Back to the 80s

This week I headed back to the eighties! And it gave me an opportunity to do some caching on the South East Coast of England for the first time.

Having booked the Friday off work I set off in the red bug for the southern resort of Butlins, on the costa de ‘Bognor’ coastline. 

The main aim was to celebrate everything great about the 80s, on the Absolute 80s weekender. 

Now I’m sure many will scoff at the thought that there was anything great about the 80s, but I have to disagree. It was probably the most fun decade in history, from totally over the top clothes - rara skirts, leg warmers, puff ball dresses, and anything illuminous was a must have - to wacky hairstyles - mullets, perms and back combing - to lively and very individual pop artists and tunes - Madonna, Boy George, Bucks Fizz, Kylie to name a few!

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have grown up in the 80s. There’s been nothing like it since, and I doubt there will ever be again! 

However it’s almost 40 years since the great decade began, and to many it must be just a distant memory. But if you want to literally step back in time and spend 3 days and nights reliving it, the now infamous Butlins weekenders really are the place to go!

Everywhere I went throughout the resort, my ears were hammered by 80s tunes and the majority of the guests - ranging in age from 30 to 60 somethings - took the opportunity to fully embrace the 80s spirit donning fancy dress costumes on the Friday & Saturday night. I saw everything from Superman to Storm Troopers! 

The stages were filled with 80s artists who were serious chart toppers in their day. From Denise of Five Star, to Carol of TPau to Tony of Spandau Ballet, to Sonia, and the ‘one and only’ Chesney Hawkes! 

Anyway, aside from all the 80s partying, my trip was a great opportunity to grab some caches in another part of the country. 

As we drove down to the resort we made a quick diversion just outside Little Hampton to grab three caches and dashes on Ferry Road. One was a very cleverly hidden bolt style cache, placed in a hole in an old foot bridge post. It really did look like part of the infrastructure of the bridge.

After checking in at our hotel, it wasn’t long before I dragged the other half out of the resort for a very blustery stroll along the promenade. There were a number of traditional caches placed along the sea front so we picked each up as we wandered along taking in the sights of Bognor Regis. 

Most were magnetic nano hides, but located on fairly obvious metal structures from poles to benches, so it didn’t take long to find them. After picking up one past the pier, we headed back and walked to Longbrook Park, a small green area just past our hotel. 

It took a few minutes to locate the nicely hidden cache here, but following the very helpful hint the box was in hand and it was nice to also pick up a TB.

On the Sunday, as we set off for home, we spotted a nice little circular walk on the map, at Binsted Woods, called the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, with a few other caches on route.

It proved to be a nice opportunity to break up the journey, and a chance to get out in the sunshine for an hour long woodland walk.

Driving down the narrow lane to get to the recommended parking spot, we became aware of a large police presence at a huge tucked away house. Not too keen on getting caught up in whatever was going on there, we turned around and parked a little further up the road. 

However, having thought we’d neatly avoided what looked like a  ‘major’ police incident, ironically the first part of the walk then took us almost up to the gates of the house, where a very unusual shrine was located.

We decided to hurry our hunt for the cache, in case we suddenly got asked what we were doing acting suspiciously! Fortunately we located it quickly in a pile of branches just behind the shrine, and moved swiftly on.

The hides throughout the series were not too tough, especially as most of the caches were small Tupperware boxes, but we did also find an ammo can nicely tucked away in a cache simply called ‘Binsted Woods’. Always nice to find one, they seem to be rarely used these days. 

The walk was beautiful. Winding its way from dense woodland, with huge trees, then onto a more swampy, lush area that felt a bit like a rainforest, before taking us back into a more traditional broad-leafed tree wood. 

In the later part of the walk there were hundreds of beautiful bluebells covering the woodland floor. It was a fantastic sight to see, so we stopped to snap a few photographs.

As I went I dropped off a few TBs that I’d picked up during my Easter weekend walks, keen to add a few miles to each of them. 

We were soon back at the car, bringing to a close our 80s weekend  caching adventures. 

And I’d finally found caches in my 20th England county, meaning I now fulfilled the requirements for a challenge cache back home. I’d been stuck on 19 counties since it was first published, but now had the full 20. Very happy! 

Next week, we’re heading north, I look forward to telling you all about those adventures soon.