Well, he heard me but he left it until the last present! My family messed me about a bit but my wishes had come true. The waders fitted a treat so I can’t wait to try them out. What I hadn’t expected was a record player! So my collection of 33/45/78 records can come out of storage and aural delights await! After lunch, I went for a walk for settle the turkey and managed to bump into a trad cache that I’d been saving up For a special occasion. Mayflower Mayhem #2, a camouflaged specimen tube hidden in ivy, was more than enough to give me a cache for this special day. 1 Traditional #6477

On the last caching day before Christmas, I decided to get across the river into Kent and pick up a few around Bean. The plan was to collect some mysteries including some Challenges and a few trads. I started off with three challenges around Bean. These were simply for having moved/discovered finite numbers of Travel Bugs. Having moved 176,I qualified for 50/100/150 so these were relatively easy finds. Next up were a couple of trads followed by a puzzle VS in Bean and a trad VS in Betsham. I did all but one of a series called Kiki’s Family Stroll last year around Betsham so I had unfinished business in town. I got to the GZ of #10 and searched around the hint item but again no joy. I then realised that I was barking up the wrong tree, literally, et voila! I then moved on to another couple of challenge caches. The premise is to gather enough cache numbers to spell out numerals on the DT grid. I only qualify for 1 and 2 as I haven’t found enough 4/2.5s yet.☹️ The last three caches of the day were all trads finishing with the splendidly named Peacocks Crossing. You can see the information sign in the photograph. I must admit that I haven’t seen another like it, is it unique. Roll on Monday, lets see if Santa has received my letter.🎄 6 Mystery, 7 Traditional #6476

Two of my letterbox caches were visited yesterday. Each cache has a bonus number in it. One of them was reported as was damaged, in the open, and the log sheet was mush. In the other one, the bonus number was missing. The cacher messaged me asking for the bonus numbers. For the series, I bought a set of numbered stamps. So each stamp is the number! 🤔 So the odds were that each cache had been muggled which put the bonus number idea in jeopardy. I visited the first cache - Basildon Letterbox Series #2 - and there it was safely tucked away in its hidey hole and completely intact. The second one - #7 was also completely intact and safe. At least the log sheet had been signed here. I’ll let the cacher keep #2 but they will have to return to get the bonus numbers. 🤫 The photo is of two letter boxes in Wivenhoe known locally as Laurel and Hardy. The are the basis of a trad cache which I eventually found yesterday. The one on the right is a rare version of E2R type B pillar known as a Nigerian. 😎 You may also notice that the one of the left, a type A, has the remains of a Post Office Direction sign on it.

I was off for a day’s caching East of Colchester and it was cold, misty and mizzly.☹️ I returned to the multi - SEBC029 - Great Bromley 9 - because as you may remember, I’d lost half of the cache last week and had to put a replacement down.🙁 So today, I was back to rectifly matters. I’d ordered a like for like replacement from my favourite geoshop and now it was all back as it should be. 😀 So it was 0830 and I could get on with my caching day. It took me 14 minutes to drive down into Brightlingsea and I parked up near Cousins Cache, another on my DNF list.🤔 This has caused cachers problems and only been found once in the last six or so times that it had been searched for. I looked in all the obvious places without luck until I had one last go and just followed the GPS. What a barst!! We’d all been over-complicating things. I was so glad to knock this one off the list. On a roll, I tried for another one on the DNF. After faffing around again at the local Stumped, I read all the logs and found that the coords were out and to follow cachers instinct. I did and Result, a quick find. Things are looking good.👍🏻 I quickly picked up the local re-incarnated CM and celebrated with a coffee and a bacon sandwich in a nearby cafe. ☕️🥪🤫 I set off for the Promenade and parked near the open air swimming pool. I had a quick find of Buses Don’t Stop Here, a trad in a sea front shelter and then set out to find a Prom Walk. I’d done some of this multi last year and the coords I had took me back to the Promenade. I was looking for Takar’s Treat and realised that it was the name of a chalet. However I couldn‘t find it. I put the numbers back into google maps together with the N and E and got some new coords a half mile away.😬 At this new GZ, there was Takar and the last bit of info which enable me to find the cache tucked away in the rocky breakwater. With my business complete in Brightlingsea, I set off for Alresford. I parked up in the unmade road on the way to Sunnymead Farm which was next to Cockaynes Nature Reserve. I’d been to Sunnymead before as it’s quite a hot spot for migrating birds. However today, I was only interested in Geocaching. I picked up a few trads including the remainder of the Six Penny series but dipped at Natrix Natrix. This wasn’t a surprise as it seems that the coords are out plus all the Sweet Chestnuts had dropped their leaves everywhere covering the ground with about six inches of leaf litter.🙁 After a spot of lunch, sandwiches and an apple, I set off for Wivenhoe. I’d been meaning to come here for years, but now unfortunately there’s not much evidence of the boat building industry left. 1 Earthcache, 2 Multi, 16 Traditional #6463

I noticed that a cache in Chafford on the Davy Down nature reserve - Davy : Mardyke Woods - had been brought back into play. As far as I was concerned, it had gone missing. I‘d previously found the rope that the container had been tied to but no container. 🤔 However the CO said that it was still in place. 🤐 I parked near the old Davy Down pumping station and set off towards GZ. It was a 750 yard walk to get there so hoped that the cache was in place. This time, not only was the rope in place so was a container.👍🏻 Checking up on other caches in the reserve, I’d spotted that there was a lonely TB about 500 yards on from here in Day : Stream. As there are few visitors in this neck of the woods, I thought I’d pop up,there and retrieve it. As I set off, I heard a loud cackling above me and spotted three Ring-necked Parakeets upsetting the Woodpigeons. I found the cache plus a geocoin so I quickly checked on its quest. It wants to travel around the UK coast and it had only had a fleeting visit to Essex back in 2013. As Essex has the longest coastline of any county in the UK, it needs to spend more time here before going into the rest of East Anglia. With the coin safely zipped up in my pocket, I set off on the long walk back to the car park. You may remember that last Sunday morning, I’d failed to notice that there was another cache in the series around Chafford Gorges. So I set up google maps for - Off The Beaten (Cycle) Track and ten minutes later after navigating through the Lakeside Christmas shopping, I was parking next to GZ. A quick find of a well hidden suburban cache and I was back in the traffic to go home. 2 traditional #6444

I didn’t find any caches today but caching did occur.😀 I had time to check out possible sites for a few caches that I have planned. I also needed to have a look at one of my caches that had had a recent DNF.🙁 Unfortunately in the past few years, ten pubs have closed in Basildon. However, a new series called Lost Pubs has recently started off in the Plymouth area and was looking to go national. I’ve had two caches published in this series and I’m working on another. This one commemerates The Railway Hotel in Pitsea. The system knocked back where I wanted to place the cache due to it being 20’ too close to another.🙁 Hopefully my new placement will meet with approval. There’s another series trying to go national and this one may have more luck. The Post Code Series started in Scotland and is slowly working its way around. The trouble with this series is that it can only have a finite number of caches as there are only so many Post Codes in the country. On the way home, I spotted a smart place to place a cache to put SS14 on the map. It’s all sorted apart from the series number. Once that is in hand, I’ll send it off for publication.😀 A bit further on from here is the cache that has a recent DNF. CM St Basil’s Basildon has been muggled once and I moved it ten feet from the coordinates but the hint couldn’t be more clearer. If I made it any more helpful, I’d have to put up a sign with “The Cache Is Here.” 🤔

Well the alarm went off at 0645. Once I’d got ready and had a cup of tea, I could set off to be in Bean in Kent just before dawn. I looked out of the window to see the car was covered in ice!❄️ I wasn‘t expecting that so checked the weather forecast. Freezing fog!! So as for going over the bridge, I’ll give that a swerve, pun intended.😉 It‘s times like this when my lists come in handy. I’d recently noticed that a series of a dozen trad caches had been published around the Chafford Gorges nature reserve. They had been set up to introduce Geocaching to the local Scout group. As the Gorges were about ten miles down the road, the series seemed the perfect solution. I parked up in the car park of the local supermarket and set off on the cycle track around the reserve. In just over 90 mins I’d found ten well placed caches. I had one DNF but as a number of people hadn’t found it recently and as those who previously had, said that it was in a perilous position, I’ll call it a MIA.🤔 I also picked up a forlorn TB at the last cache. You may remember that there were a dozen caches in the series. The one that I missed was well Off The Beaten (Cycle) Track. So I’ll have to come back for it as well as the nearby Davy : Mardyke Woods that I need. Maybe the MIA will come back into play. 😀 10 Traditional #6442

I’ve always had a passing interest in Travel Bugs and Geocoins. If I find them in a cache, I’ll always pick them up and move them on their way. I know that many cachers collect Geocoins. Some of them are miniature works of art and are expensive to buy so not many are put out into circulation. The odds are that they will be collected but not paid for.😡 As for TBs, I can see the attraction for these. Some of the mileage clocked up by some of them is phenomenal! I enjoy looking to see where a TB wants to go. I once found one that wanted to go to Budapest. Luckily I was going there a couple of weeks later so I held on to it and took it with me. The trouble is finding a suitable cache to deposit a TB in!🤔 Luckily I found a suitable sized cache on an island in the middle of the Danube and left the TB there - mission accomplished. When I got home, I contacted the TB owner, told them that it was in Budapest and wondered what its next mission was. The reply was “to get to Swindon.” 🤣 Anyway, why are I rambling on about TBs? The truth is that I have succumbed.😀 I have bought myself a TB from a certain establishment in Darlington from whom I get all my Geocaching stuff, even at Megas. I’ve always had a good service from them so why go somewhere else. I may call it Essex On Tour 🤔 or VangeRover On Tour For Real I’m not sure whether to attach it to something as it will become more bulky and less likely to fit in a cache. 🤔 I‘m going to set it free on New Year’s Day, probably at a local event. Its journey will be to visit every county in the UK and I’ll be marking off the counties on the TB page.😀 If it completes the journey and gets back into Essex, I might set it off on another journey to visit every country in Europe. However it will probably fall through the lining of someone’s coat pocket on New Year’s Day and never be seen again.🤬

No, but I found a few post boxes! Anyway, back to the title, so what‘s in a name? As you’ve guessed, it’s the name of a geocache but what’s it all about? I’ve been there three times now and I’m still none the wiser, even though, I’ve found the cache now.😀 When I looking for a cache, I do what every other seasoned cacher does in order to make the task simpler:- Title, Text, D/T, Cache size and type, Attributes, Previous logs etc., Perhaps I’ve missed something so I’m sure that the @geojunkie will have a useful list so I must check.😀 Keep ’em coming, Sarah.👏 So much information in your blogs, sadly no-one indoors has bitten on the waders hints that I’m dropping.🙁 So what use is What, No Custard?? However this is an absolutely cracking cache from the BeastMarsta which I’ll share a little bit more about later but not a scrap of the finer detail.🤔 I don’t know want to spoil any fun or surprise. BTW, just an update, I’ve booked an early flight out of Southend Airport on Feb 1st to Dublin. After the last minute cancellation due to family illness last 9/11, I’m doing a day trip for GC43. I’ve also had an event on a boat in Maldon published for Oz Day on 28/1. With a bit of luck we could get down to Botany Bay. Now back to the present or maybe history and let’s bring you up to date on yesterday’s outing. Colchester still figures high on the green dot map so I’m still working that patch. I have 99 lists of caches and yesterday touched on the North Colchester, East Colchester, Weeley area, Essex CMs to find, and Colchester Day lists. I’m pleased to report that 22 green/orange/blue dots have now turned yellow. So some 30 mins before dawn saw me at the Rien A Grande 1 Mystery in the Greenstead part of the Oldest Recorded Town In The UK. Why so early? I’ve visited once and had no luck at all, because as the text says there’s nothing there. I then realised that there was a UV attribute (see above) so had to buy a UV torch. 🔦 Second time, I couldn’t see anything.🙁 Perhaps the torch was rubbish, it was too light, I dunno, so this time I wanted to be there in the dark. I contacted the CO who at least gave me an idea of the host item. All I found on that were two fluorescent dots and nothing to get to the next stage. So the day started with a DNF. I’m reminded of one of Tom Jones’s classic tunes here.🤫 I’ll digress again briefly, there a cacher in Braintree called Repton who has produced a number of quality puzzles. He actually suggests the tracks, mainly heavy metal, that cachers should listen to whilst working out his puzzles. For the record, I’m listening to some classic rock albums by the American band Cheap Trick who I was lucky to see about 30 years ago.🤔 They are still going strong and have just produced a Christmas CD. I bought that in one of the best independent record shops around, Slipped Disc in Billericay on Tuesday. Their version of Run,Run, Rudolph is better than the original and Keef’s but Silent Night.😢 I was going to write, Jeez, but that wouldn’t be appropriate, would it? Time to get back to Geocaching and next up was another Mystery, A Posh Trophy not far down the road. As far as I aware Peterborough United have never won anything but it was a good cache all the same. I could have done withour the long walk to it in the cold biting wind but needs must.😉 Warming up on the short drive down to What! No Custard?? I was thinking where it was was. I’ve been here before and there are so many red herring caches and BOPs, I knew I was going to fail and I did.😢 Did I tell you that I now write up each cache as I find it. I used to put a dot and a fuller log later but one CO complained so I had to alter tack. I then picked up a number of trads include some of the Board Game Marathon and four of the Stamped series. I also had surveyed five letter boxes and I was just finishing up at the Mary Lane Stamp Cache when a message popped up in my Message Center - “Do you want a nudge on No Custard.” “Oh, yes please” replied I. I took in another trad before I got the nudge. Right, google maps reckoned 13 mins back around the lanes in the motor but I went for it. Arriving back at GZ, I went back to where I thought it would be but no luck. I tried a trick that I hadn’t tried before and I know that I should have done, and there was the cache. I opened the bison to get a message “This Isn’t The Cache.” 🤬 Now the next bit was inspired! How did he come up with that? You’ll enjoy GC73R19 when you get there, a very under-rated 2/1.5. So back to the list. I’d failed at 028 and 029 : SEBC Great Bromley before. One is a Mystery and the other a Multi. I worked out where the multi was and the tiniest of caches. As I was undoing it, I dropped one half into the leaf litter and that was the last I saw of it.😢 Luckily I had a bison that’ll do as a replacement until I can get back with an exact copy. I’d worked out the mystery cache at home and it was a quick find at GZ. Down in Great Bentley, I had a quick find of the previously DNFed Footpath Treasure. It must have gone MIA as it was a new box and log and definitely not there last time. Then came the first real DNF of the day - Stream Cache on the outskirts of town. A long walk out to the the trad and although I searched every oak (the hint) within 50 yards and there were a few of them, I couldn’t strike lucky. Either the CO isn’t an arborist or it has gone missing since being found three days ago.☹️ My next port of call was the CM at Alresford. I‘d been here before but couldn’t find the multi but this time I was successful.👍🏻 I’d worked out another Mystery which looked to be down the track from the CM. A clever puzzle, I’d run the coords (no checker) past a previous finder, Frantica who I know and she said that the coords were familiar. So I wandered down the track from the CM knowing that the published coords of Oranges and Lemons were 2.9Km away.🤔 I couldn’t find the thing and a PAF or Messenger conversation convinced me that I was in the wrong place.😡 Hopefully the CO will respond to my plea for help. I find that I only get a 70% response rate, how about you? So the sun was falling and I had time to get another six trads including two more Stamped and a TB Hotel on the A120 with no TBs and I had none to drop.😀 Guess what today’s photo will be, probably a post1977 Lamp Box manufactured by Carron in Scotland using the Carronade title. 📮 2 Mystery, 2 Multi, 18 Traditional #6432

Just seen that there’s a souvenir for this Virtual cache