Caching with the Devil and Marvin

Back home the week started on a slightly sombre note as a good friend of ours had died whilst we were on holiday. 

The funeral was lovely and held at a new crematorium on the outer edges of Cambridge. Following the wake at a nearby pub, I decided I needed to brighten my day a little and grab a cache or two. 

Both were in Barrington and luckily I could park quite close by, grabbing them as caches and dashes.

The weekend was Earthcache Day and a souvenir was up for grabs. I have actually been a bit rubbish at collecting earthcaches, on Earthcache Day in the past, despite the fact I really enjoy doing them. 

Last year was first time I’d managed it, when I took my mum on a walk around Lackford Lakes, which was sadly one of our very last caching trips together. 

This year I managed to persuade the other half to go with me and we set off for a Norfolk forest and the location of - The Devils Punchbowl. And what a fascinating place. 

The punchbowl is actually a doling. Seeing it brought back some fond memories of a university geography field trip to Swanage, when I spent the day in a forest measuring a number of them. And funnily enough we’d also seen some pretty sink holes in Mexico recently, although they call them cenotes.

The Devil’s Punchbowl was huge, way larger than any of those I’d seen in Swanage. We enjoyed wandering around it,doing the various tasks and learning more about how it had formed.

The following weekend I was desperate to get out on a good caching walk, having not cached that much in the previous 4 weeks. 

A new series just outside Needham Market in Suffolk, called ‘Marvins Circular’, had appeared on the map and it was the perfect length for a Sunday afternoon stroll.

I set out from a housing estate to the south of the town, along a nice trees lined path across the fields.  The first few caches were all of a nice size and not too hard to spot. It was really nice to find a number of Tupperware boxes, which had room for TBs, after so many micros and virtuals in Mexico.

Soon I was at the pretty St Mary’s Church at Barking, so diverted off the trail to collect the answers to the multi cache. The final cache was nicely hidden not far from where I’d left the trail. 

As I went to cross a fairly quiet road to continue the walk, I spotted a couple of people chatting by the gate on the footpath. They looked like locals and keen not to be caught out, I decided to walk towards a roadside sign to check it, just in case the cache was there. It wasn’t, so I walked back towards the gate again in the hope they’d moved on. But they hadn’t. 

Thinking I might have to miss out grabbing the cache at the gate, I approached and was greeted with hellos and that question you hope to hear, “Are you caching?” 

Phew! They were fellow cachers DanSpurs14 and Palmer28. Funnily enough they were amongst the first cachers to do my Wind In the Willows Trail last year and had quite an eventful time of it. 

We chatted for a while about that and other recent caching adventures they’d been on before saying goodbye and heading off in opposite directions. 

The next cache was a brilliant hide on a rather large, derelict digger. However, it was magnetic and with so many metal parts I really thought I might be there for quite some time searching. 

Thankfully the CO hadn’t been that cruel and had given a very helpful hint, which after a bit of thought became clear and the cache was soon scooped up.

The trail continued through the pretty woodland and appropriately the next three caches were all homemade wooden logs with caches inside. 

As I emerged from the forest I was back onnfieldside paths, and the next cache appeared to be a tree climb. The cache seemed to be in a rotten tree that was just about still standing. 

I managed to climb part way up the neighbouring tree in a bid to try and grab it, but I couldn’t even see it and every time I tried to lean across to the rotten tree it wobbled. 

Being just 5ft sometimes has its disadvantages! I had to give up, but hope to return at some point with the taller other half. 

More custom log caches followed, then came a clever little hide in an old torch, and a micro in a brick at the base of a derelict old building. 

The final part of the walk was beside a pretty nature reserve and I quickly found the last three caches. 

It was a really lovely walk, just the right length, with some nice caches and hides along the way. 

Next week we’re packing our bag again for another overseas trip, this time to the Emerald Isle - Dublin to be exact.

Whilst part of the trip involves seeing a certain Norwegian band, the rest will involve lots of caching.

And thanks to a tip off from the Flamingoes at their, and GCZ Team’s, very popular Burwell geocaching event, ‘Foxy Loxy’s Harvest Gathering’, we actually go in search of Europe’s first ever cache!

Until then happy caching :-)