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I’m slowly getting back into the swing of geocaching things and I’ve noticed that today will be SideTracked Day. I’ve been collecting this souvenir for the past five years so I don’t want to miss out. I usually organise a ST event but there’s no chance this year what with the restrictions. Last year’s day coincided with the Aberdeen Mega. I found three STs that day and organised two events on the way home.😀
A ST cache has recently been published at South Woodham Ferrers by NathanJHunt so that’s my target for today and it gives me an opportunity to get back to the Dengie. I was here not long after six and the place was deserted so I didn’t have to worry about commuters as I made a quick find of the cunningly placed trad.
Most of the caches on my list today have been set by Nathan and he was recently set a number of Mystery and Letterboxes free. I headed for Stow Maries to search for the VHS Mystery at the Smythe Hall. I followed the footpath to the final and had a fine view back towards SWF as I signed the log sheet. As I walked back past the church I noticed the CWGC notice so went to have a look for the fallen to pay my respects.
I found the grave to Second Lieutenant Roy Walter Mouritzen of the Royal Flying Corps who had served at the nearby airfield. As I read the inscription, I was stunned to find that he was from Perth, West Australia. I researched and found that he was a college student, born to Danish parents in Australia. He had travelled alone to England in 1916 and joined the Artists Rifles. He then trained as a pilot In the RFC. He was posted to Stow Maries where he met with a flying tragic accident on 5th June 1917. He was 20 years and one month old. Rest In Peace, Roy and thank you.
After saying farewell to Roy, I set off for the long drive out to the VHS Dengie Letterbox. I was following my satnav and mistook the Village Hall for a Tin Tabernacle.😀 Once I realised my error I parked up and quickly found the well protected cache.
Now it was time to head south to Maldon for another VHS. This Village Hall was much more salubrious and the trad cache was an easy find. I was after another Letterbox at the Pass the Pigs cache. This well placed cache was on the way down to the Creeksea ferry. Is this still operational? After I had managed to perform contortions to reach the cache, I was on my way. There’s a cafe on a farm very near here selling homemade American lemonade which I must visit someday.
I was on the home run here and set off for Althorne. The VHS Mystery was a jigsaw based on an ancient map of the Dengie which was full of info I hadn’t come across before. I had a quick find at the final and for my last cache of the morning, I set off down the road to the WM Letterbox. Once I had worked out the coords, I found where the well hidden cache was but need to be dexterous to reach it.
So that was it, my first early morning Geocaching trip out. I could get used to this.🤔
2 Traditional 2 Mystery 3 Letterbox
#11114