The weather girl and the Hawthorn hedge incident

We clocked up just a meagre 14 caches this week, as a hectic weekend involving various fun activities with nieces 3ft & 4ft took up much of our time. However, it’s quality not quantity...well sometimes...and despite the low count, I managed to tick off three mystery caches from our ‘solved but not yet found list’.

First up was a mini caching and dashing trip around Great Shelford. I picked up three caches including the church micro multi, which was a nice simple one and it was another  lovely church.

I also had the opportunity to finally find the mystery ‘Cache in the key of life’. The puzzle used an interesting spin on a code I’d used to solve other puzzles, but with no geochecker I had never been sure that I had calculated GZ correctly. Hence I half expected not to find the cache, but was thrilled when a short search revealed it. 

The following night I headed out to Brandon and Weeting, for another church micro multi. This one required a little more work to get the numbers, but stage one had three very interesting grave stones, like nothing I’d seen before. 

  

I also collected the lovely War Memorial multi and the ‘off the trolley’ cache at the local Aldi store. 

The rain was starting to set in, but I had just enough time to rectify a previous DNF at Weeting Village Sign and grab another Village Hall cache. 

Whilst doing so I met a dear old lady hobbling along on a pair of crutches, moving marginally quicker than a snail. She shouted across the road to ask me if I thought the rain would stop? Now I know I studied meteorology at university for a few short weeks, but I haven’t yet learnt the art of predicting what the weather is likely to do in the next 10 minutes...I doubt Michael Fish has either! 

Rather than replying with my sarcastic thoughts, I went into a garbled, indecisive, two minute speech, speculating as to what the rain might and might not do. By the time I had finished the poor lady looked completely confused and soaked and said she thought it was best that she headed home, and turned around slowly retracing her steps.

A few minutes later after I had grabbed the village hall cache, I was slightly amused to see she had turned around again and had decided to pursue her slow walk. I’ve no idea where she was heading, but hopefully she got there...eventually! 

The following evening after a gruelling day at work that had involved a lengthy media training session, I decided to clear my head with a nice little walk at Granchester. A few new caches had recently been added to the excellent series there so it was a nice opportunity to pick them up, along with another solved mystery cache. 

Apparently, they are currently filming the new series of the period detective drama Granchester, in the village, starring Robson Green, but sadly there wasn’t much going on during my visit, or maybe I was just too far off the beaten track! 

It was a lovely evening, and much cooler than previous nights, so the first caches were soon in hand. As it had been a quick walk so far I diverted off to find Cacheno Royale, another mystery cache that had sat on my solved list for over two years.  

Once at my calculated GZ I realised I needed to climb a fence. Usually not an issue, but I was still wearing a rather smart work dress. After two brief seconds of contemplating what to do, and I was climbing that fence. Luckily there were no passing muggles!

      

Once on terra firma again, I began my hunt for the cache, but a 20 minute searched revealed nothing. I was about to give up, especially as the last cacher had logged a DNF, but upon reading some old logs I realised I might need to do a bit of digging, so I grabbed a sturdy stick and began thrashing it about. Seconds later up popped the cache! I was delighted, and slightly chuffed that I had succeeded where others had failed. However, my joy was short lived!

Upon opening the little container I realised there was no log, just another puzzle! Oh heck it was a two stager! Fortunately the puzzle wasn’t too tricky thanks to the helpful info the CO had included in the cache, but after inputting the second set of co-ordinates into my phone I realised the final was almost 700m away...a 1.5km round trip detour from my planned route!

Again, i contemplated what to do...for about two seconds...before I was merrily heading off to the final GZ. And that is where it all started to go a little awry. 

After a good 400m down the track I realised I was on the wrong one, I’d missed a little turn. Deciding it was a little to far to back track I took an alternative route to GZ, but then ended up on the wrong side of the wooded area. Keen not to waste anymore time I decided to battle my way through the undergrowth, brambles and all. 

After getting very caught up and suffering various lacerations to my legs, I finally managed to get free, without ripping my dress and was soon on my way to GZ in the dark little woodland. 

Finally I located the correct tree, lifted a large piece of bark and there was the Tupperware box. The log was soon signed and two TBs dropped off, now to get back on track. However, getting out of the wood actually proved harder than getting in. In the end I decided to just go for it and began throwing myself head first through what turned out to be a Hawthorn hedge!

It hadn’t looked that dense but soon I was completely tangled, stuck half way through it. I was too caught up to try and go back so decided to keep pushing on through. Much flesh ripping and dress tearing later and I was finally free and out. Seconds later a horse rider rounded the bend in the path! I was still plucking chunks of the hawthorn hedge out of my hair and off my clothes as she passed. God knows what she thought...probably that I’d just been to the loo, eurgh! 

Luckily the rest of the walk was uneventful. I collected a further three caches on my way back to the car, including one that had gone missing when I did the original trail. 

We’re now just six caches short of the big 5k...let’s hope we hit the milestone next week!