Walking the hills of Hertfordshire and the long forgotten Hauley Bends

This week’s tales saw us grab over 70 caches in Hertfordshire and explore a brand new linear trail in the heart of Suffolk.

We kick off with our goal to get 28 RYO62 caches in order to finally hit a thousand of his finds. And I’m pleased to say we finally did it!

It was a sunny Sunday morning as I set off down the dual carriageway in the trusty little red beetle to Guilden Morden.  Last time I was here was for the birthday party of the other half’s uncle. 

Parking up at No.1 in the Guilden Morden Gallop series I set off across the track towards Steeple Morden. Grabbing some nice quick finds along the way, including a couple of friendly bugs, I was soon at GZ for the church micro. 

It took me a minute or two to spot the sneaky hide, but when I did I just couldn’t encourage it from its little hole. 20 minutes of trying the two magnets I had on me and even the car keys and still it wouldn’t pop out. In the end, rather than damage the cache trying to prise it out I just logged a note for it. And the lovely CO came back to me and gave his permission to log the find, which was great news. 

Back on the hunt for RYO62’s hides, I was soon on the Steeple Morden Shuffle series, and heading out of the village. One of the first was a great hide in an old red phone box. As usual, with these types of hides, it was way to high for me, but my new flexible grabber tool, soon made short work of grabbing the cache. 

The walk along fields to the long straight grass track between Litlington and Ashwell was dry and easy going, and a number of great caches were soon found, including a custom nano in a stick. Once on the bigger grass track I headed towards Litlington picking up caches on the new Litlington Logistics trail.

  

  

Meeting various muggle dog walkers and cyclists as I went, one pair actually turned out to be local geocachers who had already picked up some of the new caches. They stopped for a chat after noticing me finding a cache in the distance, and were very enthusiastic about the new series.  

Lots of great caches they said, and they weren’t wrong. Within a few minutes of bidding them farewell I’d already found a micro attached to some fake grass, a nano in a breeze block and a reptile. All blended into their surroundings well.

I was soon heading off up the hill towards the A505, and despite it getting a bit steep, I kept my pace up, as I didn’t want to run out of time and end up walking in the dark. More bugs and rocks and larger pots followed, all placed to be found quickly. Once at the little railway bridge I stopped for a well needed rest and watched a rather large bird of prey swoop down into the neighbouring field and grab something tasty for his dinner. 

The walk along the railway path was very quiet, not a muggle in sight, and I grabbed the many caches on route unhindered, except for the occasional wait for a train to pass. One of my favourites on the trail was along this stretch, an old silver birch log with a number of colourful little bugs attached. Some real work has gone into the caches in this series. 

The next landmark was the quarry, all quiet today, but interesting to see the deep chalky gorge in the landscape. The track was now much wider and I made quick work of the walk to and around the little forest. More great cache we’re found including another favourite - a string of sausages that just kept on coming from inside the metal sign pole. Good fun and a nice seat nearby to sit and sign the log.   

  

Noticing that time was swiftly ticking by, I had less than two hours before dark, and quite a considerable walk back to Guilden Morden. I had to get moving! Luckily much of the walk was down hill and I made quick work of the final caches in the Litlington series making only quick stops to grab the easy finds and another for a photo, near the gates of another huge quarry, to snap the immense and impressive mile or so of conveyor belts running down hill to the road.

Back on the Steeple Morden Shuffle, more late afternoon dog walkers appeared, but took no notice of me rummaging around in the odd tree or bush. The range of caches, made the walk back into the village great fun, more bugs, logs, magnetics on signs and the occasional larger Tupperware pot.  

    

As I made may way across the nature reserve on the last leg of the walk, the light was beginning to dim, and I had to use my torch to locate a couple of the caches. But then came a rather amusing incident with a well built white dog. He spotted me in the distance and seemed to take a bit of a dislike to me. He kept running a few steps towards me, stopped, barked at me and then repeated the routine again and again. Whilst his owner shouted for his return, the naughty little dog took no notice, and after giggling at him, I quickly headed off across the field track to escape his angry gaze.      

The final two caches were soon in hand and I was back in the street lamp lit village. I decided not to venture back out onto the tracks to pick up the rest of the Guilden Morden Gallop caches, in the dark and instead headed back to the trusty beetle along the village roads, which gave me the opportunity to grab one final multi on the way. 

All in all a great day’s caching, the best I’ve had for a very long time, and finally we’ve found a thousand of RYO62’s caches - I’m very excited about getting our own ‘Congratulations’ cache placed by the lovely CO soon.  

The following Saturday, ahead of departing for an overseas caching adventure, we headed to Stowmarket to do the brand new Stowmarket Stroll series by TheStowMartians. It was a fantastic walk, mostly along the old A14, before they got rid of the awful Haughley Bends. The 20 or so caches we’re just brilliant, almost every single one an innovative container or hide, we absolutely loved it.   

Parking up at the Haughley end we decided to walk the linear trail in reverse and being a bit lazy got a cab back to the car. The first few finds were fun, and easy - a magnetic tube on a gate, a nano in a stick, and a very cute rabbit tucked into an alcove in a tree.     

Just as we were about to head into the vegetation to grab number 19, a car pulled up on the road ahead and out jumped a sprightly greyhound. Unsure of whether to grab the cache or not I began fumbling with my phone. Seeing us hesitate, the driver, shouted “don’t worry he’s friendly, he won’t hurt you”. So we went over to say hello and explain we were geocaching. 

It turned out that the elderly, white haired chap was an ex policeman (traffic) and used to patrol this stretch of the A14 right up to Mildenhall. He had never heard of geocaching having been retired 20 odd years, but it was lovely to chat to him about his days in the police and his various hobbies since retirement. 

After he headed off, we grabbed number 19 and had to chuckle! It was a toilet! Not seen a cache like that before.  

  

Onwards we went grabbing a well placed rock cache and an nano attached to fake ivy, that blended in very well. 

Number 11 was another great nano in a stick hidden in a giant fallen tree across the road, and a nice place to sit and have lunch. 

A pine cone followed and a did not find at number 9, but 8 was just brilliant. The sneaky COs had attached a bike reflector to a reflective post and place a tiny magnetic nano within it. Never seen it done before, so an FP was awarded. 

Other brilliant caches which also got FPs were a tiny acorn cache attached to an oak tree branch, that blended into its surroundings at this time of year, brilliantly.  

Another was a screw in the pillar of one of the posts holding up the A14 viaduct over the Stour Valley nature reserve. It was actually fixed into the wall a good 7ft up so we had to use my handy expanding tool to gently ease the nut off and extract the log. A tricky, time consuming process, but such a brilliant use of this type of cache.   

At number two there appeared to be no sign of the cache, so having spotted a tip in a previous log, we worked out what it had to be and with the recent high winds thought maybe it had been blown down. A five minute search of the area around the lamp post and finally I spotted the great cache on the ground a few metres away. 

Whilst signing the log, we met another cacher, who I’d met a good year or so ago whilst caching around Newmarket. After a quick chat, we were on our way to the final cache, which was equally brilliant and very well placed. 

A great series that I recommend to cachers who like innovative caches and a moderate walk. All that was left to do was find the nearby off your trolley cache and call a cab back to the car. 

We’re now off to pack for a caching trip that will take us to warmer, sunnier shores, and no doubt create some memorable adventures.