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This morning I’m off to Hauxton, a small village just of the M11 in Cambridgeshire. As soon as I saw the name, I was off back down memory lane. My Dad came from Hoxton, a few miles north of the City of London. It was very working class when he was growing up there but now it’s an up and coming area. He used to say that his nan sat in the Bacchus pub there, shelling her peas. She couldn’t read or write but she always knew what her winnings were, at the bookies. The Bacchus is now a trendy wine bar.🙁
The reason that I’m in this neck of the woods is that there are a couple of circular walks plus spin-off caches here. There‘s the five mile 27 trad Hauxton Hip-Hop series and I hoped to follow this with the three mile 17 trad Haslington Humdinger series.
I started the day off just outside Hauxton with one of the Milestone trads and parked up down a side road in the village and set off down the road. I swiftly found the first five trads plus the CM, the VH and then then multi VS before I was able to get out into the countryside down a nice dry track. A couple more of the series tumbled before I reached the road and the solitary Footpath To Hauxton trad.
I walked down the road crossing the railway bridge until the next junction where another of the series bit the dust. However, I deviated from the series here and walked in the opposite direction and climbed up the hill to the 2/2 Obelisk trad. When I got there, it was one of those “I’d never have seen this but for Geocaching“ moments. This two centuries old memorial overlooked the busy M11 and was probably only visited by the farmer and geocachers. This had to have a fave.
I got back to the series and started along the footpath, collecting #9, and after crossing the railway line, I found the By The Railway. I continued down the track and reached the road and #13. I crossed the road to collect the info for the multi CM Harston - Baptist.
I walked down the road into Harston picking up another of the series, having a DNF at the VH (now found to be MIA and replaced) and then reaching the multi WM. I collected the info for the coords it decided to leave this one until later. I continued along the series, passing the final of the CM and clocking that and the trad VS.
I was able to have a clear run at the rest of the series picking up the trads By The Field and By The Road on the way. I had a 10 minute walk back to the car and then set off on a short section of drive bys. First off was the trad FP Harston, the final of WM Harston and then the trad CM in Harston on my way into Haslingfield.
I parked up in the designated parking spot and set off on the circular Humdinger series collecting the trad CM at All Saints and then the mystery Can Poshchick along the way. There was a little cafe near the church so I stopped for coffee and cake.😀 I’m sad to report that I couldn’t find the final cache of the series despite a long search but I was able to add the Haslingfield/Harston Link cache to the tally.
The car was parked opposite the Village Hall so I worked out the coords for the multi and set off for the final for a quick find. I noted that the mystery Congratulations JOLLYROGERS2 was along this stretch of road so I whizzed up there for the final cache of the day.
2 Mystery 3 Multi 56 Traditional
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