April: an out of this world caching month!


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, but not us nettle stung, knee deep in mud, ivy dreading, caching stalwarts!  

By the Monday we’d overfilled on chocolate eggs & managed to kick the family out early to head over to the beautiful Lavenham in Suffolk for one of Barbycats trails. It was a beautiful walk & despite some lake like paths we negotiated our way around to find some great hides & spot numerous wildlife along the way.

As the April rains poured down, our caching pursuits dulled a little with just a few after work cache & dashes - including a new letter box cache near Fulbourn by Heidirose4789 - I do love a letterbox cache!  

That was until the weekend of my birthday arrived...always a great opportunity to drag the other half out on some mad caching expedition! This year, as part of the celebrations we decided to explore the coast, heath & forest at Dunwich. Yes all 3 in one day!

Whilst the National Trust caches were set amongst beautiful scenery, it was the three beach caches that really sparked our interest! A treasure chest that I needed a bunk up to retrieve; a cache on a dog lead; & the water pipe! Oh the water pipe...if only someone had told the other half that when he removed his fingers he would get soaked! Oops! I was to busy signing the log a few feet away to make any attempt to rescue him. 

Talking of wet feet and sopping trousers, brings me onto one of the true caching highlights of April...our trip to Redham & Lopham Fen & a new series set by one of the more inventive local cachers WesternWanderer. It was actually the first time we’ve ever had to pay to go caching as we arrived on one of the few day’s that Suffolk Wildlife Trust was holding a charity plant sale! It was only £2 to enter, but the cheeky other half tried to get in free saying to the dear little lady that we weren’t there for the plants! Slightly embarrassed I shooed him off to the toilet and gracefully paid the entrance fee which obviously goes towards the valuable upkeep of a beautiful conservation area.
  Minutes after setting off on the smaller spider circuit we got a taste of what was to come! Yes it was shoes & socks off time as I waded into the mud and water to try & find the second cache of the day. Well I will do anything for a smiley! Sadly after a 20 min search waddling about in the mud like an oversized goose I came up empty handed & decided a return visit would be needed in drier weather. But I certainly gave a few more sensible welly wearing visitors to the Fen a bit of a laugh as they walked past! 

 We braved more mud & puddles to find some brilliant hides & home made caches, but eventually gave up at the far end where the path turned into a huge swampy lake! We will return!  
  
Another great series that got the fitness levels and cache count up was the new Bourn series, again set by prolific South Cambs cacher Ryo62. Always enjoy his well maintained trails.

A week later I was in for another watery experience, with my nieces 3ft & 4ft aka team Dannyjgb, when we visited Ely TB Hotel. We decided to grab this after a trip to the nearby cinema on one of the hottest days we’ve seen so far (yes, you read right, we were amongst the few truly mad people who hid in a dark air conditioned room, on a beautiful sunny day, watching an animated rabbit blow up his own home!) Brilliant film but the cache proved to be even better. 

 Set by one of my favourite local cache hiders Shadyone44, it really is well worth the visit. Despite the protests of my sister, I bravely let 3ft pour the water whilst 4ft retrieved the key and undid the lock to access the cache. So much fun & very worthy of the many favourite points it’s already totted up.

A few days later I was back out with one member of DannyJGB, to take advantage of the lighter evenings, with a walk around Wicken Fen. Slightly drier than my other recent Fen experience, we grabbed some quick finds & just about made it back to the car before the day’s light was gone.


Before I sign off the month that was April, I’ll briefly mention the two brilliant new series’ in Mildenhall woods, which I enjoyed finding with two other mini cachers, the Blue Gizmos.
Plus the excellent mystery cache ‘Hopscotch’, in Cambridge,  which I retrieved after a very exciting trip to B&Q...not! After many hours starring at those numbers & the mysterious photo of a smoking man, who looked a little like a cowboy, I finally solved the puzzle & turned the blue ? into a smiley :-) I’ll say no more, other than...he isn’t a cowboy!!

 Roll on the month of May, when we’re hoping to place a few more caches & have plans to find some further afield.
April’s Tally:
   Total Finds: 116
⁃ Mystery’s: 7
⁃ Multi’s: 4
⁃ Letterboxes: 1


   Hides: 3 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adventure labs: a new era for geocaching or just a passing fad?

Image
Every time I’ve opened the adventure lab app recently on my phone there seem to be more and more green balloons popping up on the local map. Just over a year ago there were just a handful of adventure labs in the East of England, today there are dozens, as creative cachers everywhere clamber to get the opportunity to create one.   Traditionally, lab caches were mostly only available at Mega events. Last autumn, after more than four years of geocaching, I still hadn’t found a single lab cache, but suddenly had the opportunity at the EU Geocoin mega event in Manchester. There were 30 to be found, and some were incredibly innovative, testing new tech, whilst others were a tour of the city or general knowledge quiz questions.   Since the arrival of the dedicated Adventure Lab App, more and more lab cache creator credits have been dished out. Consequently, just a year later I have now found more than 128 lab caches.     What’s interesting about this fast growi...
Read more

Meeting the characters of Dynasty land

Image
The week started with a trip out with the other half to find the cast of Dynasty!   Ok, not quite! We didn’t actually travel to Denver, Colorado in the US, where the famous 80s soap was set, but to the village in Norfolk of the same name.  There may not have been any shoulder pads, quarrelling families, oil rigs or UFOs in sight - yes in one ludicrous Dynasty episode, one of the cast was picked up by a UFO, which is possibly why the soap met its end soon after - but we did meet some equally colourful characters as we traversed the banks of the stunning river and admired the huge sluice gates.  The other half had come along for the walk, eager to escape the confines of home, but also because I’d promised we’d pop to the coast after our walk, for a paddle and some fish and chips.  Parking was great, with a free car park right near the giant sluice gates, and we were soon heading up the tow path towards Downham Market on Poshrule’s Denver Downham Doodah series.  Ca...
Read more

Cornwall Part 2: The Mouse Hole and a rare Webcam cache

Image
Now halfway through our Cornish Geocaching adventures,  it was finally time to visit some tourist hotspots!  Whilst we had both enjoyed getting away from all the touristy chaos of Cornwall on our earlier adventures, we decided to spend some time seeing one of our favourite Cornish locations, St Michael’s Mount.  Located in the beautiful Mounts Bay, the castle, set high up on a rocky island, and only reachable by crossing the causeway at low tide, or by taking a boat, really is a must see for anyone visiting Cornwall. And the nearby pubs in Marizon are amongst our favourites in Cornwall.  The other half was keen to walk around the castle again and I’d spotted some new caches to do on the island so we set off for Marizon. The tide was just going out as we arrived, so we didn’t have long to wait until we could cross the long cobbled causeway.  Interestingly, the pandemic has brought a change here, in who can now access the island. Gone are the days of just being ab...
Read more