Lights, camera, action: Big bangs & Butterflies!
I seem to be getting further and further behind with my blog writing. What was once a weekly post, has now become fortnightly, hence this entry starts way back at fireworks night!
Having heard the night before that one of the big local fireworks displays had been cancelled because high winds were expected, I wasn’t too sure that caching was a good idea. But it was a bright and clear day so it just had to be done.
Hopping into the red bug, I headed for the now very familiar East Bedfordshire village of Wrestlingworth and a new RYO62 series. Whilst doing the Hatley Heart Attack series I seemed to keep ending up here quite a lot and not long ago returned for some of the other new RYO62 caches and series in the area.
Today, it was time to tackle the Wrestlingworth Walkabout. Parking up near to number one, I was soon off on a very pleasant circular walk, mainly on grassy fieldside tracks.
All off the caches were located very quickly and varied from small tubes to Tupperware pots, at varying heights. I had quite a bit of fun crossing the ditch at number four. I had pretty much made it across before tumbling back in. One muddy bottom later, and another cache was found.
A divert to Wrestlingworth Microth proved quite a stretch as I very nearly toppled into a much deeper ditch, but just stopped myself. I also suspect this was where I lost my favourite biro as I leaned precariously over the ditch to grab the more than 6ft high cache...I always seem to manage to lose at least one pen on my walks.
The hide at 16 was a little different and rather near to a farmhouse, but luckily no one was about. Next up was the Cockayne Hatley church micro, and what a fantastic church and churchyard. Not a soul in sight as I dived in to retrieve it from the base of a multi trunk tree.
The next part of the walk was along an easy going quiet country road, and further quick finds followed. Admiring the beautiful views of the old water tower, I was soon heading back towards the car picking up the final few caches in the series on route.
Back at the car - and after a quick snack - I had just enough time to grab a couple of lay-by & drive-by caches on the way home.
The day’s trip out earned us this month’s HQ monthly souvenir, ‘You might be a social butterfly if...’ Great to chalked up another one so early on in the month - again just 3 days in! And we hadn’t even got to an event as yet, to be a social butterfly!
That evening, we found ourselves heading for the brilliant firework display at Hemingford Grey, just outside St Ives. As always there was a huge bonfire and as smoke bellowed across the nearby river, the stunning fireworks began to explode above our heads.
Many oohs and ahhhs followed from the large crowd of onlookers, as loud bangs and falling brightly coloured stars and trailing lights filled the sky. After watching my niece hook a penguin to win a cuddly duck, we headed back to the car along the rather dimly lit Filbert’s Walk.
Fortunately, we were armed with our rather bright nightcaching torch and guided my brother, his pregnant other half and my niece (one of the BlueGizmo’s) safely along it. Realising there was a cache located on the way, I mentioned the opportunity to look for it to my niece and she was very excited. Five minutes of fumbling around in a ditch and trees followed, when suddenly the eagle eyed other half shouted, “is this what you are looking for?” And it was!
Cache neatly retrieved, and opened by my very excited niece, I managed to find a pen in my pocket to sign the log book with. Whilst my brother jokingly groaned about ‘geocaching’ in the background, we both signed the log, and returned the box safely to its little hiding place.
As we continued our journey she asked if there were any others nearby, but sadly no one else was up for any more nightcaching, stomaches were rumbling and a nearby takeaway was calling!
A brief shopping trip to Bury the next day gave me the opportunity to grab a couple of new ’ish’ caches on the Morton Hall Estate. First up was Horse’s View, and thanks to the very precise hint it was a quick find.
Next up was the Sherbert Hill cache. Another great hint led me almost straight to a small magnetic cache attached to a nearby fence. A clever little hide and great to have two new and very quick caches and dashes in Bury, which helped fill another space on the grid.
Last up in our caching adventures was the infamous GIFF weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Mardle GIFF event in Mildenhall and a few weeks ago was really excited to see Eljoma was running the same event again in the town...especially as the only other GIFF events in the region were at least 50 miles away!
There was a really good turn out and cachers has come from far and wide. I met some from near Clacton in Essex and another lovely lady and her mum from North Norfolk.
The films were also good fun, much funnier than past years and some were almost professional productions, none of this film on your phone shaky stuff. There was also the opportunity to vote this year for your favourite, which added to the fun of the day. And I even won a raffle prize! I must remember next year to take one along.
So that rounds up a fun start to November. Until next time...as they say in Hollywood...that’s a wrap!
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