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Did I ever tell you that I got a new geobag for Christmas? It’s one of those bandolier type of bags sold by that fine Geocaching supplies company in the NE. As the strap broke on my usual bag last week, it was time for the new bag to start earning. As I‘m going out in the morning, all I had to do was transfer all the stuff from the old into the new.
But, I couldn’t find the old.🥴 I looked in the car, the garage, the conservatory, even the cupboard under the stairs. Even now, I‘m reminded of a toon, “I looked in the kitchen, I looked in the hall, in my slippers and my dressing gown” from Mickey Jupp’s brilliant number - Standing At The Crossroads Again. Check out Dave Edmunds and Steve Cropper playing it at the Montreux Music Festival on YouTube.😀
Right, let’s go back to first principles, where can I remember that I had it last.🤔 So I worked through the timelines in my head and ..... oh, Rhubarb.🤬🤬 I’d left it in the coffee shop in Ashwell so I quickly phoned them up and they had found it and were looking after it for me.👏 So guess where I am going in the morning now.🤔
So I had to formulate a plan that put me in Ashwell for near enough for the nine o’clock opening time.🤔 I decided to head to Roydon to pick up a couple of ECs that I didn’t have a tape measure for last time I was in town and then work my way into Ashwell.
As dawn broke, I was parking up in the centre of Roydon and then collecting all the data that I needed for the Royse Stone EC. I walked briskly down the road to pick up the Poppies on Parade - Royston trad trying to stay out of view of the police station front desk.
I drove up to the cemetery where the Mary EC was located and after gathering data on phenocrysts, walked back to the car via the Quiet please trad. This was a very clever lending library in a front garden that was well worth a fave point.
It was time to leave Royston and head towards Ashwell but via the old Steeple Morden airfield. There’s a magnificent War Memorial here, in fact, a couple but I was interested in a small block of granite taken from the old control tower in order to solve the “Phaneritic or not Phaneritic, that is the question“ EC. I also had to have my photo taken with the WM propeller but not before I’d banged my head on it.🙄. With the info gathered, I drove a couple of miles into the village to find the Brooke mystery.
I dropped down a couple of miles for the WM - Odsey trad and then a bit further to ST - Ashwell & Morden. I zipped down the A505 and then headed back towards Ashwell. On the way in, I picked up two more Congratulations mysteries and the white post trad. At 0910, I dinged the bell as I entered Rhubarb & Mustard to be re-united with my geobag. To celebrate I had a cup of coffee and a cake. 🤫
Leaving the cafe, I set on a series of drive by trads starting at WM - Ashwell and then picking up some of the Ashwell Acrobatics. I was heading over to Hinxworth but collected another Congratulations mystery and the Quarry Springs trad on the way.
Once in Hinxworth, I sorted out the coords to the CM multi and then set off for the WM multi. The War Memorial was one of the most impressive that I have seen. I gathered this one and the CM on the way back to the car.
I worked my way to the south of Baldock picking up a few more caches and parked up in the car park of the Weston Hills nature reserve. This was near to a circular series of trads called A Walk to the Pumping Station. I walked down the hill and started at #13 and set off picking off the clever caches up to #19 and on to the finish at #12.
I walked back up the hill to the car park taking in the #1 Weston Hill trad on the way. I set off for home but stopped a mile down the road to collect the last cache of the day. Luckily I had a quick find at the GNR #24 LONDON 36 MILES trad as it started to chuck it down. This would make the drive interesting.
3 Earthcache 3 Multi 4 Mystery 40 Traditional
#14855