Learn More
For the past few years I’ve been looking at a small series in Beacon Woods near Bean so I thought that I should have a go at it. There was one small problem here though as the car park didn’t appear to open until nine o’clock which was no good for me. That’s the time, I’m thinking of coming home. So I had to have a fall back plan and that was the Fawkham Green Gamble.
So I parked up in Bean just as dawn broke and quickly found the WM Bean trad. There was a VHs multi nearby so I worked out the coords and soon added that one to the tally. Now the big test! 🤔 I drove a mile down the road and, drat, plan B it is.
I stopped off down the road apiece at one of my nemesis caches, the VS Highcross and Westwood trad. It would be embarrassing to say how many times that I had looked for this one, in fact, I can’t remember. However this time it was a quick find and as I found it, I realised that it was one of the COs trademarks.😀
On the way into Longfield, I picked up the cunningly placed It’s Easter trad and carried on into Hartley. There is a 2/5 multi here at the VS and I desperately needed a 5 multi for a number of challenge caches.😀 I found all the information and worked out some coords which looked reasonable. I set off for the search area and once there, realised that the CO had put some +/- numbers on the final so I didn’t know where I was. I worked out some new coords but couldn't find the cache at either location. I sent the CO a message asking which were the right coords and set off down towards Fawkham.
On the way down Valley Road, I passed part of the Fawkham Green Gamble and decided to pick up the 2/2.5 #15 trad as a C&D. #16 was a 5/2.5 Mystery based on the pecking order of Kentish cachers or is it Men of Kent cachers? I had looked at it but stood no chance. However I did note that many successful finders were in the same boat but had just busked it.😀 So I thought, the car is in a safe position, why don’t I just see if I can strike lucky. There was a hint so I walked to an equidistant spot and bingo, I did indeed strike lucky.😀
I was so happy with this that I continued walking up Scudders Hillpicking off all the trads up to #20. I could see that there wasn’t a suitable car parking place up here for walking down to #18 and beyond so like the Duke Of York, I marched back down the hill to the car.
Continuing down Valley Road, I stopped briefly for the VHs Fawkham trad and then carried on to the final of the Hospital Micro: 2 Fawkham Manor Letterbox. I had failed before and had been thwarted on other occasions by parked up travellers but this time, it was all clear for a quick find. I had noted the boot eating oak tree before (see the photo) and this time spotted a sandal that had also been partly devoured.🤔
Now it was on to my final port of call, Fawkham Green. I soon worked out the clever WM Fawkham Green multi and it was the first time that I had counted the links in a chain to get numbers before.🤔 I then found the info to sort out the coords for the 2.5/3.5 #1 Gawkham Green Gamble for another day. The last cache of the day was the 2/2 Fawkham GREEN puzzle Mystery with its emphasis on the GREEN.😀
I saw that I had missed a message from Rupert re VS Hartley and it turned out that both sets of coords were correct.🥴 One was for the cache and the other for the trailhead.
1 Letterbox 2 Multi 2 Mystery 9 Traditional
#11960