Shirley Not

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Today I‘m going to work my round from West Wickham to Shirley and then on to Croydon. That’s the plan anyway so let’s see how it went.

I was through the tunnel early and signing the log of the trad CM at West Wickham- St Mary’s at 0617. I drove the short distance down the road to the centre of town and found a free car park.😀 I worked out the VS multi and once I had that in the bag, I started on the West Wickham Adventure AdLab series. As I walked down the High Street, I sorted out out the CM Wickham - St Francis  multi.

Following the AdLab series, I had to visit the War Memorial. I couldn’t find the nearby WM multi so had to make do with the Curse of the FTF London #20 - Break A Leg trad.😀 To finish off, I had to go back to St John‘s - West Wickham and then I had the coords for the bonus. Whilst I here, I dropped down to the roundabout for the Insect Invasion 02 trad.

I worked out where the AdLab Bonus was and incorporated it into my next walk. I parked up along the Addington Road and walked up the slope into Spring Park. I found the 4.5/1.5 bonus and continued rising up to the Disguised Mobile Masts No 1 trad. I headed west along Woodland Way to another Insect Invasion trad. This well hidden trad took some time to find.🙄

I dropped down the hill in the hope of collecting a few trads and found Snail Trail - Sam, Beaver Fever - 3 Halfpenny Wood, Snail Trail - Shelley, the tricky Beaver Fever - Spring Park and then Insect Invasion 01.

I had another AdLab series in mind for today and West Wickham - The Meridians. Just passing through and it was time to get going. I found the first three bases and then paused for the CM - All Saints,  Shirley and Millers Pond trads. I found the rest of the AdLabs and noted the cooords for the bonus. I looked for the bonus on the map but couldn’t see it.🤔 It took me a while to realise that I had found it last week as it’s also a stand-alone mystery.🙄

I drove up to Monks Orchard and parked up opposite the Bethlem Royal Hospital. I was surprised to see that “Old Bedlam” was still in existence but it had moved here in 1930. I found the nearby trad WWW#7 Bedlam in the Rhododendrons and set off into High Broom Wood. I was looking high for the Tree Cabin trad but it was hidden at ground level.🤔 I continued along the stream until I got to the well hidden Babbling Beck Broom, another easy trad. To finish off the area, I walked down to the 2.5/1.5 My Favourite Quercus. I had to wait for a break in the busy traffic until I could extract the cache from the roadside Oak.

It was getting on for one o’clock and I needed to get a move on. I drove a mile or so down the road to a small wooded park for a trad that had a few recent DNFs. Luckily I soon found the Curse of the FTF London #21 - Spring Park Wood. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a Resus.😀

Now I really wanted to see the Shirley Tower Mill so I headed off in that direction. I visited the recently replaced TRAM ST - Gravel Hill for a quick find and then on to Coombe Lane for the Drinking Troughs 021 trad and the Beaver Fever - Coombe Woods Pond multi. With these in hand, I headed for the windmill. There is a multi here but it hasn’t been found for a while but recent logs show that not all the info sources are there and I can concur.🤬

I decided to leave Shirley for another time and I headed for home via Crofton. I quickly sorted out the Army Band School multi and went over to the Crofton VS trad. I have found this one on a couple of previous occasions but it keeps getting archived.🙁 Luckily I have found this one until I come back for the next one.😀 Now it really was time to hit the road.

1 Mystery 5 Multi 10 AdLab 20 Traditional

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