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I had big plans for this morning now that I had attained the Congratulations : 1000 Club. I could turn my attention back to East Cambridgeshire and continue with a little project that I had been working on for a while.
There was once a railway line stretching from Cambridge out to Mildenhall in Suffolk. There were twelve stations on the line and caches had been placed at each one. I had found seven of them and if I found the remainder, I could claim a tasty souvenir.
Now the plan was to get into Cambridge early before the crowds built up and grab a couple of STs plus a couple of other caches, WM and CMs and then head out to to finish the job. So here’s how the day went.
I parked up in the Cambridge Leisure car park about six thirty and headed off to the Station for the trad ST. I walked up to the CM Cambridge - English Martyrs multi. This was easier than expected and I headed back towards the car park. I had spotted a Costa so had my usual sausage bap and a coffee before heading back. I passed the Cambridge War Memorial where I collected the EC and the WM trad. I had passed up on the ST Cambridge #2 trad on my haste to get the other ST which I needed for the souvenir. It took a time to find this one but it was eventually felt.
I got back to the car park and paid my £3.50 for just two hours 🤯 and drove down to Cherry Hinton Hall. There were a few caches to find here. I did the AdLab series here in tandem with the WherI Hinton Wherigo. The AdLab series had a bonus which I was able to tease out. Before I left the park, I found a couple of trads - the green giant and the four corners #2.
I had some distance to go today but before I left Cambridge, I went after a trio of CM trads. St Martin plus the Leper Chapel were quick finds but I just couldn’t put my hand on St Athanasios.
Now I had Mildenhall in my sights and drove down the A14 turning off into Barton Mills. The lure of two more CMs was too much to bear so I gathered up the CM ~ Barton Mills multi and then the trad Baptist.
I parked on the outskirts of Mildenhall and could hear the rumble of jet engines from the nearby USAF base. I made my way along the track to the RST where there was a fine view of the old station now converted into a fine dwelling.
I found it difficult to park up in Mildenhall as it was very busy. I had expected to see lots of vehicles with US plates but I only saw the one, from Atlanta, Georgia. The town was certainly busy with a lot going on so the association with the military hadn’t done it much harm. I sought out the WM multi and had a coffee in a small independent coffee shop on the way. There weren’t many caches in town so I had to move on in my quest for RST caches.
Next up was RST Worlington (Golf Links Halt) and this one took some finding. Log entries varied from “easy find” to “struggled to find” with recent DNFs. I must have spent thirty minutes here as without this one, I couldn’t claim the souvenir.🤬 I eventually found something that looked like it could have been a cache but it didn’t have a log sheet.🤔 I had a flash of genius and took a photo and sent it to the CO. Thankfully they came straight back and confirmed that it was. I was allowed to replace the log sheet and claim the cache. Happy days 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
However, I knew that all the time lost here would cost me. I drove on to Isleham for the RST Isleham Station and its clever maybe unique trad. Just down the road was the CM Fordham ~ St Peter mystery jigsaw puzzle that I had solved some time before.
Next up was Burwell where I had previously solved the multi cache based on the WW2 Searchlight Battery based nearby. This was another elusive cache but soon found. I had time for one more cache and that was just outside town at the RST Exning Road Halt. After I had grabbed this one, I reluctantly drove home knowing that I didn’t make the RST Swaffham Prior which would give me the souvenir but it would have to wait for another day.
The reason for the early off was that I had a pass to go to a Community Event - Lets all make this Essex Meet Number 1, in Ingatestone this evening. This had been arranged by the local cacher TurnyT. I hadn’t seen any of the local cacher for about 18 months (apart from the recent Mega🤔) and have a chance to chat. There were loads of cachers from near and far including some of the big names in the hobby.😀
1 Earthcache 1 Event 1 Wherigo 2 Mystery 4 Multi 5 AdLab 12 Traditional
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