Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

First up happy new year to all our fellow geocachers out there. We’ve been thinking a lot over the past week as to what our New Year’s resolutions should be and have decided not to start the new year by giving up the things we enjoy but instead to build upon them.

We’ve set ourselves some hefty caching targets. From hitting 8,000 finds to completing the 366 days caching grid all should see us getting out a lot more this year to grab more caches than ever. 

Just before the bells of Big Ben struck 12 on 31st, we headed out on a few caching trips, making the most of a few days off work.

Following the fun of seeing the new Mary Poppins film on the big screen in Ely, I took a slight detour home to grab three nearby smilies. First up was the very high ‘After you’. 
 

Pulling up in the passing place on a very quiet stretch of road I spotted the little hide about 8ft up. Hmmm! Tough when you’re only 5ft! Even with my bendy grabber tool I was nowhere near high enough to get it, so decided to manoeuvre the car into a better position and climb into the boot! But even with those extra feet I still couldn’t quite get it. There was only one thing for it, out I climbed, onto the brake light and rear wheel arch and with a bit of a stretch I finally had it. 

Returning it however was even more complex! Now slightly wet and muddy from my trainers, I slipped off the wheel arch 3 times. What a sight I must have looked! Finally on the fourth attempt I managed to use my grabber from the safety of the car boot and returned it! 

Next up was ‘Small pile’ a cache on the edge of Wentworth, which I had failed to spot previously. 20 minutes of rummaging around the foot of several large trees and still I couldn’t see it. I was about to give up but decided on one final check of the two most obvious hosts and there it was. A very clever, glued together pile of tiny grey stones with a micro inside. It blended in so well to its surroundings it really didn’t look like a cache at all. 

The final find was one i’ve been longing to seek out for quite some time ‘Gingerbread House’, the last in the Fairytale Fiasco series. 
 

Having finally got my hands on all the required numbers, I headed for the cache near Sutton and it was brilliant. Beautifully crafted and decorated, I was very excited to get inside and discover what the final field puzzle was. 

However, my numbers didn’t seem to be working. I kept trying and trying on the combination lock and still it wouldn’t open. As I was about to admit defeat I picked up a useful hint from a previous log that there was another lock. Examining the box more carefully I had that awful “Doh!” moment as I spotted the second combination lock underneath! What an idiot! 

This time I was in straight away and soon had an object in my hands that I’d not seen since the 1980s. After a bit of twiddling of the nobs, I had, errr...nothing! A few lines that didn’t look like much.

I was about to start again, but holding it at more of a distance I could just make out some numbers. Trying them on the second lock, seconds later it opened and the cache and log was in hand. An epic series, but all very good fun. I highly recommend it to other cachers who enjoy a good field puzzle.

 

The following day we were heading into South Cambridgeshire for the first of many family gatherings. To inject a bit of fun into the day I decided to stop off on route to pick up the special mystery cache, Congratulations Sparky_Tarpi. 

Set to mark us finding 1,000 caches by eminent Cambs cacher RYO62, I was very excited as we pulled up in the handy parking spot. Minutes later the brightly coloured bison was spotted and the log was in hand. It was great to finally find this one.

Next up, Christmas Day. Despite having cached for over 3 years now we still hadn’t found a cache on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Determined to get at least one this year, I left the other half wrangling with a raw turkey and a pile of vegetables to peel, and headed out to grab an unfound, mystery cache near West Row - ‘This little piggy went to town’.

It had been an easy solve, in fact I should have solved it straight after publication, but for some reason the checker had said ‘no’. I re-attempted it the following day and bingo this time the checker said ‘yes’!

It was a nice drive to GZ. I came across some actual pigs on the way back - baby piglets all trotting about in the road! They did make me laugh, they seemed to be enjoying their bid for freedom. I just hope other motorists also spotted them and slowed down for them. 

I also popped out Boxing Day this year, prior to the arrival of the in-laws. This time to Isleham to pick up the Fine Pair cache. It proved to be a very quick find and had me back home before the day’s festivities began.

 

It was a few days before we were back out again this time on our way to a New Year’s Eve Escape Room Party. It was a great opportunity to pick up two new EPP challenge caches that we met the criteria for, having found a number caches below sea level and over 100 puzzle caches. 

The two finds also earned us the last HQ souvenir of the year, Goodbye 2018. 
 

New Year’s Day was a quiet one for us, having been up rather late the night before, and the other half suffering with a hefty hangover, I popped out solo again on a short drive to Great Saxham to collect the church micro. 

Pretty little church, that I had never visited before, being a bit off our usual beaten tracks. Parking up in the grassy car park I headed a few metres uphill to grab the cache.

It turned out to be a large stick, in a tree, a very clever homemade cache that blended in well. The log book was missing, but luckily I had a spare so replaced it, before heading back to the warmth of home, to sit and admire our new Hello 2019 virtual souvenir. 

We finish this week’s blog with a breezy trip to Sunny Hunny on the Norfolk coast. Due to it being rather chilly we decided to pick up a few caches and dashes starting in neighbouring Heacham with the Village Sign and church micro. 

Whilst the other half waited in the car I then headed to Carrstone Plough, a relic i’d never noticed before, just off a large roundabout. The cache was sneaky, a well known rock container type, but it had been cleverly covered to look just like the surrounding orange sandstone rocks. It blended into its surroundings really well. 

After a nice warm hot chocolate at the public house in Old Hunstanton,  we made our way to the beach for a very chilly walk. 

Picking up the numbers for the lifeboat house multi cache on the way, we headed through the sand dunes and brightly coloured beach huts to pick up the final cache, as well as collect some more numbers for the nearby ‘On the Beach’ multi. 

Both caches were soon located, at their respective GZs after a bit of number crunching. Walking back  we headed down onto the beach to admire the unusual landmark cliffs but the walk didn’t last long, by now we were freezing and keen to get back in the warm. 

Our final stop of the day was the town centre and the new War Memorial cache.  Despite many visits to Hunstanton I really hadn’t ever taken much notice of the beautiful monument dedicated to the town’s war heroes. It really is one of the best I’ve seen and is set in beautiful gardens with some colourful flowerbeds - even at this time of year.

The cache was a quick and easy find, with very few muggles braving the cold. Log signed, TB dipped, and it was off to the local chippy for some tea. 

Altogether, a nice start to the new year, which will hopefully bring many more Caching Tales.