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Ever since that prolific cacher jazzyjessups moved down to Edenbridge, close on the Kent and Surrey border, I have been eying up his Kent and Surrey Challenge series. The series consists of 30 caches, mainly trads but with a lot of mystery challenges chucked in.😀 However there were 11 LBs, a CM, a VS and a puzzle cache that could also be picked up enroute. This gave a potential total of 45 caches but some of the mystery Challenges were beyond my reach ie find 3000 caches in East Sussex so there was no way that I could get them all. Here’s how the day went.
I parked up opposite the church in Marsh Green at the crack of sparrows... and swiftly moved on to #01 of the series.A lot of cachers fail to find this tricky one first time round and come back to it once the circular series is finished. I was no different.🥴
I collected the trads up to #04 without problem. At #05, I could only sign the log of this mystery Challenge as I needed 1000 caches in Surrey. I only have 202 to date but it’s doable.🤔 I carried on to #10 but with a DNF at #07. Again I couldn’t claim #10 as it needed 5000 caches from Kent. I only have just over the brace but as it’s the next county on, I stand a chance here.
I made my way round to #16 but failing at the one before. I could sign the mystery at #16 which needed 2000 claims in Essex. I crept over the line with 7075😀 but it is my home county. I carried on picking up trads and LB multis around to #25 but couldn’t find #22.🙁 #25 was another mystery cache that I could sign and with this one I did literally creep over the line. This needed 1000 claims in Hertfordshire and I have 1001.👏
So I continued around the loop, missing out #28 (3k in East Sussex, no way) up to #30 and back to the car. 👏 However I wasn‘t finished in Marsh Green as there were two multis here. I quickly found the VS and the CM Marsh Green St John and then it was back to the motor to drive the short distance down to #01 of the loop. My eye was well in as I made a quick find this time.
It was just after noon and I was hungry so I drove into Edenbridge and parked up in a free carpark next to a farmers market. I quickly sorted out a cafe an wolfed down an all day breakfast. I started on the St Peter and Paul AdLab series. I quickly found the majority of the bases but was almost brought to tears at the final base.
It was a memorial to the Residential School at Weald House in Crookham Hill. In 1944, a V2 rocket had been hit by AA fire but had glided along on thermals instead of falling to the ground. It hit the home and killed 21 infants and eight female staff. One of the saddest sights that I’ve ever seen.
I sat on a nearby bench and pondered for a few minutes but then moved on to the bonus cache. With this in hand I carried on down the High Street to the CM Baptist trad. I had to take extra care not to drop this one in the river.🥴 I continued on to the VS multi at the bottom of the road and spent some time counting bricks in order to get the coords. The CO had hidden the final really cunningly but I was up for it.😀
I had to walk back up the High Street onwards the station to get to the next cache at the CM Eden Baptist mystery. Again more counting but I soon had the coords in hand and I could see that I would have to save this for later. I continued up the road and solved the WI multi which turned out to be a quick find in the park.
I headed for the station and found all the bases of the ST Edenbridge Town AdLab series. I could see that the bonus for this one was back in the park. However there was a multi ST at the station based on a VR postbox so I worked that one out and found it on the way.
Time was getting on so I walked back down the road (I felt like the Grand Old Duke Of York🥴) to the final of the Baptist mystery and then added the CM multi at Edenbridge St Lawrence to the mix to finish off the day.
5 Mystery 10 AdLab 11 Multi 27 Traditional
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