I needed a couple of caches today and had a couple of hours spare. I could see a series of caches in Chalkwell Park so thought I’d drive down and have a wander. It was great to see the park so busy with children playing, boys playing football and families promenading on such a nice dry day. Having parked up in the nearly full car park, I walked to the main building. I spotted the Metal Art School building on the way so it was actually a building too, not a fancy name for a series of caches. I also noted a pop-up cafe cum bookshop so that would come in handy in a little while.😀 There were five trad caches in the park and I quickly found the two caches from the Chalkwell Hall Cache series and the three from the Metal Art School series. At the #2 of this series, I decided that the cache was large enough and could be hidden enough, to place some TBs here, so I left three.🤫 Now was the time for coffee and cake in the pop-up cafe. The prices were good and the muffin was excellent. There was also a book shop attached to the cafe but nothin in there to interest me so my cash stayed in my pocket. On the way home, I stopped off in Blenheim Chase for a quick find of the well placed A Knotty Affair trad. Nearby was an uncommon N type pedestal post box so that rounded the day off a treat.👍🏻 6 Traditional #6958

I’m working on a Challenge Cache where I need to spell out my Geocaching name by letter and in order and in a week! I have already found VANG since Sunday so I need EROVER today. I have planned my day around getting these caches. However with nearly 7K caches already found, it has proved a lot harder than I thought to plan this. I need to travel a bit so I’m starting near Coggeshall, working my way up to Gosfield, dropping back down to Bradwell and then up to Halstead. This is how the day went. I had to have a back up plan in case of DNFs. My problem would be ”E” as I only had three possibles on my list and I needed two. I had the worst possible start with a DNF at EJ’s Cheeky Cache #4 but at least #5 was nearby. I parked up the best I could at GZ and quickly spotted the hint item, a traffic sign. Unfortunately, it had been hit by a lorry or similar and was now laying on the ground. Luckily the cache was still in place so now I was off to find an R. I had a few Rs on my list but the nearest were a couple left from the Rough Diamond series tucked away in farm land at the back of the former Earls Colne airfield. I parked up as near as I could and then had a decent walk down the footpath to #3. I had a quick find of the cache and it is in very good condition considering that it has not been visited for nearly a year. Whilst I was out here I went out across the fields to #4 and this hadn’t been found for nearly two years.😀 About two miles away round the lanes was On The Pull, a well hidden trad that I added to the list. For a V, I had a solved mystery VR on my list but this was north of Halstead or I could go for a VS. I checked if there were any around and there was VS Gosfield.😀 I had a quick find of a well concealed cache here and noted that a small series was in Gosfield Pits Nature Reserve including one called Rooted. I had to drop down into Bradwell on the A120 for the E. Echos In Time was another trad but it was a 15 minute drive away. Once I’d parked up and found the footpath to the bridge crossing the river, I had a really quick find. Now all I had to do was find an R to complete the challenge and I had one lined up back in Gosfield. It was now about 1015 so I had could relax and find a few more caches. I found the nearby Papadum and had a look at Gone Fishing!! 4. Once I’d got down to the fishing lake in an old quarry, I realised that the boat and snorkelling attributes were missing off this 4/4.5 cache. The log that the cache was supposedly on floated away when I put my foot on it so no way, Jose! I noted VS Stisted was on the way back to Gosfield. However, I solved the multi at the VS but the cache was a DNF. I know that I was in the right place as I did a PAF with Frantica to check the coords. So now back in Gosfield, I parked up and looked on the OS map to find a footpath to get into the reserve to look for Rooted. Reading previous logs, it seemed that this choice for R may not have been a good one. It was difficult to find and once I saw the terrain with uprooted trees everywhere.🤬 However, I found the cache deep under leaf litter in the second root base that I looked. So, I’ve completed the challenge, not so difficult really.🤔 I checked where the challenge cache was and it’s in Surrey 😬, it’ll have to wait until I go to Gatwick or that way, anyway. I picked up the other three caches in the reserve including Undulating, an aptly named change considering the terrain. This 3.5/3 trad was about 15 feet up a tree with well placed branches.🤫 Once I had negotiated myself back to the car, I was now free to go after caches as I fancied and looked at stragglers on the approach to and in Halstead itself. I found four trads including the Halstead Water Tower and many letter boxes on my way into town before parking up near the Holy Trinity Church (New) multi. This was my first cache of this kind. I had to find a cache in the churchyard to get the clue for the cache in the church itself. I finally found what I was looking for and wondered how many churchgoers knew about this cache not far from the pews. This had to have a fave. I now drove into town and parked up for free in the Co-op so I could celebrate with a coffee and cake.☕️🍰 After the lemon drizzle cake had been washed down with an Americano, I had a short walk to the other side of the causeway for Keep You’re Eyes Open. I’d failed at this cunning Infinson cache before but after a short search, I found the micro nestling in the compost.😀 I was now off for a couple of short walks along each side of the River Colne going out into the countryside. The first stretch was south of the river taking in the trads, Monty’s Field, Caesar’s Farm and the recently DNFed The Offshoot. This was a good walk taking in the historical features pointed out by the CO but it also ran along the former trackbed of the Colne Valley Railway. Re-tracing my steps, I set off for the three trads of the River Walk series On the north side of the river. However, I paused, wrong word, spent time looking for the fiendish Refresher Cache at the bridge. Infinison says it’s there, numerous cachers haven’t been able to find it. I carried on and easily found the three trads that I was looking for. However then came the natural highlight of the day when I had a close encounter with a Muntjac Deer. It posed so I could take a few reasonable but not brilliant photos before it skipped away. I walked back to the car, this time pausing at the Refresher and decided that there was enough time for one more cache in town. So I went to tackle the mystery, Johnny Cache. Based on you know who, I was sent east of town to GZ. I then realised that this was only the first stage of the puzzle. Gaining the coords for the final, I had a 15 minute walk each way out to the well hidden cache. It was now time for home but I reckoned that I could get two more trad caches on route. VS Falkbourne and Poods 1 in Witham were quick finds to finish up the day.👍🏻 Checking up on my Interplanetary progress, I’m now past Venus and approaching Uranus with 175 points. 🚀😀 Reagarding my fitness progress, I did 21,525 Steps, walked 16.4km and climbed 19 flights of Steps.👍🏻 1 Mystery, 1 MultI, 24 Traditional #6952

I’d spotted a challenge cache, GC3WYRE, Geocaching Name Challenge and it seemed right up my street. I can spell and VangeRover has ten letters so I almost qualified. The plan was to find caches that spell out my geocaching name and it was retrospective. I found the caches in order in my previous logs so wrote a note giving the details. The CO sent me a message saying that I didn’t qualify as the caches had to be found in order and within a week.🤬 Ok, I’m up for a challenge.😀 I’d found VS Crockenhill last Sunday so all I had to do was find A - N - G - E - R - O - V - E - R by next Saturday, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. I had a couple of hours today so set about looking for letters. Now with almost 7K caches in the bag already, this isn’t going to be as easy as I thought.🤔 However, AMB - Take A Shot had recently been published in Benfleet, not that far away. There was always No #12 on Canvey which I’d DNFed twice and that recently retired Tractor Andy had kindly published Gusted Hall recently which was in Hawkwell. All doable in a couple of hours.😀 “A“ soon tumbled when I found the well hidden trad in bushes next to Benfleet Church. I remember the long archived CM here. I parked up right next to No #12 and set on a third time lucky hunt. Previous cachers had mentioned thick gloves needed so I had come prepared. In fact, I did a lot of bramble pruning here but no joy. Almost on the point of giving up, I ignored the GPS and searched the fence on the other side of the road et voila! No need for gloves or secateurs at all.🤬 I now had a drive down into Eastwood, back up into Hawkwell and up to the top of Gusted Hall Lane. There are a number of caches here on the Roche Valley Trail that I had found before so I was aquainted with the terrain. I soon found the cleverly hidden cache attached to its fearsome guardian. Now all I have to drive home and work out the plan for the next part of the challenge. By the way, the Geospeak Planetary Pursuit Challenge has started and I’ve earned 15 points today for the three trads found. According to the souvenirs chart, I’ve earned two souvenirs, Earth and Venu. 🚀🌎 3 Traditional #6926

I’d planned to pop over the QE2 Bridge into Kent for a couple of hours to get a few JJ caches this weekend. The weather report forecasted snow for this weekend but Saturday seemed the better day so here I come. Here’s how the morning went. The first cache of the day was a challenge - Non-Traditional Types Cache on the B258 on the way into Crockenhill. I approached GZ at 0730, the snow began to fall. I had a quick find here so off to the next cache on my list. This was the start of a haul of challenge caches. The WTF series are ideal for the cacher who travels overseas on holiday or business. The first one for me today was WTF 80. The qualification was to have found three Virtual caches in a country overseas. I qualified and the cache was an easy find. Having added WTF 81 to the tally, I was in Crockenhill. I found the VS, worked out the coords for the multi and soon had that in hand. I had been able to solve the CM All Souls mystery at home and soon found this very cunningly placed cache. By this time the snow was chucking it down. The last time I encountered snow this heavy was in a white-out in the French Alps some years ago. I was starting to wonder if being out was a good idea. However as I was parked outside the CM Baptist, it seemed silly not to get the info for the multi for another time.😀 Having got this, I set the GPS for home and drove off but the snow suddenly eased. I parked up to have a think and found myself outside CM Cemetery. Sod it, I’m here so I’m going for it. With this Shackleton mentality, I can do anything. I mean the explorer Shackleton not the cricketer.🤔 I soon had this multi in hand and noting WTF 2 was close, I donned my cagoule and set off Up the field margin. There was no-one to say “I may be some time” to but it was a good half mile walk there and back. I must have passed WTF 1a but didn’t stop as I didn’t qualify. Back in the car, I was determined to keep going and found WTF 3 and 4. I was hoping for a nap hand with WTF 5. A 5/5 cache needing 20 caching countries found. With 23 clocked up, I qualified but couldn’t find the cache.☹️ I had planned a walk into the country from here but the snow had not let up and there was nowhere to park near the footpath trailhead. This little expedition would have to wait. I altered my plans and set out for a few cache and dashes. I picked up the CM Baptist multi and then the JJCL83 trad. The cache is in the telephone box which has been sealed up by BT. Cachers have claime the cache by attaching a photo of the sealed box so I did too. I also took a photo of the adjacent LB3246/3 post box. Well you’d expect that of me, wouldn’t you.😀 There was a Coal Post, #203, up the road. I’d only seen one other before near Harlow so I had to look for this one. I had a very quick find of a trad behind the coal post shown in the photo. I’d managed to solve a mystery or so I thought. JJR3 “a bit easier” was based on binary code and I’m sure I was right.🤔 There was no checker to check my coords and no cache where I thought it would be. There was time for one more cache so I looked to see what else was around and spotted SideTracked Swanley, a 3.5/2 trad nearby. I had a quick find here. Now it was time to head for home hoping that the snow around the tunnel and the A13 wasn’t as bad as it was here.🙁 7 Mystery 3 Multi 3 Traditional #6923

It was about time that I reduced the number of gaps on my Jasmer grid. I checked on project.gc and there was nothing available in Essex but there were two likely candidates just over the border into Cambridgeshire. The first was Bombers - the remix, a 09/04 veteran overlooking Duxford airfield. However, to get there, I had to pass through Duxford Village and there were three multis, including two CMs there, so silly not to.😀 After successfully bagging the multis, I had a quick find of the Jasmer. I continued on to Litlington and found the recently DNFed CM. I was now off after my second Jasmer, Monty’s Hoard, placed in 05/05. However there were four trads from the Little Bridges series on the way. These were all found easily enough but Monty had hidden his hoard more carefully but I soon found the veteran ammo can tucked away in an old tree.😀 After re-tracing my steps across the muddy fields back to the CM, I cleaned up new new wellies and set off for my next target. I was going to spend most of my day around Litlington so I had a quick detour to find the trad and multi based at the War Memorial at Steeple Morden airfield. So sad to see the long list of US and RCAF aircrew who gave their lives for our survival. RIP I parked the car in the assigned parking area and set off on a long tiring circular walk. This took in the Litlington Locomote, the Litlington Loop and part of the Ashwell Street series’ plus four stragglers, three trads, the Litlington Clunch Pit Earthcache and the Loop bonus mystery. By the end, I’d logged 33 caches. After resting and feasting, I took a roundabout route to Bassingbourn, adding the Royston Road and SideTracked Litlington trads to the day’s tally. I was sort of running out of time here and I knew that I was getting close to a 50 cache day. I managed to hit the bullseye with the CM, a multi based on the War Memorial and a trad from the Bassingbourn Blitz series. I also had three DNFs but I’m sure that I would have stopped once I got to 50.🤔 I thought that I was going to spend the day in Cambridgeshire but I was crossing the border with Hertfordshire so often, I didn’t know which county I was in most of the time.🙁 According to my health app, I did 22,630 steps, 17.9km and 5 flight of steps climbed.👍🏻 1 Earthcache 1 Mystery 5 Multi 43 Traditional #6910

The 50th Essex Meet was held in the Woolpack PH in Chelmsford and as usual there was a great attendance. I gleaned some info on an Essex CM that I was having difficulty with and the promise of help with a mystery cache in the Vatican City.🤔 I chatted with a lot of people that I have befriended through Geocaching. I was disappointed to hear that the event was going to held quarterly in May, September and Januar. That‘s more like thirdly to me instead of bi-monthly. Y‘know what, that’s a real shame. Still life goes on, I won a prize in the raffle and gained some TBs to move on. That’ll help with my Planetary Pursuit Challenge.😀 1 Event #6860

I’d arranged to meet Paul, the chap who I started work with in 1965, for lunch in Chelmsford. For the record, we are both history buffs whever the subject. Chatting on the phone in the week beforehand, he’d mentioned an old VR post box down the road from him. He said that it had been disused for about 15 years or more. I checked it up on the LBSG Directory and there was nothing matching that description in Rainsford Road.🤔 So after lunch in the City Centre, we went up to Rainsford Road for a look. There it was, a VR WB2087/2 that didn’t exist according to LBSG records. Now what are the odds on that? 😀 Paul had sorted out another couple of boxes nearby. As we were walking down to a E2R 1058/5-2 K type box, I saw a street sign, Mace Walk, that I recognised. I’d spoken earlier about the Quaker cemetery in Broomfield Road and mentioned that it was the subject of a multi - Marriages, Deaths and Naughty Boys - that I hadn’t been able to find. The GZ was in Mace Walk so I showed him where I thought the cache was. As I was suited, I wasn’t going into the brambles.🤔 However I noted another possible host to hide a cache and there was a hole in the tree! So I stuck my hand in straight onto the cache. Now what are the odds on that? 😀 1 Multi #6859

Another Sunday, another early start and as usual, Kent here I come.😀 Just after dawn I was parking outside the Northfleet, Our Lady Church. There’s a trad here tucked away in the corner of a fence which was a very quick find. Getting my bearings, I was off to a small series based in Not Such An Urban Wasteland.🤔 This open space is home to three caches. #1 was a recent DNF but a quick find for me. #2 proved to be a DNF for me. If it’s there tucked away under a charred footbridge, I’ll be surprised. #3 proved elusive for a while but I finally tracked down the well hidden cache. I could see that Shrubber dubber dub was about 400 yards away so I walked down there along a footpath alongside the police station. I had a quick find here and walked back on a different route to the car. Over the Dover near a bridge over the railway line was a very quick find as was the Gravesend - All Saints CM. Moving on to - No Strings Attached, a 3/1.5 trad. This one did have a string on it and it was a quick find but the previous cacher had put a NM on it because it needed a new log. Why not put a replacement in rather that getting a Reviewer involved? 🤔 My next cache at Gravesend - Methodist CM was the only non trad of the day. I’d solved the mystery some time ago but had a quick find today. I had a few quick C&Ds on the way to the Guardians of the Cache series. I parked up near #4 on a muddy lane. My plan was to do #4 to #1, retrace my steps to the car, the #5 to #7 and back to the car. This would finish my allotted time and then I’d have to go home.🙁 #4 had been DNFed a couple of times recently but the hint couldn’t have been clearer and the cache any easier to find. This wasn’t the case at #3 though.🤔 The hint was good but the cache was absent so I decided to get it on the way back. #2 and #1 were quick finds of well hidden caches so I turned an set off back to #3. If it’s not at the top of the bank, it must be on the bottom. Right again, there it was, with the contents of the cache strewn around. I put it all back together and left the cache more enough where I found it. Now back across the muddy field to get on the path for #5. It was a long, cold walk to this one but the cache was on show so I did the admin and hid the cache In a safe place. Now do I have enough time to get over to #7 and return? In a word no, so I went back to the car and after cleaning my boots set off for the final cache of the day. I found a decent parking place which be useful for #6 soon. I had a quick find of #7 so off to battle with the traffic at the tunnel. 1 Mystery 16 Traditional #6858

I wasn’t sure to go for my caching day this week but then I got a call from the LBSG to do some post box surveying around Braintree. I started the day in Black Notley and quickly found the very well hidden - The Cache Of Snaky Lane and the recently DNFed VS. My next stop was Braintree Town Centre and I had caches and boxes to find. I parked up in Sainsbury’s car park and found that I could get 30 mins parking for free.😀 Just enough time to survey three boxes and find two of Infinson’s caches that I’d failed to find before. This time, the very cleverly hidden Trolley Dash #1 and #2 were quick finds. On my way out of town, I had hoped to stop and look at an old post box that had formerly been used exclusively for Airmail. However the traffic was so heavy, I could find anywhere to stop so I left that for another day. On the outskirts of town, I found Rockman, a trad that I failed to find before. Then in open country on the way to Church End, I found Rory’s Brother and Friend, two well hidden caches with very muddy fields in between them.🤬 In Church End, I joined the list of failures at VS Shalford but worked out the coords for the Rest A While In Shalford multi. This was based on benches around the cricket field and the final for the final was inspired.👍🏻 As it had started to rain, I bought a takeaway coffee in the P.O. across the road and drank it in the car until the deluge ceased. My next port of call was Wethersfield. I had only been here once before when I was researching Thomas Raven’s Wethersfield Brewery. This enterprise ceased brewing in 1901 but the Malt House now houses the Village Hall. Now I was after some caches thatbImhad been looking at for quite a while. I didn’t expect to have much luck at the K6 - Wethersfield, the No TV Soap Here and the multi CM. 🤔 As much as I tried, I couldn’t find the magnetic cache inside the K6 phone box but I knew that it wasn’t a 1/5 for nothing. The No TV multi depended on finding clues around the village green to build the coords but I couldn’t find three of them. However, I did find the source info for the CM but took it home to work out the coords for my next visit.😀 On my way out of town, I had a quick find of the very cunningly place FIRE! FIRE! situated next to the on-call Fire Station. After a shport drive, I was parking up in Finchingfield. Before I got booted up for my next adventure, I quickly found the well hidden “most photographed village” cache. Luckily I didn’t drop it into the water. I now set out on an Infinson series of 16 caches inspired by the Cluedo board game. There was also a bonus cache to be solved by collected info from each cache so I would have to be alert knowing the CO as I do.🤔 The series got off to a bad start as The Garage was now behind HEDRA fencing and inaccessible. Then from nowhere, a very strong wind appeared and carried on blustering for about 90 minutes. I had to take great care to stop the cards blowing away; that really would have put the tin hat on things. I worked my way around the circuit trying to resolve the puzzle. I had Cluedo cards, playing cards, cards with D=6 and other bits of info to contend with. To be honest, I still don’t know how to get the bonus coords. Perhaps it’s all a nonsense and the listed coords are the actual coords. Now theres a thought.🤫 I touched on the outskirts of Great Bardfield and headed north on a footpath. On the way to The Desk, I was very pleased to encounter Great Bardfield water mill. Straddling the River Pant, this corn mill turns out to be very important and maybe the first in the country to have used an oil engine to drive the mill. However the engine has been removed and all the extant machinery is capable of being renovated to become a functioning mill again. The photo shows some of the machiner. Parts of the track were very muddy and the wind persevered but I battled the elements as a trouper such as myself would.🤭 I had a huge mishap at The Cupboard when I needed to walk in a stream. One of my wellies had split at the back and was taking on water. The end of the trail was in sight and at the final cache - The Kitchen, I found that I had an audience. There were a couple of tree surgeons working here. I quickly found the cache which was in full view (from the right angle). One of the tree surgeons asked if this was Geocaching so we had a chat about that. They had looked in the cache a couple of days ago to see what it was and had replaced it. They were tidying up after three Black Poplar trees had been felled to give the nearby householder a better satellite signal.😢 They had refused to do the felling but somehow were involved in the tidying up. Anyway we parted company and I walked back to the car via the E2R Wallbox at the P.O. A great day caching and according to my Health App, I did 21,890 Steps, 17 km walked and 39 flights of floors climbed.😀 1 Multi, 24 Traditional #6841

The snow has departed so travel is easier. I was meeting the chaps in Billericay for a Thai as we often do. However after the banter and Mickey taking was over, I had to find a cache for the day. About three miles north is Stock and there was a puzzle cache there from the BNB ((Brains Not Brawn) series published by Cazmockett that I had solved. I haven’t solved many of these, am I missing something here? However this puzzle called Mr & Mrs (BNB - 18) was based on a very popular series of children’s books so it was about my level.🤔 After finding a parking space down a very muddy track, I had a very quick find of a very well hidden cache. After doing the admin, I now had to get down the muddy and waterlogged lanes back to civilisation.😀 1 Mystery #6816