again. Now nuts in a title usually means one thing but not this time. I've not seen one like this before. I won't describe it in case any of you are following in my footsteps.😀 However there was a TB in the 2.5/2.5 medium cache that shouldn't have been there and has been missing for years until a few months ago. I will move it along soonest. The last leg of this walk was another one of the Stamped series. The Abberton Road Stamp was a Carronade lamp box listed in the LBSG register as a LB3220.😎

The next cache on my list was the CM at St Andrews, Abberton. I've been here a number of times birdwatching, in fact, you can almost guarantee a pair of Little Owls here. This is also a great vantage point for the diving and dabbling ducks resting on the reservoir. Now the cache is a 1.5/1.5 but I join the long list of DNFers here. Nearby, just down the meadow is a 3/2 trad, Ex-Stumped by St Andrews. The hint is great and I find the cache in seconds. So why can't I find the CM?😡

Moving closer to Fingringhoe, I set off for two trads down a bridleway cum unsuitable road for motors. The first one, Love Is An Open Door was an easy find although I looked in all the difficult places first. The second, Fingringhoe Nano was a different affair! A magnet nano that is probably losing its grip was nowhere to be found.

I'm in Fingringhoe now and quickly solve the multi for the CM. I set off for GZ which is at a speed sign. Failing at all the usual places, I eventually find a cunning lion keysafe lurking nearby. I've not seen one of these before.

My next target was the latest in Frantica's Summer Fete series, The Cake Stall. I guessed what I would find and a a delicious looking plastic iced fancy was eventually in my hand. 🎂 Nearby was a couple of the May Mayhem trad caches that had been replaced after my DNFs some time ago. There were no problems this time.

So with Fingringhoe nearly finished, I crossed the Roman River and did a couple more of the Ramble series but ventured no further due to reports that the footpaths had been closed off. There was just time for one more though. Funny how that happens. The Burial Ground proved to be the final one of the day.

When it was analysed, there were 19 successful caches on the day but five failed finds if that's not a contradiction in terms.

‍