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It’s Leap Year Day and I want to gather up a few caches to boost my stats. The weather forecast is wet and murky so I didnt want to go too far. I mapped out a route of mainly drive by trads around Grays, as a decent walk was pretty much out of the question today.
As dawn broke, with a light but persistent rainfall, I drove through Orsett Baker Street past the old renovated Tower windmill to the first cache on my list. It took me a while to locate the well hidden “Winding Your Way Down Baker Street” C&D but I was off the mark doubling my LYD tally.😀
Carrying on down Baker Street, pausing to cross the empty old A13, I was in unfamiliar territory but quickly found the Orsett Heath C&D. I double back to the old A13, drove down a mile or so until I found a suitable parking place to tackle the Old Post trad which was set across the road in Blackshots Park.
I reached the coords without getting too wet and there was the old post. It was a cast iron tube about 10 foot long and bloody heavy. I tried probing in each end but no joy. Perhaps the cache had been pushed in too far so I lifted one end to see if anything would slide out. There wasn’t a cache but the open lock knife was an unwelcome surprise. However I didn’t want to take it with me so put it back and informed other cachers in my log so as to warn them.
I drove into Stifford Clays past the swimming pool and up to the next cache, Fairway. This was very cunningly but precariously placed. There was a new CM up the road, Grays ~ St Cedds.This was a quick find and a very unexpected FTF.😀 However, As I was writing up the log, I received a message from the Old Post CO saying that the cache was still there and would I consider having another try. Back I went but still no joy so I carried on back through Grays to the Treacle Mine pub. I had a quick find of Hogglett and a reply from the Old Post CO mentioning that the cache was hidden in a corner of the Old Post.
Now there wasn’t a corner so I was obviously in the wrong place. Would I be third time lucky? So back I went, checked for a corner on the post that I’d found and no corner. So I went walkabout and found another post 53 metres away. 🤬
With so much time wasted looking for this cache, my available time was severely diminished. I set off to Little Thurrock for a quick find of Rookery View. Just down the road was the recently re-introduced CM Little Thurrock and I had a quick find of the well placed cache in the pouring rain.
I was now running out of time and didn’t want to delve more into the Grays caches that I hadn’t found. I decided that I had enough time to get over to South Ockendon for another of nathanjhunt’s SideTracked caches. This was cunningly placed but I didn’t hang around as it was now teeming with rain.
9 Traditional
#11004