Herts

Whilst I was out hunt for Bugs last week, I received a message from the local geocacher, tyke, that their VS Stanstead St Margarets Wherigo was now back in play. I knew I had to go for this one as it would add to my list of Herts icons. So the plan was to start here, then meander up to Buntingford to pick up the AdLab bonus that I had dipped last week and see what else I could gather on the day. Here’s how it went.

As dawn broke, I parked up next to the final stage of the Wherigo and had an almost immediate find.😀 I jumped back into the motor and set off up the road to Great Amwell. I was after the CM trad at Stanstead, St John the Baptist that I had dipped before. Now why this isn’t Great Amwell, St John the Baptist, I have no idea.🤔 Anyway I realised that I had completely missed a hint item last time and made a quick discovery this time.

Now there was an AdLab series here, Amwell Adventures, so whilst I was here, I had a go, as a couple of the bases were of interest. The first base was easy but I couldn’t get the right info for the second.  I decided not to continue. However, there was another base in the churchyard concerning Harold Abraham, the 1924 100 yards Olympic champion who was the subject of the film Chariots of Fire. I  found the information and claimed the second one of the AdLab.

I moved on to the outskirts of Ware to collect the 3/1 trad, It’s a Dirty Job. I was expecting all sorts here but it was all quite clean as well as cunning here.😀 I parked up in the centre of town as I was after the CM Ware Unknown. I had solved the jigsaw part of the puzzle but needed more info from here which was quickly found - how old! The well hidden cache was soon in hand somit was time to move on.

I was going to Hertford. I like the Cafe Nero here but I had the CM ~ St Joseph trad to find first and then my favourite free parking space was vacant.😀 However the service in the cafe was poor so I won’t be going there again. There’s also an Unknown here that I have solved for some time. The final stage is on a bench but there’s always a gentleman of the road sleeping on it and today was no different. I can’t see me coming back to this county town much more.

So it was a ten minute drive up the road to Buntingford for the A Bumble Around Buntingford  AdLab bonus. I will I had used the cafe that I found here last week for breakfast.🤔 now the final stage for the bonus was very cunningly placed. I can see future cachers getting wet feet here.

I now set off on a drive by tour of the local villages collecting CMs, WMs, LBs and some of the Congratulations series. I gathered trads, multis and some unknowns starting at the FP trad in Hare Street working my way through Great and Little Hormead and into Anstey.

There were a quite a few caches to find here, many of which were puzzles that I had worked out previously. I found four LBs, a multi and three trads, plus a FP and WM multi as well as a VHs unknown. As I was approaching the final stage of the CM... Anstey ~ Union Chapel unknown, I spotted another unknown on the map that I had missed, the 2.5/2 Summat ‘n’ Nowt. Quickly looking it up, I saw that the interesting puzzle was based on the Yorkshire or was it the Derbyshire dialect. I soon had some coords worked out and after a short walk into the woods, had the cache in hand. The photo is from the laminated card in the cache.

My next stop was the tiny hamlet of Nuthampstead but it must as been very busy during WW2 as it was home to the 389th Bomb Group of the USAF and the 55th Fighter Group of the USAAF. The two memorials near the Woodman Inn were very moving.

I spent some time in the village as I took the opportunity to get out into the fields for some LBs. There were more WMs here and one took me a long time to find. However if I had written the coords to the solved puzzle down correctly, I would have found the cache a lot quicker.☹️

It was around this time that I received a text from nathanjhunt. Nathan was in the area with a mate and was following me up on some of the caches. Now what were the odds on the fact that we would all be caching  in the same area some sixty miles from home? However, the phone signal was particularly poor here and by the time we made text contact again, we had moved in different directions.🙁

I drove a short distance out of the hamlet and found a decent parking spot on Bell Lane. The temperature was rising but at least there was a slight breeze.🙂 I followed a route of footpaths and farm tracks. I picked up a couple more LBs, a multi and a trad and then spotted one of the Cokenach Canter series of trads just off my chosen path.

A jogger passed me and I commented that he would lose pounds today. I walked on and picked up the trad and two more Congratulations unknowns - Baldie Bear and GESAnderson. I could see three ramblers walking in my direction and when we met, they asked if I was geocaching as they had passed a couple of geocachers an hour or so ago. I asked if one had a beard and one did. So they had met Nathan and Steve.

The ramblers said that they weren’t sure what Geocaching was. I gave them the rundown and said that there was one a couple of feet from us. I hadn’t intended to look for #25 of the No Cheese Gromit series but the finding of it was an education for them.😀

I walked north to the 2010 vintage Middle Wood trad and quickly found the cache. However as I walked on, I realised that I was in a signal trough so turned and walked south until my signal came back. This coincided with the Congratulations grannieannie 1503 unknown and this was quickly followed up with two more LBs, another trad and an unknown.

This brought me back onto Bell Lane and a mile or so back to the motor. Luckily there were four trads between me and there. All these were easily found. I was so pleased to get back to the car so I could have a drink. I glugged a couple of pinTs of water which cooled me down a bit. I was ready for home now as I had found 42 caches.

1 Wherigo 2 AdLabs 5 Multi 15 Unknown 19 Traditional

#12707

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