Our A to Z of 2018 Caching Tales

It’s that time of year when we all reflect back on the good and bad of 2018. Hence we thought it would be fun to put together our caching  highs and lows of the past year along with some of our most amusing moments. 

So here is our A-Z of 2018’s Caching Tales:

A - is for Alconbury Alliterative Anklebreaker. A lovely series that we completed in the summer along with a couple of others nearby. It turned out to be one of our best day’s caching this year in terms of numbers. It was also memorable for the mysterious pair of wellingtons we found half way round and for being chased by a huge thunderstorm!

B - is for “Broadsword calling Danny Boy...”! One of Despair Trap’s incredibly tough mystery caches. I’d stared at that puzzle page for at least 3 years. I had even resorted to watching the famous film last Christmas, ‘Where eagles dare’ upon which it’s based, in a bid to get a clue. In the end, I finally cracked the key anagram and was over the moon to finally turn this epic mystery into a smiley. 

C - is for Cornwall. We had a great 10 days exploring the West Country back in May and finding some great caches. From hair-raising cliff top climbs, to a virtual at some old tin mines, to the brilliant St Cuthbert’s Cave and Kynance Cove Tombolo Earthcaches. We even had a laugh with an elderly NCI volunteer whilst collecting the NCI Stepper Point cache.

D - is for Dunwich. This year I spent my birthday wandering around the heathland, woods and coast of Dunwich collecting some brilliant caches. We even found a pirates treasure chest after climbing on top of a war bunker and the other half got soaked as I attempted to retrieve another inventive water pipe cache on the beach. 

E - is for ET! Yes that extra terrestrial that captured all our hearts in the 80s was brought to life in one of the most fun and inventive caches we’ve ever done - 'Mission E.T.'. Back in February we stood in a phone box in Ely awaiting a top secret call, which would lead us to ET and the cache. Such a brilliant idea and it rightly topped our list of top 10 caches for 2018.

F - is for Fox. Yes just a week ago I embarked on two great circular walks around Ashwell, and was muggled just as I was about to grab a cache. Whilst chatting to the lovely lady dog walker she suddenly made me aware that I was standing on a dead fox! Lovely - not! 

G - is for GIFF. Once again I headed for the GIFF film festival event in Mildenhall to watch the amusing show reel of cacher films from around the world and collect the GIFF souvenir. 

H - is for Hawthorn Hedge. An after work caching trip near Grantchester became rather eventful when I decided to try and take a short cut and ended up getting my hair and smart work dress completely caught up in a Hawthorn hedge! I emerged looking like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards...almost literally...just as a horse rider rounded the corner! Goodness knows what she thought I’d been doing! 

I - is for Idle Hands. A brilliant new series of slightly grim caches published in Mildenhall woods in the summer. I managed to grab a FTF and discovered some great on theme caches over several return visits. 

J - is for Jigsaw. I spent several evenings completing all 26 online jigsaw puzzles in the Safari mystery series - one of which took several nights! I then headed to Thetford forest with my mum and geodog bobby for a great day caching. It was a lovely walk and we found an array of clever cache containers. A great new series. 

K - is for Kings Cross. Whilst on a business trip to London, waiting for a very delayed train home I visited the brilliant new virtual at Harry Potter’s infamous platform 9 3/4. 

L - is for Lackford Lakes. My last caching trip out with my poorly mum and we earn’t our first ever Earthcache Day souvenir. 

M - is for Monty Python. We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the Ely lakes finding caches in this series, especially the final mystery cache ‘The Holy Grail’. The puzzle was fun to solve and the cache at GZ just ingenious. 

N - is for Night cache. Our first ever and what an epic adventure! Equipped with UV lights, torches and a large group of fellow cachers, we headed to Wellingborough, still recovering from flu, to attempt the 

‘If you go down to the woods tonight’ cache. It was great fun and one of our most memorable caches of the year!

O - is for Our caches. Yes this year we hid a record 43 caches, 37 on our new wind in the willows series around Mildenhall woods and a further 5 war memorial caches, plus our Treasure X cache. Thanks to all those who have found them and have given us many nice logs to read and favourite points. 

P - is for Phantom. I managed to solve a new mystery cache called ‘Phantom Station’ on first look and was up bright and early the next day to grab the FTF. One of the few we’ve got this year. Clever idea for a puzzle.

Q is for Quiz. The Wherigo 'Pub Quiz' to be exact. We spent almost an hour every night of our Cornwall trip trying to solve the 100 or so quiz questions, some of which were incredibly tough. It was a huge relief to get the final co-ordinates and claim the cache. One we’ll never forget! 

R - is for Redham and Lopham Fen, a brand new series around a beautiful nature reserve with countless fun caches. The only slight issue was we’d attempted the trail in winter, in trainers, and hadn’t fully appreciated this was a real ’Fen’ - water everywhere! At one point I even removed my shoes in order to paddle into a giant puddle and try to grab a cache...I never found it! 

S - is for Star Wars. We finally completed this great series based on the films, in and around Soham, this year. Some lovely walks and great caches. We particularly loved the final bonus cache. 

T - is for Tourist Information. Yes I found myself in the Saffron Walden TI when trying to locate the Welcome to Walden multi cache. This was only after a 30 minute wander around the town hall trying to locate it...it certainly wasn’t there! 

U - is for Us. And the first cache in our name. After finding 1,000 of Ryo62’s hides he kindly dedicated a 'Congratulations' cache to us, which we picked up just before Christmas. 

V - is for Volcano. During our trip to St Lucia in September, we hired a car and visited the world’s only drive-in volcano, Qualibou Caldera. Whilst there we completed the brilliant Earthcache. One of the best we’ve ever done. We also found some other great caches on the island inbetween surviving a tropical storm and earthquake!  

W - is for Wherigo. And we certainly clocked up a few this year. From simple reverse beta style Wherigos to more inventive ones that featured a range of lovely characters who took us on some fun tours around Burgh Castle, Ely, Saffron Walden and Stanton. And how can we forget one of my all time favourite Wherigo's, 'A Puzzling Predicament', which had me running around a large lake in Cornwall.

X - is for XXL. This year we found our largest cache ever, the giant ‘tube’ cache, with lots of tiny tubes (film pots) inside. It was great fun finding the one that contained the log book. 

Y - is for Yarn...storytelling...fairytales! Yes we’ve slightly shoehorned this one in, but it wouldn’t be right to do a round up of the year without mentioning the Fenland 'Fairytale Fiasco' series. All five caches were just brilliant and included some great field puzzles. It proved to be one of the best series’ of 2018.  

Z - is for Zero - ground zero. This year we found so many great caches. We’d like to say a very big thank you to every CO for all the time, work and effort that went into setting them. Each and every cache we found helped make 2018 a fun and hugely memorable caching year for us. Thank you. 

Happy new year to you all, and here's to a great 2019 caching year.