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Thursday 21st December 2023
I started the day east of Berkhamstead. The first cache on my list was the Letterboxes 250 Challenge. I had an easy find and signed the log sheet at 0805.😀 I didn't have far to go for the Multis 1000 Challenge and a little bit further on was the Multis 500 Challenge. Having qualified for the former, I obviously qualified for the latter.😀 Unfortunately I didn't qualify for the Multis 1500 but as I was in the neighbourhood, I signed it for later.
I passed Champneys on the way to the Earthcache 300 Challenge. I knew that I didn't have enough ECs to qualify but as I was passing. Sadly, I couldn't find the cache.🥴 I had been taking bearing for Trixie81's Reverse wherigo cache and had a fix on the final location. However it was a challenge in itself getting somewhere to park near the cache and became an obsession. 🥴 When I finally reached the cache, the top was hanging from the rest of the container and the log sheet was pressed right down the bottom, covered with a mould 🤔 I tried to winkle the log out but no joy so put a replacement log sheet in and replaced the cache with top uppermost. In view of the challenge, it just had to have a favourite point.💚
I carried on for about half a mile to the Multi Half DT Challenge but when I got there, there wasn't a phone signal so I had to turn back until I got one. I headed back and quickly found the cache. On the way back, I detoured for the 2005 golden oldie, Universally Challenged #1-Jupiter.
The next place on my list was a couple of miles down the road at St Leonard's. I managed to park outside the church but I remember that the wind had got up and I had to shelter in the church porch to sort out the CM multi and the WM mystery here. Once I had some numbers, I braved the wind and soon had success at the final stages.
I headed south down to Swan Bottom. There was a letterbox here but the phone signal was negligible here so after gathering the info, I drove on to The Lee. I parked up near the pub and was pleased to find that they operated a coffee shop in the mornings. Brunch was coffee and delicious cake.
After eating, I started on The (Unlikely) Lee AL series. Once I had visited the bases including the ship's figurehead, I used the bonus numbers to work out the coords. It was a bit of a trek getting to the final stage but there some great views. Back in the village, I was hoping to try for a couple more caches. Unfortunately, the A Fine Romance letterbox was listed as missing.
The WM mystery needed some information relating to the memorial but I was unable to find it. It seems that the owner of the village back at the turn of the 21st century owned the Liberty store in London. At the breakout of WW1, he encouraged all his agricultural workers to enlist. Twelve of them were killed in action including nine in one day in 1916.🥴
I had spent a lot of time wandering around the village and it was time to head for home. However I had been able to get the coords for the letterbox so I stopped off in Swan Bottom for a quick find to end the day on a positive note😀
1 Letterbox 1 Multi 1 Traditional 1 Wherigo 5 AdLab 6 Mystery
#17863