Caching Tales

This week we went back to the 80s! Yes we donned our RaRa skirts, Relax T-shirts & leg warmers & headed to Norfolk to Rock Norwich! Ok, so we didn’t actually wear the leg warmers, that would have been a bit mad as the temperature sky rocketed & the queues for water were longer than the bars. But we did spend an enjoyable day sitting in a field with 20,000 other aging revellers listening to the likes of Toyah, Human League and OMD, despite the fact there were unfound caches just metres away!  Oh the ‘Temptation’ to storm ‘Through the Barricades’ and grab one or two, but somehow we refrained! However, the following day was a chance to grab some caches around Norwich so we headed to a great trail near East Carleton. Set in memory of the COs dog Roly we had a lovely time wandering through pretty park land grabbing a number of caches. Whilst searching for the first we had already caught the attention of the locals, a flock of sheep which included a number of curi...

Having been bitten by the Wherigo bug during our recent holiday, I was desperate to get out and do another. So it perhaps comes as no surprise that before i’d even unpacked my suitcase I headed off to Isle of Ely in search of one!  It was another sunny May afternoon and I’d arrived ahead of school kick out. Hence I decided to grab a few unfound caches on the newer housing estates before heading into town.  After some nice quick caches & dashes including one at the Mcdonalds drive thru (that was an interesting experience!) I arrived at St Mary’s car park & switched on the ‘Wherigo the Monks Go’. I was quickly instructed to head to Oliver Cromwell’s House which brought back slightly nerve-racking memories as I once stayed in the eerie house overnight trying to spot Cromwell’s ghost for a feature in the local rag - I never did see him! I didnt during this trip either, but I met a ghost of another kind...that of a virtual ghostly monk, a friendly one thank goodness....

As the bank holiday drew to an end,  so did the Cornish mist, but not before we discovered a fascinating earthcache at Holywell Bay.  We could barely see the sea as we walked along the beach at low tide to St Cuthbert’s Cave. The mist was really rolling in! Upon arrival we found a couple of groups already exploring the cave - all non cachers - who were very chatty and helpful in guiding us up the slippery rocks to investigate the wonders of the cave. It was a little like being in one of the wonderful caves at Cheddar Gorge or Wookey Hole, but on a slightly smaller scale. We certainly never expected to see such a natural wonder in a Cornish sea cave. It was beautiful and something we would not have seen without caching! A great earthcache that we highly recommend to others.   As things brightened up in the north we headed for Newquay and redeemed ourselves by turning a couple of previous dnfs on Pentire headland into smileys! We definitely pay less attention...

This week our caching adventures moved from the east to the south west. Yes we’re caching in sunny Cornwall this week...well sunny with a smattering of mist at times. Our adventures started with a quick stop at the M5 services, where we picked up two TBs. We’ll be piling on some miles during our trip and dropping them off somewhere back home in about 10 days time.  Our first full day in Cornwall saw us bag a number of caches at the National Trust’s Penrose estate on the south coast. Beautiful gardens and some great cache hides: our favourites included negotiating some cows to retrieve a cache from a well and a multi which had us in a right muddle with kms and mins, but we got there in the end.  We had a lovely walk along the Loe lake to Loe Bar, a fantastic coastal landform, where we spent a while collecting info for the earthcache. Unfortunately the route back was less straightforward! The coast path was closed so we had to back track quite a way, until we spot...

Ok so we didn’t smash any caching records this month, in fact we didn’t even manage to fill one of our missing calendar days, but the HQ challenge Planetary Pursuit certainly got us out of our armchairs & onto some muddy by-ways! And inspired us to place three new War Memorial caches in Kennett, Gazeley & Fordham. April of course started with the brilliant 4 day Easter weekend, a highlight in our caching calendar as it’s always a chance to give the cache numbers a boost. Whilst not officially April, Good Friday saw us head out to Bassingbourn for RYO62’s Littlington & Ashwell Street series’. This wrapped up the planetary pursuit challenge for us, with both final souvenirs popping up on our profile long before we’d finished logging the day’s haul of caches.  On the Saturday we managed to squeeze in the new Histon to Westwick trail. Some fun and slightly devious caches were discovered along the way, that would no doubt fool the muggles & some newbies, bu...