Challenging

I was just checking out the Challenges section of my Project.GC stats, as you do, and I was amazed to see that I had qualified for 168 challenges.🤫 I need to start finding challenges soonest. I had been thinking of moving my attention down to Surrey now so I planned a day down there. I would try to clear a few challenges down there and gather up some Wherigo caches too. Here’s how the day went.

On a clear run, it would take me 67 minutes to drive down to Dorking and lights off down there was at 0744. So to be on the safe side, I set off at 0615 and got to where I needed to be at 0800.🤔 In the scheme of things, that wasn’t too bad.

There was a series of Challenges nearby based on Terrain, 1.0, 1.5 etc up to 5.0. I had gone wrong last time I tried to get this series and I had started at the wrong end. So I found 5.0, 4.5, 4.0 and 3.5 having found 1.0 earlier that particular day. The majority of these were free tree climbs and I was wondering if today would be different. 🤔

As it was, I had a gentle up hill walk and found the 1.5 Terrain Challenges up to 3.0 without a problem. I did my Duke of York impression on the way back and then detoured down to the ST - Dorking West multI. This was quickly solved but I had to retrace my steps back to the start of the Terrain walk to retrieve this prize.🤫

I walked on to look for the Remember Christmas Wherigo. This was a play anywhere cache and I had worked it out at home. I walked into the park and past a personal trainer and his clients towards the search area. The hint was pretty explicit but the cache still took a lot of finding. I was really pleased to find it though as it brought me up to 94 Wherigos found.😀

When I got back to the car, I set off for the Dorking North trad but I couldn’t get close to it so I diverted up to Mickleham. I quickly sorted out the VS (1) multi and walked on into Westhumble for the ST - Boxhill & Westhumble trad. This is a quaint little station and even has free parking.

Just up the hill from here was the CM - Westhumble ~ Chapel Of Ease multi. Luckily the final stage was down the hill. I had hoped to walk on to the 5/1.5 Surrey Resuscitator - Challenge Cache from here but it was over a mile away so I headed back down the hill, picking up the multi on the way.

I drove up what was probably Box Hill and parked in the designated park spot for the Challenge. I still had a bit of a walk but at least it was along a lane, until I reached the search area. Finding the cache was a challenge in itself but I eventually settled on the right Yew tree and grabbed the cache.😀

I decided to pop down into Dorking for a couple of multis but parking was difficult here and I only found the CM Dorking ~ Christian Science before moving on. Brockham was next on my list and I was after the CM 1000...Wherigo to Church. I was half way around the route at the bridge across the river looking for a date on the road but I couldn’t make it out.

I asked a passing couple if their  eye sight was good and the lady asked if I was doing the Wherigo.🤣 It was roseysaurus and Travis5.😀 She confirmed the date and asked if I had done the VS. This wasn’t on my list so I said that I would check that out and catch them up. I struggled to find the well hidden cache under the footbridge but I caught rosey up at the final stage and we signed the log sheet together.

We set off on our different ways and my way was down the A25 on the way to Reigate. I was after the Church Micro Spelling Challenge. To qualify for this, I had to find 11 CMs that spelt out Church Micro. I claimed the cache and posted my qualifying stats only for BaSHful, the CO to politely point out that the caches had to be found in date order. 🥴 However I had found over 1400 CMs so I quickly sorted out another set of CMs in date order without much problem.🙂

I drove through Reigate, then up to and over the M25 on my way to the 5/1.5  Surrey Icon Challenge. The qualification here was to find six different icons in a day. I had originally qualified for this on with nine icons found on a day trip to Bray, near Dublin in February 2019 but on re-checking my stats I saw that I found ten icons on Lincolnshire Mega Day last August. The cache was down a muddy track but was swiftly found.

I needed to find another Wherigo today and the one on my list was Vanishing Act - Mertsham. I had a few problems with this one and it’s amazing that I actually found the cache.

At the first stage, I had to log the number of the lamp post but it had changed. I tried until one number went through. At another stage, I had to find a telephone number but it had long been covered up but just readable. I had trouble here until I put a space between numbers.😀 I then had to find the name of a pub but there was a new development there.

I asked a kid walking a dog here if there was a pub nearby and he said that there was one at the football ground. When I said that there was a pub here, he said oh yes  it was called so and so, a real stroke of luck. Having said all this, it was an enjoyable journey and I was really pleased to find the cache, my 96th Wherigo.

I had spent a lot of time here and I had to be careful of the time. I had had problems getting on to the M25 here before so I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. So caching was finished for the day. Luckily it was a straight run home.🤫

2 Traditional 3 Wherigo 4 Multi 7 Mystery

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