Childhood memories and the unexpected American flypast

Usually, when I am out on one of my geocaching walks, I barely see a soul all day, just miles of tranquil countryside, quiet country lanes, the odd squirrel, rabbit or deer, and occasionally an enthusiastic dog, who is more often than not taking his owner for a walk!   

Today’s walk started in the same way, as I headed out from Girton, near Cambridge, on the newish ‘Girton Gamble’ series. 

It was a nice walk in lush green countryside, even though the area was actually surrounded by major trunk roads, since the expansion of the A14. It was a bit like finding a secret rural haven amidst the chaos of the Clover Leaf junction, A and M roads and bustling city nearby. 

 

The finds were a little tough going in places as there had been so much summer growth at every GZ, and the series has received very few visits in recent weeks, but I got there in the end. There were some interesting caches and hides along the way, including an old spade!  

 

As I approached the far end I was just a few metres from the American Cemetery, somewhere I hadn’t visited before. As there were some lab caches there, I decided to divert and pick them up.  

 

As I began walking around the beautifully kept grounds, I noticed there seemed to be quite a few people walking and milling about…obviously a popular landmark, I thought to myself. 

However, as I neared the huge chapel, I suddenly heard a voice on a megaphone. It came from a smartly dressed chap, standing at the base of the flagpole who was announcing there would be a minute’s silence.  

 

I thought it was a bit odd, but maybe a daily thing they do, so I stood still and paid my respects to the many thousands of great men and women who had given their lives, so that we can live ours.  

 

The minute passed, and thinking that was it, I began to move towards the first lab cache GZ. As I walked past the many people gathered along the memorial wall, suddenly there was an almighty roar. Looking up to the sky, a huge American World War 2 plane flew low overhead.  

 

Now for me, it wasn’t a particularly unusual sight, as back at my home we have huge American tanker planes flying over several times a week from RAF Mildenhall. But here, in a quiet cemetery, it was quite a surprise!  

 

A few minutes later, as it flew past again, I rounded a corner to see even more crowds gathered and the penny finally dropped…it was Memorial Day for our American friends! What a time to visit! 

So as not to be disrespectful I decided to retreat to a nearby bench and sit down quietly to view the ceremonial events. It really was quite something and such a great time to have visited the cemetery.  I really couldn’t have timed my visit better.  

Once the main proceedings were over I quietly made my way around the beautiful grounds to collect all the info for the lab caches, which took in some interesting places. Then I headed for the nearby nature reserve to pick up a couple more in FolkFen’s 800 Wood series.  

 

The walk back across the fields to Girton was less eventful, but there were more nice caches along the way and I picked up a rather nice path tag for my collection as well.  

 

My next trips out were to do a few maintenance walks around my Wind in the Willow series with Bobby the dog. 

As it gets so few visits, the caches do seem to fall into disarray and even disappear between visits, so more often than not those who do visit end up logging a few DNFs and grumbly logs about high vegetation.  

 

We replaced and sorted those in need of some TLC and did our best to stamp out some cacher trails to each one, but no doubt they’ll be long gone by the time it’s visited again.  

I thoroughly enjoyed setting this series and do love walking around it on my maintenance walks especially as the scenery is so varied. But from the logs that get posted, the effort always seems a little unappreciated, as very few geocachers actually seem to enjoy the series. Maybe it is nearly time for this series to go.  

 

A few nights later the other half needed a lift to the pub in Newmarket so I decided to head on a bit further and to do some caches along Butt Lane, near Great Wilbraham. It was a beautiful warm evening, and the hides along the very quiet lane were great.   

 

They included a piece of tree branch with a cache inside, bisons, pots and a rock again with the cache concealed inside. I also picked up a couple of nearby caches by car including the wind turbine cache and another in the milestone series. 

 

As the weekend arrived so did the beaming sunshine. I had a games afternoon planned with my nieces later in the day, so I needed a trip out that wasn’t too far away, or too lengthy to walk. 

A couple of years ago some caches has been published at RSPB’s Lakenheath Fen so I decided to head there for a few hours. 

 

For me it really was a trip down memory lane, although when I last traversed the area as a youngster the black fen fields were full of carrots, not the beautiful wetland landscape that it is today. 

I spent many happy summers staying with my Grandma, who lived in the old station house for many years, as my grandfather has been the station master when my dad was a boy and the family has remained at the house even after his post was decommissioned.  

 

I remember many beautiful summer walks along the riverbank and the nearby lanes, looking at the array of wildlife and birds. We saw kingfishers, and nesting ground birds, puff ball toadstools and cows in the meadows. 

Sometimes we even saw a bird watcher making their way down to the big woodland in a bit to capture a glimpse of the infamous Golden Oriole! 

It was lovely to be back here, and to see how the RSPB has radically transformed the landscape. It really is a beautiful place and worth every penny of the small admission fee. The caches were also great fun to find and there were some nice customs too.  

 

The two huge ammo boxes were great. I always enjoy finding one of those, so two on the trail was just fantastic. 

The giant snail was also brilliant and took me a while to spot because I was looking way too low for ages.  

My favourite was the cache cleverly disguised as an RSPB sign on one of the bird hides. Back and forth I went for ages, not realising it was there. 

Only once a large group of bird watchers had moved on did I take a closer look and realise it had to be it. Then using a pencil I managed to release the clever internal mechanism and free the log inside. I absolutely loved it, and I’ve not seen one like that before.  

 

Along the way I got to see some of the beautiful birds that now frequent the area including large groups of ducks and geese, who at one point were completely blocking the path. It gave me a good opportunity to get some nice photos of them. 

 

There was just one cache disabled during my visit, and I am very much looking forward to returning to the Fen soon to get it.   

 

That’s it for this week, but next week we’re out in the sunshine walking part of the Cambridge busway route and getting a muggle friend geocaching in Barrington. Until then, enjoy the sunshine.