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There' a series of Mystery caches out near Stebbing called Repton's Fellowships. There are 11 caches, each with a bonus number, building up to a final cache, which, it turned out, had a final twist but more of that later. I'd found seven of them a month ago but hadn't found Boromir and I needed this to get into the final four caches. A caching couple - Colint2515 and cheekychickens67 had also found seven and DNFed Boromir recently and had contacted me. We had agreed to meet at noon to hunt for the elusive cache one to finish the series.
I'd checked the map and formulated a plan to mop up some orphans along the Flitch Way in between Felsted and Rayne. I started early doors in Bannister Green and picked up five trads on a pleasant "there and back" walk along the old railway track bed. I wanted to pick up another new trad Braintree Auto Club on the way to Rayne. This one was set up to commemorate a long defunct racing track but I couldn't see any remains of old motors.
Parking up at the former Rayne station, I was pleased to see that the community cafe was open so I had to partake of a sausage sandwich and a mug of coffee. I was pleased to asked to be offered Wilkin's of Tiptree red or brown sauce but I had hoped for their English mustard but had to settle for Colman's. I came out of there to tackle the multi based on the railway carriage at the platform. 🚞 The carriage housed a small museum which was closed but a chap working nearby kindly opened up for me and I spent a good 20 mins looking around.
I quickly solved the multi and set off for a quick find at GZ. It was then that I realised that Frankenstein's Cache, 🤖 a trad that I'd previously DNFed was nearby. This time, I had a quick find. I walked back to the station and set off down the track to have a look for a 4/2 trad - Using The Right Tools. I eventually found the buried cache filled with various tools which I had to use to find the log sheet. I was sent on a little wild goose chase until I realised that it was a spoof and the log sheet was in the cache all the time!
Now came the time to hunt for Boromir! I met the two eager cachers at the assigned place but I was 10 mins late spending too much time at the last cache. They had made some assumptions of the bonus number in Boromir and come up with some possible coords of the next three caches in the series. We spotted that Treebeard was on the way to Boromir so looked for that and we had an instant find so the coords were alright!
However we still had no luck at Boromir.😢 The last time I had been here, there were high nettles and thick, dense bushes but now the whole area had been mechanically flailed. There were wood chippings everywhere and there was no sign of Boromir. We spent another two hours finding the next two caches and gaining the coords for the final cache - Gollum! There was still a final twist which Colin had spotted and I hadn't but it was me who collected the well hidden cache at GZ. 😀
After the long walk back to the car, we said our goodbyes, arranging to meet up at my event in Halstead the following week. I set off back to Rayne to pick up some more orphans. First up was Bridge Too Far, another bridge on the defunct railway. I'd failed here before but I put my hand on it straight away. I went off for another quick find at the VS and then off to the final cache of the day - Coin Club (Geocoins Only).
4 Mystery, 1 Multi, 12 Traditional
#6067