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For some reason, I’m reminded of the 1965 Number 1 hit by Hedgehoppers Anonymous, a band consisting of RAF personnel - It‘s Good News Week! Being more of an optimist than a pessimist, I believe that there’s always good news but this week it’s Village Hall Week. This is part of a drive to make Village Halls more popular and to get people out there to enjoy them.
Now as you are all aware, GeoJaxx has set up a popular Village Hall series of caches and has produced souvenirs for both finding VH caches and attending VH events during this week. Now I desperately tried to find a pukka Village Hall in Essex that was running a coffee morning or something during this week but failed.🙁 There were some that were arranged very late on but too late for me to latch on to with an event.
So I had to arrange one of my own. The trouble was that I had done almost all the VH caches in Essex and I wanted a venue that would give some shelter and refreshment. I also wanted somewhere that I could get a VH cache or two. I knew that West Cambs had a suitable venue close to a number of unfounded VH caches so I opted for Wimpole.
I arranged a breakfast meeting for an hour hoping that someone would take the bait and keep me company. To my surprise, another six cachers turned up and I was very pleased to meet Wild Duck Chase, (Mr & Mrs) petensara2, (Mr & Mrs) peegeenine and alicesheroes. After a full hour of eating and talking, we went our different ways hoping to meet up again sometime.😀
I drove a short distance down the road to pick up the multi VH Wimpole and the FP Wimpole trad. So that was me sort out on the souvenir front. Next up was Arrington, a couple of miles north west where I found the mystery VH, the VS and CM multis and then the tricky Little Known History 6 (Wimpole Hall) trad.
Following along the side roads, I ended up in Croydon where I quickly found the Jarman‘s of Croydon trad and then the WM multi. There was another of ryo62’s Congratulations series here, this one honouring railwayfan. One day I hope that there is a Congratulations VangeRover out there when I have found 1000 of the CO‘s cache. I added another VH multi at the delightful Croydon Reading Rooms and then drove up to find the CM trad with its beautiful outlook.
The next one on my list was the 4/1 mystery A big “thank you” to Ross (who is ryo62).👏 This was a jigidi puzzle so one I had completed the jigsaw, I knew that I would have the correct coords. However, when I got to the search area, I was uncertain as it was in the middle of a business estat. I had a quick search but no joy. However there was a bonus here as there was a very well equipped mobile coffee van here and I had a very welcome Americano with cold milk on the side, John.
Why do I say the last bit? In 1965, just after I had joined the Post Office at Brentwood Radio Station, Paul Reyland and I had to attend East Ham Tech to start our technical training. When morning break came, the class used to go to an Italian cafe in Barking Road near East Ham Town Hall. We all used to order our elevens‘s as Tea and Two’er Toast, John.😀 Now you know why.
Anyway, I sent the CO an email to try to work out where I had gone wrong and set off down the road to Wendy for a couple more caches. I found the mystery WM Wendy & Hilgay and then the Pole Dancer trad. I wanted to spend some time caching in Kingston but had some unfinished business on the Quizzical Smiles series.
However to get to Kingston, there were quite a few mysteries in the way. I picked up Milestone #4 - Royston 8, two of the Congratulations series and then parked up about a mile from QS10 which was as near as I could get. This was disabled last time but I had a quick find. I continued on a circular route to get to QS16 which I messed up last time. I now had the correct coords which made for an easy find. Once back at the car, I found more of the Congratulations series including those for those prolifix cachers Mel-Ray and HelennTribe.
I parked up near the Village Hall in Kingston and quickly found the CM and VH multis. I followed up with the Wot No Water trad and then set out down the farm track towards QS19, the bonus cache of the series, picking up the FP trad on the way. The QS was cleverly placed but a quick find once I’d got out to it. Time was getting on so I continued on a circular track back to the village picking up another mystery 052 Hartley Heart Attack.
Back at the car, I checked my messages and found that the CO of the 4/1 mystery that I couldn’t find earlier had replied telling me that I had transposed 2 numbers. I just had to go back for another try and found that the cache was 100 yards from where I had parked earlier on.🤬
1 Event 7 Multi 8 Traditional 14 Mystery
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