A “Busy” weekend with Team Essex

Last year I was very excited when I saw the Sussex Olympic Rings puzzles released and I tried very hard to solve them. We didn’t get the opportunity to head to Sussex to actually find them last year, but with the bank holiday coming up and my fingers tightly crossed for good weather I teamed up with Stones2005, Yorkie63, MummaD, Helennbrian, Hollyncharlie, and Andy750x to form Team Essex and we headed down south. 2 heads are better than 1 and as 10 heads are even better than 2, so together we managed to also completely solve BHQM (Burgess Hill Question Mark). That gave us 85 puzzles solved and ready for finding during our Busy weekend in Sussex…

Day 1 – Challenge caches and a challenging hill!

I headed to Sussex with Andy750x on the Friday and we decided to set ourselves a mini challenge. As we had 85 puzzles lined up to get, we thought we’d aim to grab 100 puzzles for the trip so first we stopped off in Kent to find the Assiduous Cacher Challenge caches. I’d worked out a long while ago that we qualified for 17 out of 20 of the challenges, so that was good enough for me to justify a nice morning walk around Scadbury Nature Reserve, where they were all hidden.

Entering the Reserve

The reserve was an absolutely beautiful place to walk around and was reasonably quiet in the morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and there were many butterflies all around. It had been quite a mission trying to work out which challenges we qualified for, however, it was well worth it for the beautiful walk through the bluebell-filled woods.

The reserve was full of pretty bluebells

The caches were relatively easy to find, apart from a couple which required some keen eyes. On route we bumped into a muggle who asked if we were looking for fungus (Hehe, haven’t heard that one before) and a lovely muggle lady who knew what we were doing and told us that she had found one of the geocaches in the reserve and always checks it’s still in place when she walks past.

After all that challenge caching, it was time for a rest on a conveniently shaped tree before heading off to Sussex.

Taking a break

We met up at Tottingham Totter #31 in Fulking with stones2005. Mrs. Stones2005 had spotted the 8 miler as a nice walk to do. She wasn’t wrong, but as the cache description mentioned “nice views” that could only mean one thing… a giant hill!!! We parked the car and looked up to see what was in store for us. The cache we started at was an excellent starting point as it meant we would conquer the hill, have an easy walk for the rest of the series and then finish at the pub! At the beginning here there was also a very nice little spring.

A beautiful spring at the start of the walk

We then climbed the hill past the National Trust sign and through a herd of cows. Eek! I’d usually be really scared of them, but it looked like a popular walking route so they didn’t bother me too much.

I didn’t notice someone had removed the ‘L’ until I looked at the photo I’d taken. Lol!

Moooooooove out the way!

Soon (after a bit of huffing and puffing) we were at the top and could admire the amazing views whilst we found the series’ earthcache.

Mrs. Stones2005 at the earthcache

Great views on a fine day.

As we looped around to the end we spotted the hill that we had climbed previously. I imagine if we started at #01 that spotting the hill would cause me to cry “Oh no, we don’t have to climb that, do we???” So I was very glad it was already out of the way!

It was good to know that we’ve already climbed the hill!!!

After a quick stop off at the pub for a cider as a reward we headed off to Blacklands Farm where we were camping for the weekend to find the rest of Team Essex already pitched up and saving our spot so we could huddle around the camp fire and plan our route to scoop up the puzzles!

We definitely needed a Firepit to keep warm!

Day 2 – V for Victory!

We were up super early on Saturday morning as there was an 8am Flash mob for May the 4th around where the Olympic rings puzzles were placed. We all gathered around Lindfield Common for a quick piccie before we headed off on our adventure.

Cachers gathering on Lindfield Common

The slight issue with the Olympic “rings” caches was that once solved, they weren’t very…well… “ring-like” and although a couple of the colours made for nice walks, the rest were very scattered. We had planned the best order to do them all though and as the weather forecast wasn’t looking very promising for the afternoon we tackled the walks in the morning.

The rest were picked up during short walks and cache and dashes. We found a very good use for little Cass though as when finding caches for the black ring he was able to sneak into gaps and under bridges to grab the caches for us!

Little Cass gets into the places where big Cass can’t!

One of the nicest sights of the Olympic Rings series was seeing the 450m long Ouse Valley viaduct. It was absolutely massive.

Ouse Valley Viaduct

The olympic rings caches took nearly the entire day to complete, way longer than we had anticipated. There was a really nice reward at the end though as by grabbing the bonus caches from each of the rings we had the coordinates that we needed to find the Bronze, Silver, and Gold medal caches. Each of these were big containers at fantastic, well planned locations. I’d love to show you a few of the piccies, but I’d probably be giving it away. Here’s one of the containers though…

The bronze medal cache

Although the medal caches were nice rewards on their own for the hours spent puzzling and hours spent dashing around the area, we made our own reward as well by visiting the appropriately named pub, “The Victory Inn” for a celebratory pint to finish the day… or not…

A victory for Team Essex!!!

Whilst sat enjoying our drinks we decided that we would properly finish the day by also finishing the BHQM puzzles. We were all completely knackered, but after refuelling we headed off to finish the already long day with 18 finds and 1 DNF, however I was able to replace the missing cache that we DNF’ed with the cache owners permission making it 86 puzzle cache finds in a day!!! WOW! It was very late when we got back to the campsite, but we were safe in the knowledge that our epic mission was complete. I definitely think we won a gold medal for our massive team effort!!!

Day 3 – Winding down

After our very busy couple of days caching we teamed up with Helennbrian to do a few short series whilst the rest of the team tackled the fabulous Devils Dyke. We had already walked that series so we left them to complete it.

We started off with Retreat Walk, a 2.7 mile walk for 17 caches before heading off to do West Hoathly Wander which took us past Philpots quarry. Both were lovely walks and far more relaxing than the day before’s hectic run around!!!

Very cute donkeys on the Retreat Walk

Elton Cass models a nice bit of swag from one of the caches

The marker stone for Philpots quarry

We finished the day with a few church micros and a long rest at the pub.

Day 4 – Packing up

And so it was the last day of our trip away Packing up is always the worst bit, especially when you’re feeling pretty tired after lots of walking! There was time for one last series though, and after the tent was packed away we chose Wineham Wonder as it was only a short walk from the campsite. This series took us for a lovely walk along the river on the hottest day of our trip. The hides were a little different from easily hidden film cans, so a few had us guessing for a little while, but we managed to find all of the caches on the series which were enabled. 6 miles later and we were back at the camp site ready to head off home.

There were a few nice weirs along the walk

The path ran alongside the river for most of the journey back to camp

Awwww, little goslings on the way back to camp

In the absence of Little Cass, Yorkie63 got under the bridge whilst Alfie tried to help!

There was time for one last cache though. Stones2005 had visited Church Micro 111 before and said it was a really lovely Church. We headed there on the way home to find St Hugh’s Charterhouse monastery. It was absolutely beautiful and a fantastic cache to finish the trip on!

St Hughes from near GZ

A close up of the Monastery

I just want to say a big thank you to all my friends in Team Essex who made the weekend trip very special. It was great being able to grab the Olympic Rings and BHQM puzzles together and great to have such a mega caching trip. I’ve been snowed under with uni assignments recently and haven’t been able to get out to do much caching nor had any time to tile the bathroom! It was lovely to spend so much time with such lovely people. The caches were just an added bonus.

Team Essex’s Trip to Brugge

And so it was the weekend of the Brugge MEGA event, “Brugse Beer III” which unfortunately has nothing to do with “beer” and much more to do with “bears” but nevermind, that didn’t stop us! I joined the massive 19-person Team Essex (Andy750x, Hollyncharlie, Helennbrian, Foxscout, BEASTMARSTA, Original Red Hen, Doggywalker, Tazzy1234, BigBadJohn, Yorkie63, MummaD, Riskt4ker, Natlie92, and lemontom) and headed to Brugge for some great caching and great bears beer!

Day One – Four countries in a day

We met up at the Euro Tunnel at 5am in the morning (!) and thankfully all made it there with time to spare to pick up our first cache of the day: End of the Wall which started off our mission for the day to find caches in 4 countries. We then boarded the Euro Tunnel for a smooth ride across to Calais.

On the Euro tunnel

Underground, Overground, Wombling free…

After Christmas I headed down to Wiltshire to find my favorite caches once again, it was of course the Below Aboves. This time around it was to accompany The Wombles, Womble Jr, and Buddha_Belly along with the CO, BareClawz whilst they found The White Bird, The Fallen Monarch, and Multi 2.

Although visiting the quarries for the 3rd and 4th times, I still enjoy the underground exploration very much. As always, I enjoyed sliding through a section of one of the quarries through a section called “The Letterbox” which meant sliding head first on my belly down a mud slide. Dave of The Wombles grabbed a picture of me doing it this time around and has kindly said I can add it to my blog entry:

Me sliding through the letterbox about to travel down the mud slide

Halloween Hides and Creepy Caches

And so it was time for yet another UK MEGA event! We’ve been really spoilt this year what with the UK MEGA 2012, Piratemania, and the Geolympix this year. The fact that there was a 4th MEGA just goes to show how much Geocaching has grown over recent years. This MEGA event evolved from a well established yearly event in Northamptonshire at Stanwick Lakes: Halloween Hides and Creepy Caches.

Stanwick Lakes

Below Above – Bath stone quarries (again)

Ever since we visited the Bath Stone quarries in June for the Below Above series of Geocaches I’ve been slightly obsessed with underground caching. It was really just the most magical experience, and after failing to complete the series having only managed to find 2 out of 5 of the caches I was desperate to return to complete the set. The CO, Bareclawz, had kindly offered to be our guide for the visit. I asked quite a few cachers we knew if they wanted to join us on our adventure, but unfortunately most Geocachers were at the UK MEGA in the Lake District that weekend. We were however very fortunate to have the company of Foxscout and The Black Rabbit for our second underground journey in to the quarries, which proved to be a great adventure for everyone. Many thanks to Foxscout for letting me use a few of her photos for this blog entry. She managed to capture a lot more “group” shots than I did. I’ve noted on the photographs which ones are hers. Over the weekend we found 4 geocaches and spent close to 10 hours underground…

Saturday 11th August

The Fallen Monarch/The White Bird

We left home early on the Saturday morning and arrived in the area around mid day just in time to meet the CO and to stop at The Swan pub near by. As the pub is in the area near the quarries the inside was impressively decorated with old tools which hung from the walls.

Old miners tools hanging up in The Swan

Caching in Suffolk and Northamptonshire

Suffolk

On July 28th we stayed close to home, but decided to travel from Essex to Suffolk. We were tempted by a series around Belchamp Water, Belchamp Water Circular.

We were pleasantly surprised by the series as the paths were brilliant, unlike some of the overgrown areas that we usually experience on summer caching trips. I’d even go as far to say that we could have walked the series wearing shorts! The paths were well marked and well cut, and an absolute pleasure to use.

Through the fields

The series passed near the grand Belchamp hall, which I went to take a look at. There was the sound of peacocks coming from the gardens as we hunted for a nearby cache.

Belchamp Hall

Piratemania V – The Essex Invasion!

At last it was time for the Geocaching event that we’d been looking for for months: Piratemania V, a MEGA in the UK. Piratemania is an event in its 5th year which unexpectedly went MEGA last year. As you might gather from the title it’s a pirate-themed event. The actual MEGA was on Saturday 21st July, however we headed to Ashbourne, Derbyshire for fun and frolics camping from Friday to Sunday.

Docking the ship

We pitched our tent up at the campsite late on Friday morning next to fellow Essex cachers mel-ray and happycabbage who had arrived at about the same time as us and soon cracked on with the piratey tent decorations!

The good ship Cassandy

It wasn’t long before we were joined by more of the Essex crew with Hollyncharlie, yorkie63, risktak4r, bigbadjohn1402, tazzy1234, unobtainium, and geotrowel turning up shortly afterwards with most of them pitching their tents along our row so we were all together. With many people arriving after work the camp site was soon packed and heaving with cachers, pirate flags, and some very uniquely decorated tents/motor homes!

Just a small sample of flags!

Bradwell-On-Sea – St. Peter’s Way

…And finally the sun came out! In May when we went to the Essex Camping Event there were more caches placed than we were able to handle and had many left after the weekend was over. I was waiting for that rare yellow thing to reappear in the sky after months of darkness and rain so that we could head back to the sea side and grab the rest of the caches. On Sunday 15th July the sun finally appeared!

We parked at the Bradwell-On-Sea marina on Sunday morning and headed off for a 11 mile walk to bag the 55 caches on the eastern loop of St. Peter’s Way.

The eastern loop. 55 caches over 11 miles.

A real underground adventure – The old Bath stone quarries

Our trip to Wiltshire was spurred by one particular cache series, BearClawz’s “Above Below“. We’re very fond of underground caches and this series was a step further than we’d been before with the other subterranean caches we’d attempted. The caches are hidden in old Bath stone quarries just to the East of Bath. We’ve visited a cache in a cave, in a quarry, and been in bunkers before, however these presented much more of a challenge because you have to travel a considerable distance underground to retrieve the caches. Much more of an adventure!

The quarries in the area were producing stone as far back as 1833. When exploring the quarries with modern day high-lumen torches and taking pictures with cameras with powerful flashes it’s easy to forget that the miners With just candle light or the light from home made oil burners to see whilst working down in the tunnels. The work was all manual with the blocks of stone being sawed by hand. Some quarries in the area were modernised with a rail system, however others used horse and cart to transport the cut stone up out of the quarries. More photos and information about the quarries can be found on Derek Hawkin’s website.

From Derek Hawkin’s site: http://www.choghole.co.uk/PHOTOGRAPHSOLD.htm

In order to work out the entrances for the quarries you first have to solve a puzzle. You also have to decipher some text to work out the route through the quarry as you obviously can’t use your GPSr down there. I’d solved 5 out of the 6 puzzles so we headed to Wiltshire to see what we could find!

Just for starters

In the series there is one cache that isn’t in a quarry… well, not anymore!: Above Below – The Steps With a lower d/t rating we decided to head there first to warm us up, so on a rainy Sunday we left the campsite and headed to GZ. It was a simple cache, however it was situated near a derelict site: Monkton Farleigh Ammunition Depot. This used to be Monkton Quarry, however it was converted into a sub-depot of the Central Ammunition Depot by the War Department in the build up to WW2. It was used up until the 1950′s. The ammunition dump took thousands of men 7 years to construct and it became Britain’s biggest ammunition store with the capacity to store over 12 million tons of ammo. It was constructed in a way so that it would not be obvious as an ammo depot to enemy reconnaissance. It is accessible from the transit shed where The Steps lead down underground with remains of the conveyor belts that transported ammunition either side of them. We only explored the entrance to the old store, but after seeing pictures online I wish we had ventured deeper in. It’s definitely a place I’d like to return to for a better look.

Looking down the steps

Jubilee caching in Wiltshire

After our underground adventure for our 10,000th cache at Schrödinger’s Ghostly Wormhole Paradox we decided it would be fun to have a few more underground adventures. I searched the caches in the UK to try an identify a “Must do” underground cache. Instead I found a cluster of 6 in Wiltshire, just on the outskirts of Bath. The long weekend we had ahead of us gave us the perfect excuse to get away and do them, so we booked a campsite for 5 days and headed to Wiltshire. I was absolutely bowled over with the quality of caches around the area. I’m not talking about nice big circuits and long walks (Although there are loads of them too!), but single caches full of favourite points! As I had knackered my foot last weekend, we decided to take it easy on the walking and just focus on single high quality caches. It would have been easy to spend our trip walking grabbing 70+ caches a day, however instead we found just over 70 in total including easily the best cache that we have ever found…

Woodhenge

Our trip down to Wiltshire started the way that we meant to continue with finding a few odd “Must do” caches. The first point of call was Woodhenge for a virtual cache of the same name. Woodhenge is a timber circle. It was discovered in 1925 after an aerial photograph was taken of the area. It’s thought to have been created around 2,000BC. There are 168 post holes around the henge with most of these once holding wooden posts and some possibly holding sarsen stones and a grave in the centre which was discovered to be that of a child. The original stones and logs are not at the site anymore, however concrete posts have been constructed in their original positions to show how the henge used to look.

Woodhenge