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Sunday 7th May 2023
I needed a mystery cache today plus as many caches as I could find in a couple of hours. I had a few mysteries lined up in the Epping area so it seemed to be the right choice.🤔 I set off as dawn was breaking and took the very familiar road to North Weald. Having worked at the nearby radio station for about fifteen years, I knew every back double on the way. As I entered the village past the old Marconi Bungalows, I remembered that most lunchtimes were spent in The Talbot pub across the road. A regular lunchtime drinker would be the legendary, Jimmy Greaves, the best goal scorer, I ever saw.😀
I turned up School Green Lane for the first cache of the day, the My First Hide trad. It was in a less than salubrious place but I still wasted ten minutes here before coming away empty handed. I drove down the High Street and turned off, parking near the footpath onto farmland. I was after the AdLab bonus which I had tried for last year. I remember that as I approached the final stage before, I could hear a buzzing.🤔 On closer inspection, there was a hornets nest so I swiftly left the scene. This year, the only problem was that I could'nt find the cache. After a quick check, I saw that the coords had been changed. I re-did the sums and the search area was close by so I made a quick find. That was my mystery cache sorted.
A trad, Shine A Light On Me, had been published yesterday and there was a glimmer of hope that with the coronation et al yesterday, there might still be chance of a FTF. I had to make do with a STF but I wasn't too bothered.😀
I drove into Epping and parked up near one of the entrances to Stonards Hill Park for the Epping : Other Churches AL Bonus 2. This was a quick find and on the other side of the park was the final stage of the Stonards Scout Hut letterbox cache. This was soon spotted and after completing the admin, I replaced the cache as found.
It was only 0705 so it would be quiet in the High Street but my first stop was the ST Epping multi. This one had been easily solved at home so I quickly found the cache and hung a Uey and headed back to the High Street where there were three more multis.😀 I parked up and walked down to the yet to open Cafe Nero. Outside was the A Fine Pair ~ Epping multi which was soon solved. I checked the location of the final stage but it wasn't nearby so I left it until later.
I walked on to the VS - Epping 1 multi and went through the checker on the second attempt. This time, the final stage was close by so I was able to retreive this without problem. Well apart from the female Mallard who seemed to take exception to my presence in the park.😀 Up the other end of town was the second VS multi. Whilst I was gathering the information I had a chat to an inquisitive passer by about caching - he said that it must be better than going to LegoLand🤣
I had got too close to the Cafe Nero earlier and I could now hear it calling me back.🤔 After a quick cappucino and a packet of biscuits, I got back in the car and headed off to the final stage of the FP multi. There were no problems here and I set upon gathering a few trads on a drive by circuit of the northern part of the town. I had to park up though to get onto footpaths following a heart shaped geoart series around Epping. The Hearts magnetic pull - Mk2 trad was first to be found with its fine views and I carried on down very muddy tracks collecting three more.
There was one mystery on the series that I had solved - You Took A Black Heart and I was pleased to find this one. The CO had warned about nettles and they weren't wrong. However, gardening gloves are part of the tool kit so I didn't get stung.😀 I had time to get one more cache so tramped over the fields to A Heart Filling View. Once I had teased the trad out of its hidey hole, I looked for the view but I was immediately drawn to the magnificent Bug Hotel nearby. I want to build one but this was probably too grandiose for my means.🤔
1 Letterbox 3 Mystery 4 Multi 8 Traditional
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