The only way to travel...by sofa!

This week kicked off with the annual family gathering at my Aunt and Uncle’s, just over the Norfolk border.  It was an afternoon filled with incredible sights, you would never see anywhere else! 

From youngsters tearing around on a mobility scooter; to tots enjoying a boat trip on a lake...in a dingy that had, had several inches of water bailed out of it only moments earlier...; to rides on a sofa towed by a jeep! It was like being in an episode of  Benidorm/Father Ted (the one where the ‘field’ is turned into an amusement park!!).

But all joking aside, many happy memories were created, which no doubt will be talked about by my young nieces and nephews for many years to come. 

Once the surreal party had come to an end, I decided to take the opportunity to find a couple of local caches still on my unfound list.  

  

First up was the church micro multi in Hockwold. Upon arriving in the little churchyard, I was slightly saddened to see how overgrown and unkempt it was. Grave stones peeked from above the long grass and the whole place had a slightly eerie feel about it, that I’ve not experienced whilst doing other church micros.    

Circling the little church a couple of times I eventually managed to spot the gravestones and numbers I needed for the co-ordinates and soon set off on a nice walk through the village to find the final cache. 

The cache was soon located, however, obtaining the log took somewhat longer. It turned out to be a field puzzle and whilst trying to get into the puzzle box, I almost got muggled twice! In the end after failing to get the mechanism to work I had to resort to cheating and used my mini screw driver set...obtained from a cracker last Xmas...and finally the log was in hand. 

After my success in Hockwold I headed on towards Feltwell. Whilst there I collected all the info for the War Memorial multi, but sadly failed to grab the final cache due to a huge number of muggles in the vicinity of GZ. Grabbing the Methodist church micro was much simpler and no muggles in sight.

  

Later in the week I had a Friday afternoon off work so it was a great opportunity for more caching, this time near Sudbury. I’d often looked at the map and seen a large number of caches in the area, so it was nice to finally visit and collect a few. 

I decided to tackle three great series’ -  Forage Around Lt Cornard, Simple cache, and those remaining on the Dingley Dell trail.

  

The paths were quite challenging at times, as was the terrain - up and down I went - and some of the hides were tricky and ate away at my time, but some of the caches were very creative and unique, which always makes a trip more rewarding and memorable.  

Those most worthy of mention included Little Cornard Church Micro which was a one stage multi that required a visit to the churchyard. Taking a seat, whilst admiring the pretty church, I soon had the numbers needed and it was a short walk to GZ to collect the cache. 

Simple cache 3 was a brilliant cache. I half wonder if I stood on it, burying it a little, as I clambered about over the old rotting tree looking in its many holes. The cache was actually not in the trunk at all and turned out to be a very realistic looking toadstool that blended into its surroundings very well. It took me quite a while to spot.

 

The Forage Around Lt Cornard series had numerous well hidden caches, in fact so well hidden, that a couple required quite a hunt and both turned out to be plastic fruit, located in the hedge rows at about chest height. 

  

The CO also made great use of old solar light posts, three along the trail and the one at number six was particularly tricky to spot. There was also a cute frog hiding in a tree and a fantastic giant egg shaped container at number four, that would have been even more stunning if it’s little face hadn’t of been broken off. Again a very unique cache. 

The toughest hide of the day was Dingley Dell 3, rated at difficulty 4.5. Boy did that take some spotting! 20 minutes starring at those trees, looking high and low, and nothing! As it was the closest cache to the car, in the end I decided to carry on with my walk and pop back if I had time. 

On my return visit, I decided to trust the GPS, but after still failing to find it, I took a step back as previous finders seemed to have had success doing that. Low and behold, I spotted a slither of the clear little tube and white log, through a crack in the top part of a broken branch. Tough hide, and a tough extraction. It took two hands and two pens to prise the branch far enough apart to lift the tiny cache from its hole. One broken pen later, the cache and log were in hand. I could go home happy! 

Altogether I managed to gain another 25 smilies and was rewarded with the new monthly Geocaching HQ souvenir, which is ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ this month. I’m not sure any of my finds to earn it, really qualified me to be named an adrenaline junkie, but always good to have targets like this, and to get another virtual souvenir for my profile.

Speaking of targets, you may be wondering what happened to the goal we set ourselves last week, to get to 1,000 RYO62 finds? All will be revealed next week!