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My plan for today was for me to get enough caches to reach 7000 caches and get a Virtual Cache for the milestone. All I needed was about 45 caches.🤔 I knew I would struggle but I’m ever the optimist.😀 I’d planned a route from North Essex into Cambridge that could help me reach the target and there was a juicy Virtual in the Wandlebury CP below Cambridge.
It was going to be a rainy start to the day and I pulled into the carpark next to the CM in Little Chesterford just after 0745. It was a bit of a trek over the field dodging the sheep poo but I had a quick find at GZ. The trad cache was in a safe place so I left a TB there.🤫
In Great Chesterford, I worked out the VS multi. The rain was getting heavier so I went to the boot of the car for my goretex cagoule and realised that I’d left it at home. 🤬 After a short walk along the river bank, I found the well hidden cache. The next stop was Ickleton just over the border.
I sorted out the VS multi based on a tragic helicopter cache in the Scillies that killed a local family of four. After finding the trad CM, I made a quick find of the multi up the road. The Ickleton Plough was a quick find but the Ickleton Bridge was a bit of a git. It took me a good 20 minutes searching around the bridge until I found the cache. In future, I must amend my geocaching technique as a result of this one.🤔
The next village was Hinxton with two VS trads which were quickly found. Next up was the Hinxton Ford which was intriguing. Wellies were essential for this one and so it proved to be. In the water, running fast of the road, and reaching up under the bridge, I blindly uncovered a monster’s hand or was it a crocodile‘s claw holding tightly onto the cache.😬
I drove through the ford, luckily it wasn’t too deep, and on into Duxford. I found a trad of the Moat Micro series, which was new one on me, and then up to the VS multi, which was easily solved. North of the village was Lofty Perch. However, it was by an extremely busy roundabout with nowhere to park.🙁 I had to leave the car about a half mile down the road and walk back. I found the trad and the Beware Overtaking Geocachers trad up the road before I turned back towards the car.
I found a couple of easy trads before getting to the SideTracked at Whittlesford Parkway. Free parking was at a premium here and I couldn’t find any. I took a chance and parked in the station carpark 🤫 and very quickly gathered up the ST and the nearby CM at the Duxford Chapel before whizzing down the road towards Sawston and Pampisford.
On the way, I found the Sawston South Triangle. Again, absolutely no parking so I had to leave the car on the main road and quickly retrieve the trad. It was easier in Pampisford, finding the Fine Pair with its splendid G5R Wallbox next to the cache, the multi and trad VS and a letterbox CM. I left another TB in the multi VS.👍🏻
In Sawston, there was a series of four trads in the Sawston Saunter. It was a linear walk with a Little Bridge cache at the end. #4 was a really easy find but I couldn’t find a hint item at #3 despite searching for about 20mins. I wrote a note on the cache page before moving onto the rest of the series and the litt bridge in its lovely setting. After retracing my path back to the car, I checked my emails whilst eating lunch and noted that the CO had come back to me.👍🏻 He said that the cache was still at #3 so I went back and after another long search, I finally found the cache. So cunningly hidden, it had to have a fave.👏 There were another four trads in town including the CM and the Sawston North Triangle which were all added to the found list.
It was around this point when I realised that the milestone wouldn’t be reached today. The CO who had helped me earlier had another interesting set of caches on the way to the Wandlesbury CP. The Mile Road byway was off the A1307 north of Brabaham. There were three caches along the mile stretch with a interesting field puzzle at Can You Sign The Log. I was looking forward to the challenge but unfortunately the cache was missing. Further along the track, the CO came back to me and confirmed that I was in the right place. So after finding In The Middle and A Walk Down The Mile plus two of the Silver Tin Trail caches, where I left another TB, I was on my way back to the field puzzle.
In the meantime, the CO had contacted the previous finder and he had left it underneath the logs that I had described to the CO. So this one was MIA.☹️ The next day the CO contacted me to say that the cache was indeed missing but he graciously told me to claim the cache.👍🏻
So I’d ended the day, six shy of my goal. However, in the Interplanetary Pursuit challenge, I’d passed Neptune and was now on the final leg of the journey. On the Health front, I had done 21,201 Steps, walked 17km and climbed five floors.😀
31 Traditional 4 Multi 1 Letterbox
#6994