No 2 daughter has started a new job and needs to get the 0659 train out of Basildon. So if I'm up at that time, it makes sense to pop out and get a few geocaches, doesn't it! I'd decided to go over to Kelvedon Hatch to have another try at the resurrected, an appropriate word, Zombie series that had originally been published for the Essex Mega in 2015. So there I was parking up at the church at 0700 and wandering down the road to #1. Now was it the same series of body parts that I'm looking for or a completely new set of caches? I knew straight away that the old caches had been brought back into play. I made good progress up to #5, finding a nose, a foot and fingers, when my luck blew out. I could have been there all day looking for a severed ear so I moved on. I found two of the remaining three fingers but couldn't get all the numbers to work out the coordinates for the bonus cache. The missing caches have been found by cachers since so I'll have to go on an appendage hunt soon. Just remembered, there was a souvenir issued if you found a cache today. It has been issued to commemorate the 17 years of geocaching. I retired in 2001, if only I'd stumbled across Geocaching then!

I was keen to carry on my series of monthly flash and dash events so I chose the Morrisons carpark in Hadleigh as a decent venue. I had hoped that it would draw out some more local cachers from Southend way but alas no such luck. In the end there was me, Mathsnut, Mr Mathsnut and granny, Grobo59 was a nice surprise and also Vanessa355 and Jason who were newcomers to the hobby. Having said that, V&J only had 100 caches under their belt but had a couple of countries. They gone to see Iron Maiden in Berlin and geocached too! A lot of the chat was informing V&J of some of the finer points of geocaching and I learnt stuff too. Here's to the next one!

It's the day of the Kent Mega and due to circumstances beyond my control, I can only spend about three hours there. I'm lucky to get that much as I have no transport of my own just a borrowed car. I got to the Hop Farm about 0830 and bumped into Grobo59! We had a brief chat and while he went to see if the cafe was open, I popped down the road to pick up an easy trad at the gate to the event. The cafe wasn't open so we hung around and chatted until the event opened at 1000. A quick cup of coffee as the doors opened and in we all piled. I had my fill at the NE Geocaching stand buying up all sorts of containers to get my CO career back on track. There were so many familiar faces and short hellos and chats. Frantica said hello and we arranged to do the Labcache series together. I didn't think that I'd have time for this so this was most welcome. As we began to start, Boxteddies, Foxscout, Beastmarsta and geokids arrived so we all went round together gleaning the clues for the caches. So much effort and obviously, time had gone into setting this up. We all had a laugh sorting the series out. We got all the answers and luckily I was able to log all the caches when I got home. Time was getting on for 1130 so I knew that I had to be making tracks. I was saying goodbyes to some cachers and I kept recognising more familiar faces. Plus the Beastmarsta was picking my brains about the forthcoming Red Sands Fort trip as he wanted to organise one. All in all a great morning and I'm looking forward to the next event, which is... tomorrow!

Today I'm off to wander around Saffron Walden. However before I set off, I notice a small chip at the bottom of the windscreen, nothing to worry about. The plan is to work my way up the B184 from Great Dunmow, do the Walden Wander, pop up to Littlebury to hopefully find an early Jasmer, drop down in Audley End and try to find three puzzle caches that I'd solved. So my first port of call is A Fine Pair in Great Easton. It's 0750 and a council wagon is having breakfast next to the cache, I'll give this one a miss ! I'm the one with the blow-out😕 Up the road is a trad called Bootiful, it should be Trainerful but a nice idea. Next stop is Thaxted, a lovely town full of medieval buildings. I follow a town trail multi gathering clues but the final GZ is obviously wrong so I'll have to contact the CO to see where I erred. The next cache, a multi turned out to be the day's favourite. Water Works was a variation on a theme I'd seen before. I found the first part of the cache near a bridge over a slow running river. It's a sack with two plastic bottles and the coords for the final printed on a plastic card attached to one of the bottles. However, next to the cache was a spigot mortar base from WW2 and the cache was in a concrete compartment, probably where the mortar shells were stored! Following the coords to GZ found me next to a water company pumping station. I looked behind the yellow pillar, nothing, ah a tube! Prising off the cover, I heard something drop. Now I knew what the plastic bottles were for! Back I go, get the bottles, precariously balance on a stone in the river and the other foot on the bank and fill them up. As I poured the water in, I could hear something rise up the tube. Aha, the cache, what a great multi this was. After signing the logsheet, it was back to the spigot mortar base to replace the cache. This has to have a fave, it's in my top ten caches. The next cache was a trad placed in a cacher's garden on the outskirts of town, followed by another under a stile. After finding a couple of Water Tower caches on the way up to Saffron, I parked up near the trailhead of the Walden Wander. About a hundred yards down the track was the first of a twelve trad series, hidden in ivy. It wasn't a quick find but I soon got into my stride, literally walking down green lanes picking off well hidden caches. I replaced one at #5 and then carried on struggling at easy ones and smashing hard ones until I'd travelled 2.5 miles carrying out a clean sweep. I then drove over to Sewards End, picking up two trads that had DNFs against their names last time out. As one was the CM that I'd dipped before, I was really pleased but what a cunning placement. Now was time for my first puzzle of the day. Cosmic was a puzzle based on planets and it had a checker so once I'd passed that test, I knew that it would be down to my ferreting skills. There was a half mile trek from the car parking place to GZ but once I'd got into the woods, I was greeted by a wonderful spectacle of blooming bluebells. The cache was poking out of its hide hole so it was a quick find. It was tucked away a little safer than when I found it. My main target for the day was Howe Woods up near Littlebury, a trad that had been resting in the base of a tree since March 2004! Adding this one to my tally will close a gap on my Jasmer grid! I had a quick find but the log sheet was wet and manky so I replaced it within a plastic bag, my thanks to the CO for maintaining it for so long. I found three more trads locally including one at a vintage sheep dip before dropping down to Audley End. I thought that there were more caches here but I had a pleasant couple of miles walk around the estate picking up four trads. The walk was scenic, old cottages, WW2 defences, a trad commemorating Station 43, a SOE training camp for Polish WW2 undercover agents and a bench donated by a USAAF sergeant in 1945. I'd like to think that it was the original. Time was getting on and it was starting to drizzle. However I had plans for two more puzzles. So it's the outskirts of Saffron at the start of a long walk for BINGO, a puzzle based on bingo calls and Trick or Treat Pt2, based on Halloween. I'm happy to state that they were easy to find but it was a bit of a route march there and back. So back in the car for 1600, 31 caches on the day including the 3 puzzles, a CM, a multi, and the rest are trads. Just one DNF for the day which is very good for me. Doing the cockpit drill before I take off and I notice a long line across the bottom of the windscreen. Is that rain, no, the chip has cracked both ways😡 I have to gingerly get the car forty miles back to home, I hope it can be fixed before the Kent Mega on Saturday! PS I'm on 5044 caches found.👍🏻

We are heading back to Rochford to await yet another tradesman to turn up to do work at our daughter's house. To kill a little time, we did a slight detour out to Canewdon to find another two of NathanJHunt'S new caches. The first was the CM at the most haunted church in Essex. I bravely searched in the hedgerow for the hidden bison and was rewarded with a quick find. Then I walked down the hill to the VS. I looked up the hint and could see the host so it was another quick find. It was 1230 so time to drive into Rochford. If I'd have known that the electrician wasn't going to turn up until 1530, I could have found another couple of strays out this way.😡

We had to unexpectedly go to Rochford today to our daughter's flat to await a plumber who had to complete a job. This took much longer than planned so I had to go out and feed the local council carpark cash cow! I had the opportunity to walk a few hundred yards further to a new cache Rochford Village Sign set by NathanJHunt. I had a quick find here then popped up to his Rochford SideTracked to check out a recent DNF. The cache was missing but I didn't have a replacement so it had to be disabled. I also put the finishing touches to another adventure that I've been planning. This is a boat trip out into the Thames to visit Red Sands Fort, a series of WW2 gun platforms, upon which some kind cacher has placed a 3/5 trad!!! There are ten of us going in the fishing boat that I've chartered. It's going to take to hours to reach the fort. Watch this space🛥

If I find a cache today, I gain a souvenir of the 3M cache placed. If I go to a CITO today, I get another, therefore two souvenirs. If I go to the Really SideTracked Brightlingsea CITO, there's a special souvenir just for this one. So one cache, three souvenirs, crazy! I know where I'm going! However, there's a cache down the road almost into St Osyth that will complete my "dates hidden" grid. It's a trad called Archery Fields. As soon as I got there, I knew I'd been down this track before. It leads down to Flag Creek where I've been birdwatching many times with Swallow Tours. The cache was elusive but I eventually filled the grid. I arrived at the Millenium Gardens in Brightlingsea for the CITO and immediately spotted Cazmocket and TheAnnettTeam. Having said hello to them, I recognised terrapintim from his Twitter photo and introduced myself. In turn he introduced Mang and Wandafree. Having chatted for a while and appeared in a Facebook video that I haven't seen yet, it was time to fulfill the purpose of the morning. I set off towards the former station site and started working my way back collecting rubbish. I bumped into Caz, terrapintim, Mang and Wandafree looking for a cache called Off The Prom which proved to be off the radar. We parted company but Caz and I went towards the SideTracked cache, quickly found that and started collecting stuff for our litter bags. We walked along the old trackbed but only got halfway towards the site of the old swing-bridge before we decided to work our way back. Caz wanted to look for a couple of caches that I'd already found and it was along this stretch that we found most of our rubbish. Back at base, there was a barbecue man handing out sausage baps and cups of coffee. What a result! I saw Frantica and was then introduced to JenniUK, the organiser of the event. She said that Off The Prom was there, so a few of us whizzed down there to see the easiest cache that you will ever find. Something wasn't right but it's a find after all. I had to leave to drive for an hour to get home. However it turned out that Wandafree had come down from North Yorkshire and Tim & Mang had come by train from Surrey, I think, so I was just a local. At home once I started reading cacher's logs, I could see many names that I'd like to have put faces to. Perhaps we should all start wearing name badges or some other form of identification. Just a thought😉

If I can find at least 31 caches today, I will reach the magic figure of 5000 geocaches found. I'm not the type of cacher who plans meticulously to find an extraordinary cache to reach a geocaching milestone. Knowing my luck, I'd find the cache at Everest Base Camp but when the stats were crunched, the milestone will actually be the cache found afterwards at the cafe down the road! The current plan is to work backwards from Harwich finding caches and today I will be starting in Tendring. The first cache was an easy trad at Colchester Road Stamp #2. It would have been #1 but I couldn't get across the A133 due to the heavy traffic! Next up was Poo Sticks, a 4/4 trad in a stream under a splendid brick road bridge. Once I had my wellies on and in the water, it was an easy find. Another plan for today was to complete the Goose Green Yomp, a circular series of a dozen or so caches of varying difficulty. However as I parked up, I noted that Tendring : ROC Bunker was just down the road. The cache was a quick find but I spent some time exploring the outside of the bunker across the road. I didn't venture down into the bunker as I was on my own. The start of the series was interesting. #1 was a 2.5/1.5 trad which was causing people problems. It took me about 30 mins to find it and it was a barst! I wondered what I had let myself into! #2 was no better, even worse. Large tree over a stream with deep banks and from previous logs, I knew I was in the right place. I went up, I went down, I checked from both sides precariously hanging on to branches. I saw "tether" mentioned in a report so went down to stream level to see if it was tucked away. No joy and on the point of giving up and clambering out, I lost my grip and was standing in the stream up to my calves! There was still no sign of the cache.🐊 After squelching across a field, a 5/1.5 trad that causes difficulty was quickly found and then a 1.5/1.5 trad was a miserable failure. The rest of the series was still difficult and testing but I found them all without further mishaps. Just a pity that I had those two DNFs. Back at the car, I had a change of footwear and hose, a sandwich and on on the next part of the adventure. Three quick trads, a quick find at Tendring CM, a quicker find at a nearby cache with a string of recent DNFs then a number of CnDs and a DNF, until I ended up in Weeley. I started with a quick find at Weeley Borehole, then a short series called Weeley Wander, some easy trads and a letterbox brought me to a possible candidate for #4999 but I joined the list of DNFers. A tricky retrieval from a deep bush brought up the penultimate cache. The next cache was CM Weeley and it was a quickish find. No fireworks, no crescendo of sound from the imaginary Kentucky Headhunters over the way, no waiter with a chilled bottle of Mythos, just the satisfaction of achievement and an idea of the direction that I had travel next! I found a puzzle cache based on the Weeley war memorial, which was #9 of the Branston's Ramble series. This was another cunning placement by the CO responsible for the Goose Green Yomp. I picked up the supposed first cache of the day, Colchester Road Stamp #1. At least I was facing the way of the traffic this time. So what did I achieve on the day. 31 caches found including two CMs, a Fine Pair, a puzzle, a letterbox and then trads. I had four DNFs, I've had worse days but most of all I had fun. 🤣

Yesterday I noted that PeverelBlue had found the River Tunnel Walk cache in Terling. You can guess what was on offer and I had failed here before because the water level was too high for my wellies! So as the level had obviously dropped, it was time to have another go. So I put my wellied boots into the water and got to the tunnel mouth but the water was still too high. Something was wrong as yesterday Mr P's shoes were hardly wet. So I tried at the other end of the tunnel and still high. Then I tumbled that there was more than the two tunnels that I was looking at. There was a smaller drainage tunnel hidden from sight. Once I had found it, the rest was easy. I felt like a right wally. My next port of call was up near Terling Windmill. Large Oak tree cache is a 4/4 trad and is just what is says. However there were clues that I'd not seen the like of before. There was a notice nearby giving final directions as well as another highlighting the actual tree. The climb was difficult but I go there and signed the log in the large cache. Next was another new one by the CO of the last cache called Pully cache. So in the depths of a large wood, I'm looking for a length of blue cord at the side of a tree. Luckily I approached it from the right angle and soon had the cache lowered to ground. The log was quickly signed and the cache hoisted to new heights. I have had a puzzle cache called Templar's Treasure in my solved file for a while and as I was nearby, it was time to check out my coords. There was an obvious feature at GZ but I couldn't find the cache. I read previous logs, widened my search and soon had the cache in han. My next cache was another puzzle called Back To Basics nearby. At a certain place I am supposed to see the spires of two local churches on specific bearings. There is a cache at that place. The last time I got to where I thought the cache was, it was foggy so no joy. Today was sunny and I'd refined my coords. However I still couldn't see any spires because all the trees in the way. Sad to end the day on a DNF but hayho thats how it goes. However I don't think I'll waste anymore time on this cache. So four caches on the day, I'm now on 4969 caches and if I have a good caching day on Thursday, I could make the magic 5000!

No, it's not that classic spy film but a cache out on the restricted MOD area on Foulness Island, near Southend. It wasn't my original plan to come here this morning as I was planning 1/4.5 and 1.5/4.5 tree climbs in Kent but I had such a poor night's sleep, I didn't feel up to it. So I decided that I would pick off some strays out in Shoebury and Great Wakering. I drove through the MOD security gates to get onto the island which is open to the public at weekend. After negotiating the bends and gates past Battery signs, they test guns and munitions here during the week and parked my car at Wakering Stairs. As I started my half mile walk out the the cache, I noticed a few bird watchers. As I got near to the cache, I could hear a "reeling" Grasshopper Warbler, a rare enough migrant,so I alerted the twitchers to the fact. I found out that they were after some Ring Ouzels which had been seen the day before before they rushed off after the warbler. At the cache, The 39 Steps, I expected a large staircase to search but it was a nano tucked away on a lifebuoy rack. Slightly disappointed, I worked my way back through the concentrating twitchers and walked back to the car. My next port of call was the elusive Wakering Common #6, which I found very visible at the bottom of the ditch before I replaced it where it should be. Nearby was a multi called Nicholas Treasure based on finding clues on ten gravestones in St Nicholas Church in Great Wakering village. There used to be a multi CM here based on a similar premise until the CO suddenly archived about a 100 caches including a fine 50 cache power series without a by your leave! So sad, really because I and many other local cachers would have adopted a great many of them. I found 9 of the 10 gravestone clues, made an educated guess on the other and set off onto Wakering Common. I made a quick find of the cache in an exposed position but it was in poor shape. I put a replacement log in there to give following cachers something to sign and hid the thing a bit more securely. So it was a good morning altnough I only found 3 out of 3 caches. I have been looking at these exposed caches for a while and I'm so glad to turn them smiley 😊