Your Mission..........

GCKZ29 Your Mission.......... is a geocache whose reputation precedes it. Ask any cacher that has found this one about their experience and you will invariably get the same response... 

"Best cache ever!" 

I can't disagree. It took Nige and I about a year to complete, with actual blood, sweat and tears shed. A well constructed story was laid out before us as we were taken to a multitude of locations. We laughed, we cried, we argued. We got muddy, we got injured and the dog got covered in fox poo!

She looks so happy with herself right now...

One bath later... not so smug now are ya!

This cache is not to be undertaken lightly.

When it came to logging this cache, I felt it deserved something a little creative, so I wrote a series of 'Write Note' logs as our adventure unfolded. They have become lost amongst the logs of other mugs... I mean cachers... that have found this cache so I thought I would put mine altogether in a blog post.

I would like to say a massive thank you to the cache owner, Pharisee, for creating and maintaining this ingenious geocache, a mammoth task in itself and one that very few cachers would contemplate . The single favourite point I have given this cache seems not enough to convey how awesome this hide truly is.

Enough of my rambling; here are the links to my logs:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 385

Diary of a Dead Man

I was coming up to my 400th find and wanted a cache that would be memorable. On numerous occasions, various cachers have told me about a night cache called Zombie (GC2A3MP) and they all say the same... it is a must do. I have to agree; the puzzle element is very well put together and is difficult without being unsolvable. The physical part, although in need of a little maintenance - up to 30 fire tacks? We came across about ten - was still an enjoyable adventure.

As this was a milestone cache for me, I wanted to be a little creative with the log which - unsurprisingly - was a little too long for the Geocaching website and so I have made it into a blog post. Enjoy ;D

"Legend has it that lurking in the woods in a place called Croxley, is a man guarding a terrible secret. At least, he used to be a man until others greed and hunger for profit and power forced him to make a tremendous sacrifice. Tales of geocachers going missing in search of this tortured, soulless being are whispered in country pubs all over the Home Counties at Geocaching events. It was at one such get-together that I first encountered utterings of the tale of Dr. Elgin and discovered the existence of his journal. My curiosity piqued; I took it upon myself to investigate this story further.

Progress was slow at first; there is such secrecy surrounding what happened five years ago at Croxley Biomedical Research Facilities that distinguishing fact from fiction was proving to be a challenge. One thing I knew for certain though was that Elgin's Journal held the key to everything; I just had to gain access to it.

For many nights, I worked on the diaries, unlocking it piece by piece. I had mixed feelings as the story unfolded in front of me ranging from anger to empathy and then to doubt. Harbinger's zealous pursuit for riches led all those connected to the project down a devastating path of destruction. Was I being arrogant too? Was my thirst for the truth leading me down an equally dangerous path?

It was late one night when I uncovered the final piece of the puzzle. This was of little comfort however as I sat in a dark room with nothing but the glow of the laptop for light. What started out as a mere need to satisfy my curiosity had become an obligation, a duty, to protect all that Dr. Elgin has sacrificed himself for. I'm just a geocacher though, with only 399 finds to my name, what were my chances of survival against the undead?

Going alone to find Elgin would have been suicide so at a recent geocaching event I recruited a few other cachers to join me on my mission. They needed some guidance with the journal which I was happy to provide. After all, it was essential that they read it so as to understand the gravity of the task at hand. Nobody could go into this blind; too many lives were at stake.

Today was the day. Today I would help keep humanity a little safer for a little longer. All the necessary preparations had been done, a rendezvous time was set, we would reach the coordinates stated in the journal just after sunset. I tried to carry on as normal during the day and not think about the horrors that awaited us this evening but it was futile. The prospect that I may end up as Elgin's next meal was unsettling to say the least. The relentless rain hammering on the windows that day intensified the inauspicious feelings growing in my gut.

The rain had stopped by the time we got to Croxley. Whether or not this would turn out to be a good omen or not was yet to be seen. The woods were dark and unwelcoming; the mud thick beneath our feet. The fingers of tree branches dripped water like blood that spattered on our heads and for a moment I questioned the sanity of what we were about to do. Then I remembered that the future of mankind was at stake, secrecy about the project must remain intact. We were here to ensure that nobody had discovered Elgin or any of his work, just as other geocachers had done before us and many would do after us.

Negotiating our way through the woods proved to be problematic because there was no clear path for us to follow as promised. According to the stories, there should have been a "breadcrumb" trail left by Elgin to show the way but it appears that time has devoured them. Fearing that we were going round in circles, we retraced our steps to where we started. I called a friend, codename Smokeypugs, as I knew that they had undertaken this task before. Though his words were cryptic, his message was clear, we had to persevere in our search for Elgin, we were close, so very close. With a feeling of foreboding, we continued on our quest, still unsure about what we would find so deep in to the woods. And then we got separated.

The journey home was pensive, each of us lost in our own thoughts. I know now that nothing could have prepared us for what we saw that night. The smell, the sound, the sight of a man that once was. It will haunt my nightmares forever more. My encounter with Dr. Elgin invokes feelings of empathy as well as disgust and horror. It is imperative that the world does not learn of his whereabouts; if the virus ever got out it would mean the end of the world as we know it.

I am getting a little concerned now as Nigel's health doesn't seem to be improving…"

One Year Already?

One year ago today, I found my very first geocache called Woodland Walk and so started the slippery slope towards - a healthy(?) - addiction! I am still far from being an expert cacher, however I no longer consider myself a newby. So, here are my top five highlights from the past year...

Geoblogging Fun

I started this blog and I was featured in GAGB's online Seeker magazine. This is a big deal for me as I am in no way a literary genius; that's Nigel's talent, just take a look at the log he wrote for this cache! People do read this blog though and I receive some wonderful comments about it for which I am hugely grateful for.

A Respectable Record

I have found 355 caches so far; not a huge number but not too shabby either. It's not all about the numbers for Nigel and I though, we have as much fun going out for a day to find one or two caches than we do on a day where we find twenty or so. Ultimately, we have found a way to get outside, find new interesting places and spend more time together. I do like to look at my stats though so here are a few of my favourites:

• Cache found with most favourite points: The Tin Pan Alley Band 1231 FP
• Oldest cache found: View From Coombe Hill hidden 14/01/2001
• Owned cache with the most favourite points: Buffy vs. Faith 4 FP
• My first FTF: Dora the Explorer #3 - Tree found 06/06/2014

Eventful Events

As well as numerous local events - mainly BBH (Beds, Bucks & Herts Geocachers) events - Nige and I attended our first Mega event, The Halloween Mega 2014. You can read about the fun we had at this event in one of my previous posts, Mega Mud, Mega Monsters and a Mega Event. We also attended a CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event with a bit of a difference called Cache In, Tree In - Escapade 2014/15. We joined many cachers, as well as locals, in planting some trees in the Forest of Marston Vale. I'm not talking a few trees here and there; a few hundred trees were planted altogether. When we were done that day, it struck me that I would probably not live long enough to see all these trees develop into a thriving forest. It truly was a humbling moment.

Becoming a Cache Owner

"TFTC"

When I first started caching, I never realised how frustrating/disappointing/unhelpful those four simple letters can be until I became a CO. I always make the time and effort to write interesting logs for my finds now. This past year, I have hidden four caches now; two traditionals, one mystery and one multi cache. Oh yes, I also hosted my first event on Pi Day this year which seemed to be a success (although, I think the lure of a souvenir helped with that). It was well attended and it was much easier to organise than I thought it would be.

My aim going forward is to own different types of hides; I am currently working on a Letterbox Hybrid and am hoping to submit it for publishing soon.

New Friends

This time last year, I never imagined that I would meet so many new people, let alone actually make some new friends! This would never have happened if it were not for the Facebook group called Beds, Bucks & Herts Geocachers. They are such a friendly bunch; a little cake obsessed... but I love cake!

My first year of geocaching was memorable in many ways and I hope to make many new memories over the years to come. Until next time...

FTF: Fudged That Find!

When a new cache gets published on Geocaching.com, I don't go rushing out to find it. If you have premium membership to Geocaching.com, you can set it so you receive email notifications when a new cache is published. I have set it up for a radius of only 5 miles from my home location. Even so, I don't tend to go out to claim FTF (First to Find) unless the cache is less than half a mile from my current location... I'm just not that motivated to make the effort. I have been caching for nearly a year now and my FTF count is a grand total of two caches; one found by chance and the other found practically on my doorstep!

Having said that, I do sometimes like to run a search on Project GC - a nifty little site that can perform all sorts of wonderful geocaching tasks for you including profile stats and challenge checkers amongst others - for unfound caches. This last week, I found one such cache that was published on March 10th and had yet to be found. It is a Mystery (aka Puzzle) cache called In the Footsteps of Sgt Palmer by cachers bill&ben. As I perused the cache page, I felt I had a good chance of getting FTF on this one even though it was 20 miles away from home so started work on solving over the coming week.

I failed to get FTF, I was so very close but was beaten to it at the last minute. For a brief moment, I was a little gutted when I got the notification that someone else had found it... who wouldn't be? The epic adventure I had finding this cache totally made up for it though.

The log that I wanted to post for this cache was too long so have decided to post it here instead and is as follows:

Mission debrief by Agent K

Monday
Access to PGC is possible again after Pi Day fiasco. Have performed a search for incomplete missions. Will start work on following Sgt Palmer's footsteps soon. No other agents have found it yet and it's been out for a while, so haste is needed.

Thursday
It took a lot of patience but after identifying the cypher in the video, I painstakingly wrote it down and decrypted it. Now awaiting confirmation that I have the correct coords. Still, no other agents have completed this mission. Am monitoring the situation carefully.

Friday
Morning - Received email confirming I have coordinates correct. Today is the day. A quick check of my field kit and I can set off.

Midday - Arrived in WGC, I am unfamiliar with the area however my GPSr has adequate maps and the mobile network coverage is good enough that I didn't need to find a wifi hotspot. It's a bright sunny day, wishing I had left my big coat in the car now as I am starting to get hot. The coords have led me to a beautiful area of WGC but there are civilians everywhere out enjoying the warm weather. Fortunately, there's nobody at the coords so I make contact with Commander Ross and await further instruction.

Early afternoon - I have arrived at the next location but had an encounter with a man in a wheelchair on the way here that delayed me slightly. At first I thought it may have been an enemy agent when he stopped me in the street, however he just wanted to tell me how beautiful I was and that my smile had made his day. After a few minutes, he let me on my way and I continued on to gather the information needed to find the next location.

Mid afternoon - I'm feeling pretty hopeless now. I may not complete my FTF mission. I went wrong with the numbers; the location I derived from them was clearly incorrect, they took me to a stable yard. I have returned to the bus station and am sitting on a bench awaiting back up. I sent a message to HQ on my way back here to double-check my numbers; the reply confirmed my suspicions... I only had two correct numbers.

Late afternoon - Agent N has arrived which has given me renewed optimism. We make a great team so hopefully we can solve this. We are going to visit a couple of nearby locations to go over the numbers and will then go for dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant where we can reassess the information.

Evening - By the time dinner had finished we had some likely coords put together. We messaged HQ for confirmation however, time was of the essence so we headed out without it. We had yet to receive a reply when we got to the coords, although as we scouted the area, it soon became clear that this was not the correct place either. Have decided to head home and try again tomorrow.

Saturday

Morning - No notification yet that any agents have intercepted the cache. I have received a message from HQ confirming all but two of our numbers are correct. More frustrating however, is that I have to go to my day job today. It is important to maintain my cover. I will rendezvous with Agent N at 18:00hrs when we will head back out to WGC. Agent N has worked on the numbers today, we are feeling confident.

Evening - Rendezvous aborted for now. I received notification half an hour before I finished work that the cache had been located by other agents. Fortunately they are friendlies so the cache is still safe. They have left a TB to be moved on. Our mission is still active though but there is less urgency now.

Sunday

Morning - We were feeling "Chirpy" this morning. The coords that Agent N had derived yesterday looked good on the satellite images so we headed out to search for our next instructions. It was another beautiful day with the sun shining and few clouds in the sky. We found parking near the coords and also found many civilians in the area, these were mainly dog walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Stealth would definitely be needed if we weren't to compromise the cache location. The GPSr picked up the info needed for the final location; a surge of excitement and relief went through me. When we got to GZ, we had to wait for a few dog walkers and a jogger to pass before we started our search. Coast clear, we soon found the location of the cache. We took it away from GZ to open as more civilians were coming into sight; could not risk this falling into enemy hands. We left our mark and took the TB left by Ed2Ed.

This was most definitely a challenging mission and is not one to be undertaken lightly. It requires patience, tenacity and stealth. Enemies may lurk at every corner. Thank you bill&ben at HQ for your assistance whilst I was in the field, it was greatly appreciated. I will mark this cache with a FP and urge all friendly agents to accept this mission if they can.

 MISSION COMPLETE

THIS IS SPARTA! My 300th Find!

Two caches is what I needed to find today to reach my milestone 300 finds. Two. That's easy. At least, that's what I thought when I woke up that morning lunchtime.

Today we were headed to Aston Clinton to find a simple traditional cache that would take me to 299 finds and a Wherigo called Rothschild Footprint that would be my 300th find.

Having been to a house party the night before meant Nige and I didn't set out until gone lunchtime. Parking at the suggested spot for the Wherigo, we headed off for a nearby traditional cache before starting my milestone cache. We decided to take the long way round as it was such a nice day - if a lot cold - and walked along the river rather than the roads. As we walked along the footpath, admiring the houses and their gardens that backed onto the picturesque little river, it started to dawn on me that having a cup of tea before heading out was not a clever idea. Tea goes straight through me.

The first cache of the day was Alley-way treasure; a seemingly straightforward traditional located in - you guessed it - an alleyway. We got to the alleyway and followed the GPSr to where GZ should be. It took us about halfway through the alley. Looking around this spot, there was no possible place to hide a cache. We figured that the coords must be out so looked at previous logs for a clue. They were all saying what we thought, that the cache was anything up to 70ft away for some people.

I took a look at the hint. It was quite cryptic. I have a talent for cryptic crosswords though so figured out the meaning of that easily. We started our search but felt a little awkward as it was right next to someone's home; in fact, I was framed by their window at one point as I looked around.

We looked all over and still couldn't find the cache. I needed this find though so tried one last thing; I put a message out on the BBH group saying 'I was at GZ, couldn't find the cache, had anyone in the group found it before?' Thankfully, Smokeypugs came to our rescue. Unfortunately, they only confirmed what we already suspected. We had the right location and were looking in the right spot; the cache just wasn't there. With no other caches for this area loaded on my GPSr - yes, I've learnt my lesson, be prepared - I had to resort to my phone. A quick search on c:geo and some suggestions from Smokeypugs, we were soon on our way to one of the Aylesbury Ring caches.

AR11 Mandarin - Stablebridge Road is one of many caches that make up the Aylesbury Ring series. A circuit that is split into seven sections; each one named after a species of duck. I was a bit reluctant to go for this one as I really want to do this series and would have preferred to do each section all together. However, time was getting away from us, we still had the Wherigo to do and this was the nearest cache to us.

We found our way to GZ easily and before we could get to searching, we had to wait for a few muggles to pass. After a glance up and down the way to make sure the coast was clear, we got stuck in. Searching all the obvious spots revealed nothing but then I spotted something a bit odd. I took a closer look but it still appeared to be a dead end. I thought I would have a fiddle anyway and to my delight, the log book was revealed.

Whilst I was disappointed that we DNFd the last cache resulting in us doing this one, I was pleased that we got to find this one. It has given us a taster of the rest of the series and I am itching to tackle it now (hopefully when the days get longer).

We had lost a lot of time on the previous two caches so it was late afternoon by the time we reached the starting point of Rothschild Footprint. Having successfully completed a Wherigo before at the Halloween Mega, I thought that this would be easy. Quite clearly, one done does not make one an expert!

I sometimes like to sing when I am out caching, on the walk between hides. This time however, as we made our way to the start of my 300th cache, I had the sudden urge to shout "This is Sparta!" much to Nige's chagrin.

I opened the Wherigo app on my phone and started the cartridge for this cache. I started moving about, trying to find the spot where the next stage would pop up but couldn't get it to work. Nige thought it may be my (not so) smart phone so suggested using his Mensa grade Galaxy Note complete with bells and whistles and super duper 4G. That didn't work either. It was getting colder and darker as we walked around in circles. As my mind started wandering to a place where there were luxury toilets with heated seats, I started idly pressing things on my phone only to find the next stage pop up! Hooray!

Finally, we headed off to find each stage of this Wherigo. As the time was getting on, Nige wanted to pick up the pace a bit. I have short legs though that look like Droopy Dog's when I try to walk fast, plus I wanted to read the bits of history that were coming up on my phone as we passed through each stage. By some miracle - read Nige keeping an eye on me and getting frustrated with me - I managed to walk and read at the same time without meandering into the road.

A couple of the stages required us to collect a couple of dates as we went along. We had to use a little ingenuity for one of these as it was so dark we couldn't make it out. We used a bit of paper and a pencil to take a rubbing, which worked really well. It wasn't until we neared the end of the Wherigo that I remembered reading on the cache page that we didn't need those numbers any more to find the cache.

After visiting various cool places around Aston Clinton, we found ourselves walking (in the dark) through a park and a field. I couldn't quite keep up with Nige and managed to lose sight of him for a few moments when, looking up from the phone, my glasses steamed up. I called out that I couldn't see and ran blindly towards his voice as he replied "Keep up you donut!"

We eventually arrived at GZ and found the final location. I am not going to say anything more, so as not to spoil it for future finders. All I will say is that even though I don't like spiders, I went there and I did it!

This was an awesome cache to find for number 300. I loved the Wherigo - once we figured out how to work it - and I loved the final location. I urge everyone to give this one a go... or any Wherigo for that matter. Thank you to happy hunter hp20 for adopting this awesome cache and keeping it from being archived.

Festive Fun and Frivolity

'Tis the season when many a fair-weather geocacher packs away their GPSr for the winter, the inboxes of cache owners get a well deserved break as logs on hides begin to dwindle and everyone begins to get ready for the onslaught of Christmas. Only the hardiest of cachers will venture out at this time of year and, as I have discovered myself, this can be a magical time for geocaching adventurers.

I haven't blogged for a while as I have been busy as of late; demand for my time has been divided amongst family and friends, work, the forthcoming festivities and an ageing dog. However, I have made time for a little caching where I can, whether it be solving puzzle caches, finding caches or attending events. I won't bore you with all the details though, instead I shall tell you about a few of the highlights.

Before I do though, if I don't get the chance to blog between now and next year I hope you all have a...

Zreel Puevfgznf naq n Unccl Arj Lrne! *

All For a Good Clause

The most recent event Nige and I attended was BBH#84 ~In spitting distance of all 3 counties, held at the Red Lion pub in Dagnall, Hertfordshire. We had a great time at the event catching up with some (now) familiar faces and meeting some new ones. We have been to a few BBH events now but this was - so far- the most fun one we have been to. Alibags did an amazing job of organising this event and it was, as is usual for any BBH event, very well attended. 

Of course, there was plenty of talk of geocaching but also the event organiser had put together a few games of pass-the-parcel, something that many of us have not played since we were children. Prizes included boxes of chocolates and the coordinates of a yet-to-be-published geocache, the winner of which would be able to claim the coveted title of FTF.

This event was not only special because it was the last BBH event before Christmas and New Year, but also because a fellow cacher called IB Searching - who is the first geocaching friend I made - was there with a mission to raise some money for charity. Before I tell you how he was going to achieve this let me show you a picture of him...

 That's a mighty impressive crumb catcher he has there.

"Following numerous queries about when I'm going to have a shave, I have decided that it is time that my 'Santa's Whiskers', as someone dubbed them, come off" said IB Searching and he would be doing it "in aid of The Brainstrust Charity."

The pub wouldn't allow the beard to come off inside the premises - which is understandable as it is a food establishment - so we all bundled outside to strip Santa of his beard.

The transformation was remarkable and fortunately not a drop of blood was spilt as nearly everyone had a go at chopping bits off.

With the face fur gone, we retreated back to the warmth and our drinks to continue the party. Everyone dug deep that evening and a lot of money was raised for charity, so congratulations to IB Searching, I'm guessing a scarf is high on his Christmas wish list now though.

If you would like to know more about Brainstrust then please follow this link. If you are feeling generous and would like to help IB Searching's fundraising attempt then please click here.

If you would like to see how we mutilated Santa, then there is video evidence!

Oh Deer!

Like I said earlier, I haven't been out caching as much as I would have liked to over the past few months. With the shorter days, I have found it better to go out and find single caches here and there rather than the trails that we were doing in the summer months. Although the cold weather can easily dissuade me from going outside, I have found that the different sights and colours that Mother Nature can paint at this time of year make it all worth it. 

It was late afternoon when Nige and I arrived in Woburn, Bedfordshire to find a multi cache called "Dear Abi" located on the stately grounds of Woburn Abbey. We parked in the free car park as suggested and started our walk up towards the Abbey and Gardens. We have visited the Abbey before but have only ever driven through the surrounding parts until that day.

We got to the ticket booth and as we were unsure whether the hunt for the cache would take us away from the "free" footpaths, we paid a small fee to gain entry. It was only later that we realised that you only need to pay to gain access to the Abbey gardens and the tea shop, neither of which we had the time to visit after finding the cache.

As we walked around, the sun was beginning to go down. It didn't take us long to find the first stage of this multi. The going was very muddy in places but the views were amazing and I got some great photos of the deer. We couldn't believe how many of them there were.

When we approached GZ of the final stage, there was a moment when we thought we weren't going to be able to get to it as there was a huge herd of deer right where we wanted to look. We waited for a while and eventually they moved on. 

At this point my GPSr began to play up (turns out the batteries were beginning to die) so we had a little difficulty finding the cache. There were only a few possible locations to hide a cache though so we spread out and, using the hint, found the cache in the end. We had a wonderful time finding this cache, it is such a beautiful area and it was great to see all the deer up close. We even saw some reindeer which only served to remind how fast the festive season had crept up on us!

London Baby!

It wouldn't be Christmas for us without a trip to London. This year had the added bonus that I was now a geocacher! Despite my best intentions though - pocket query of a thousand caches downloaded, a few puzzles solved and a couple of select caches as recommended by some fellow cachers - I managed to find a grand total of two! And not even very good ones at that! Ah well, there is always next year. I managed to snap some good photos though and it's always fun to visit Hyde Park at Christmas.

* Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mega Mud, Mega Monsters and a Mega Event

A couple of weekends ago, Nigel and I attended our first Mega-Event Cache and with it came a few more firsts for us that weekend. The 25th October saw us heading off to Wakerley Great Wood near Corby for the annual Halloween Mega 2014. A Mega-Event Cache is an Event Cache that is attended by 500+ people. This year, 1,339 adults and children descended on Wakerley Great Woods for a day of "Creepy Caches & Halloween Hides" and with over four and a half thousand favourite points given to the various caches by attendees, I think it is safe to say that everyone had a mega time that weekend.

With a potential 64 caches to find during the event, Nige and I were set to break our record for "most finds in a day". Okay, so this wasn't going to be a difficult record to break - our previous total was only seventeen - and the caches themselves were not going to be difficult hides, but we still found it a challenge. Not including the event itself, we found and logged 61 caches that day including 10 lab caches, a letterbox cache, an earthcache, a mystery cache and a multi cache!

It took us twelve hours and about fifteen miles of walking. I got covered in mud, I busted my knee, and I managed to smack my head pretty hard on a branch in the dark, mainly because of my stupid decision to wear this during the evening:

Never again!

At first it seemed like the Best Costume in the World Ever until we ventured out into the dark forest; I found that I couldn't see a damned thing and kept standing on my beard when ducking under branches. Despite all that we had an amazing weekend.

I nicknamed this little chap Bones

Attending an event of this magnitude shows just how diverse the geocaching population is. Young or old, two-legged humans or four-legged canines, alive or undead... we met them all. As we walked around from cache to cache, we kept bumping into people we had only just met that day and by the evening our brief "Howdies" to these strangers evolved into friendly banter and conversations of shared experiences. There was a sense of camaraderie that you rarely get at large events outside the geocaching world.

Everyone was so friendly; we had help from and gave help to many people throughout the day. We joined up with a group of zombies to help them solve the mystery cache, they were the slow moving George A. Romero kind though and we were on a mission so left them behind after a while. We had help from another group of cachers to find the multi cache and we worked together with others on the lab caches.

Heroic moment of the whole day though goes to Nigel and another man (whose name I didn't get). We were blessed with fantastic weather that day, being October I was expecting it to be either raining and/or cold, but within the woods the temperature was moderate enough that we didn't really need our jackets. However, the preceding week had been a bit of a wet one which transformed the area into swamp-like conditions that even Shrek would refuse to inhabit.

"You've got to be kidding!"

We had met a few people at the event that day that were in wheelchairs and mobility scooters and, all credit to them, they were getting about the woods remarkably well considering. However, conditions were anything but improving as darkness descended. We were walking along a particularly sloppy footpath when we heard a bit of a commotion behind us. We looked back to see a group of cachers that we had met earlier in the day. One of them was a lady in a mobility scooter, except it wasn't so mobile at the moment, it was wheel spinning in the mud and leaning precariously to one side. Just as the woman was about to receive a complementary Wakerley Wood face pack, Nigel and the unnamed man leapt into action through shin high mud and guided scooter and rider to sturdier ground!

Now onto the caches. Every single one of the unique cache containers were an amazing find and the organisers of the event, The Halloween Crew, deserve every single favourite point and then some for the effort they put into them all. There are too many to write about here so I shall just tell you about my favourite day and night caches from the event.

Spitting Sid - day cache.

It was approaching dinner time for me when we came across this cache so I didn't pay much attention to the name of it. Ground Zero was slightly of the beaten track, as were most of the caches throughout the day.

In my excitement at finding the container to be an ammo can - it's always a bit special to find one of these in the field - I rushed to open it up only for Spitting Sid to live up to his name! There was a mechanism inside the box that when opened caused Sid to squirt water right at his unsuspecting victim. Much to Nigel's amusement, I not only got wet retrieving the log but stupidly got another soaking putting it back!

Deady Bears Picnic - day cache.

This was the last of the day caches that we found. Whoever created this beautifully gruesome piece of brilliance has a twisted mind! I loved it! It's probably a good thing that all the caches were replaced with Tupperware containers at midnight; can you imagine coming across this whilst in the woods out on your own? You wouldn't want to stick around for long that's for sure. The log book accompanying this creepy little dude was concealed in his cup. Fortunately, this one had no nasty surprises when you opened it up.

MEGA HERTZ - night cache.

This was my second favourite cache of the whole day. A cache with a shocking twist! - I'm sorry, that was a terrible joke. This genius piece of engineering was far from terrible though. There was a box on the side of the chair that contained the log book. When opened, the chair started to 'charge up' and everyone nearby took a nervous step backwards. As the sound reached it's crescendo the poor soul in the chair began shaking violently and lit up like a lantern!

Even though this cache has made an appearance at previous Halloween Megas, it still remains a firm favourite amongst event goers.

MEGAPHOBIA - night cache.

As with most of the caches we seeked out during the day, there was a small crowd of cachers surrounding this one as we approached. Being small, I could not see what was up ahead, I didn't need to see it though to know that this find was going to be special.

As I wound my way through the gathering of people to get a look at the cache, a chilling sound arose from the darkness ahead. There were gasps and nervous laughter from all around me. I emerged from the crowd, looked up and stood in awe at what I could see above me. About 20 feet up in the trees was a giant spider hanging from it's web. The log book was inside the skull that you can see at the bottom of the photo.

We couldn't see how the sound and movement was activated, we guessed that it was when someone attempted to retrieve the log book. I kind of wish that there had been no other cachers there when we found this one as I bet this would have been super creepy to find on your own.

This was by far the most impressive cache for me at the event, not just for the fact that it was the most monstrously nightmarish hide there, but also because of the time, effort and skill to put something like this together. I have heard that it took about 3 hours just to put it in place!

That is definitely not something you would like to come across in the woods at the dead of night on your own! Except if you're a horror fan like me and think that, although scary, it would be awesome!

The above videos were filmed by Adam of caching trio the3maslankas. Please take a little time to visit his youtube channel by clicking here.

Overall, Nige and I had an amazing weekend, even though we couldn't move the next morning because we ached so much! If you have never been to the Halloween Mega Event before then I urge you to go next year... we definitely will be.

Happy 7th Birthday Church Micro!

Seven years ago today, the very first cache in the Church Micro series was published. Today, there are over 6,700 caches in the series and that number will undoubtedly continue to grow. To find out more about this series then check out the Church Micro Website.

Many cachers will have been out in the field today searching for a Church Micro, myself included. The one I went for belongs to a couple of caching buddies of mine who go by the caching name Smokeypugs. Their Church Micro can be found in Edlesborough and is called Church Micro 3410...Edlesborough. My log for this cache turned into a small novel so I had to edit it a bit for the cache page unfortunately because of the character limit. What follows is my log entry in it's entirety.

Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Edlesborough

I woke up this morning to find that the internet was down in our area. That meant I couldn't access gc.com to look for a cache to find today. Fortunately, I have been looking at different Church Micros recently to try to increase my finds of them and get one of those cool badges for my profile.

I fired up the app on my phone and going from memory scanned the map to choose a CM to find today. I picked out this cache as I have been meaning to do it for a while. It is only a short drive from where I live, so I grabbed my rucksack and jumped in the car, dragging my muggle brother along too for the ride.

We headed into Edlesborough coming from Eaton Bray direction; as we drove into the village, we spotted the tower of the church at the top of the hill. It looked quite impressive as it jutted up out of the surrounding trees high up on that hill. We turned into a street opposite the church and parked up. Having no internet at home meant I couldn't download the .gpx file to my GPSr so I had to use the app on my phone instead.

Stages one and two were completed easily, we then followed the compass round to stage three. Turning the corner of the church we were shoved towards the edge of a rather steep looking slope by the immense wind that was accelerating like a slip stream off the wall of the church tower! I was not expecting that but I managed to stop myself tumbling down the hill like a ragdoll.

As we faced the tower, the biting wind continued to battle with us. To get some shelter we ran against the wind towards the chuch and stood with our backs against the wall. For each question of stage three we had to run a few steps away from the church, turn round to figure out the answer and then run back to the wall to note down the numbers. Back and forth we went until we got stuck on the last question.

"How many foils are there...?" I said to my brother, reading from the cache page "What's a foil Matt?"

"I haven't a clue Kel" he replied.

We looked at each other with puzzled expressions then ran out of the shelter of the wall to look up at the window. By this time, I was having trouble seeing well as my eyes were watering from the wind and from laughing so much! It was beginning to feel like we were attached to the church by bungee ropes. We couldn't be sure what a foil was just by looking so we pinged back to the church wall. It was time for a little help.

Hoping I had a phone signal way up here, I sent a message to Smokeypugs saying "I'm at your CM in Edlesborough. What the hell is a foil? Lol". A few seconds later I got a message back telling me what to look for (thanks G for the help). Fighting the wind, we pushed off the wall, looked back at the church and found the last answer we needed. Seeking shelter against the wall for the last time, we worked out the final coordinates and, with cold, numbing fingers, punched the numbers into the phone.

Before heading off for GZ, we stopped for a selfie in front of the church and saluted the wind (a two finger salute!) We got to the bottom of the hill and as if in retaliation, the wind performed a u-turn and blasted us with an icy smack in the face!

Me and my little bro

We were getting quite cold now and the sky look menacing so we scurried down towards the final location hoping a little power walking would warm us up a bit. When my phone indicated that we had arrived at GZ we stopped and took a look around. I couldn't see anything that would be an obvious hiding spot so fumbled about on my phone to bring up the hint. I looked up and immediately spotted the cache. The coordinates were spot on! Well done #1 to Smokeypugs! I pulled on my gardening gloves, retrieved the cache and signed the log. There was no need for stealth as the area was pretty remote with not a muggle in sight. Replacing the cache, I managed to poke myself in the eye on a part of the bush... Ouch! Well done #2 for a neat little cache that is well hidden.

We would loved to have stayed to look at the church more, inside and out, but we were so cold by now that we just wanted to get back home for a cup of Darjeeling. Heading back up the driveway of the church I heard a loud noise that made me jump. It was only a car horn but it made a "TAH DAH" sound. With comic timing Matt said "Congratulations! You have found the cache!"

Despite the weather - it is definitely not summer anymore - we had a great time looking for this cache. Our only disappointment being that we had bought along our cameras for some photography practice but it was too cold to stick around. I will definitely be back though as there is a Village Signs cache nearby that is on my to do list. Well done #3 is for the fun time we had and the well thought out virtual stages. This cache gets a favourite point from me.

Earth, Wind and Fire Tacks

There has been a bit of a gap since I last posted as I have been quite busy lately. I have still found time for geocaching though whether it be out finding them, planning for days out or simply solving a few mystery caches. Let me apologise now if this is a bit of a long one, I do hope you read to the end though.

Sunday 12th October was International Earthcache Day. For those of you that don't know:

"An EarthCache is a special geological location people can visit to learn about a unique feature of the Earth. EarthCache pages include a set of educational notes along with coordinates. Visitors to EarthCaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage its resources and how scientists gather evidence. Typically, to log an EarthCache, you will have to provide answers to questions by observing the geological location. For more information about EarthCaches visit http://www.earthcache.org/."

Unfortunately for me, this was the same weekend as the final of the British Touring Car Championship. There was no way I was missing that but I also wanted the souvenir for finding an earthcache on that day.

So, I had to come up with a plan for our weekend away at Brands Hatch Racing Circuit that would have an earthcache squeezed in somewhere along the way. There were a few factors to consider given the time of year - namely, the shortening days and the wonderfully capricious British weather! Time was also a factor; it needed to be somewhere along the route to or from Brands and the D/T rating needed to be reasonably low. This was going to be a 'cache and dash' of sorts. I was a little disappointed at this prospect as I would have liked to have taken the time to appreciate the site of the earthcache I would be visiting, but... Touring Cars!

I had been formulating a plan for a few weeks - which, if you have read one of my previous posts, you will know that this is quite an achievement for me - our weekend away had arrived and I had an earthcache in my sights with two backup caches if my plan fell apart.

The cache I had found was just around the corner from the circuit and as an extra bonus it was a Church Micro. After a bit of research in the week (I love how educational these types of caches are) I had answers for the first two questions, the rest would be ascertained on our visit to the site.

Druids Hill Bend

Whilst sitting in the stands at Brands Hatch on Saturday watching the qualifying races, we discussed tactics for the next day. We decided that we would grab the cache early in the morning before heading back to the track as Inaccuweather told us the weather would be fine. This later proved to be the right decision as it was raining hard and getting dark when we left for home after the racing.

We got up early on Sunday morning. the scene that greeted us outside our hotel was amazing, however I am not a morning person - Nige will definitely attest to that - so I failed to get a photo. Our hotel was situated next to the River Medway; the sky was clear, the air was crisp but floating atop the river was a thick, white cloud of fog like someone had placed a wad of cotton wool on the surface water.

Our chosen cache was Church Micro 2372... West Kingsdown- St Edmund. To find out more about the Church Micro Series, by cacher sadexploration, then please click here. There were two locations that we had to go to for this cache; a motorway bridge over the M20 and the church itself. Thankfully the roads were quiet, so we stopped the car on the bridge en route to the church and I took the required elevation reading without getting out of the car.

We arrived at the church shortly after  and was pleased to find the area muggle free. I got to work gathering the information needed to log the cache, I was still very much asleep at this point - I cannot stress this enough, I do not do mornings - so when a lady materialised in front of me from within the church and asked me if I was here for the Sunday Service my only response was to stare at her blankly with a look of sheer horror on my face!

"I see you're taking notes" she indicated towards the paper and pen I was clutching.

Plausible explanations eluded me. I tried sending psychic 'Help Me!' thoughts to Nigel who was somewhere behind me but that didn't work. I think I mumbled a few words that certainly did not make a coherent sentence. For some reason, it felt like I had been caught doing something naughty, this was a holy place after all. The lady disappeared briefly and returned with something in her hand.

"It's a lovely building isn't it? Here, take this." she said as she handed me a postcard. Bidding us a good day she left us to return to her duties within the church.

After that awkward little moment, I gathered what information I could glean from the church and we headed off to watch some TOCA carnage. In between races, I continued researching chalk hills, flints and scarp slopes until I was confident I had all the right answers to log my find and aquire the souvenir for International Earthcache Day.

My Souvenir

The following weekend Nige and I decided to attempt a night cache. We thoroughly enjoyed the first one we did at Linford Wood and wanted to try one that was a little more challenging. There was one that I have had on my radar for a while now and being nearby in the forest of Ashridge, this was the perfect cache to choose.

I first tried to solve the puzzle part of Spirit of the Teine Sith when I started geocaching back in the summer. I was pretty sure I was looking for the coordinatess in the right place but I couldn't get a hit on geochecker. A couple of weeks ago, I was idly looking through my unsolved puzzles and came across this one again. On closer inspection of my numbers, I realised I had made a monumental mistake. Back onto google I went, making the necessary corrections and this time I got BINGO on geochecker!

Nige and I invited a couple of friends, Aravona and Dynadin, on this outing as it's their first night cache. A friend from the BBH Facebook group, mjcross, joined us for this adventure too. I'm so glad he did as this was only our second night cache and he gave us loads of tips that we never would have thought of like waypointing the markers as we went.

We rendezvoused at a small car park near the start of the trail. There were already a couple of cars there and we pondered as to whether they belonged to  geocachers on the same mission as us or if they belonged to a completely different kind of persons who frequent this forest. There was no movement from the cars and the windows were steam free so we deduced it was the former.

Following the trail was relatively simple. After a while though the trail seemed to go dead. We decided to back track and see if we had taken a wrong turn. Whilst contemplating alternative routes we saw some lights in the distance. Were they the Spirits of the Teine Sith come to guide us? No, it was a group of cachers out searching for the Spirits too. This was a first for Nige and I; we have never come across fellow cachers whilst out before. We had a bit of a chin wag and they kindly confirmed that we were going in the right direction.

Even by day Ashridge can be creepy as Hell!

On we went through the darkness and mud, encountering all sorts of wildlife like deer, beetles, centipedes and spiders! I've been to Ashridge many times during the day but night time transforms it into a different world. Conversation inevitably turned towards horror movies, at which point I realised I was bringing up the rear of the single file we had formed, I was a prime target for any Vorhees wannabes lurking in the darkness, like a shot I ran ahead past the others shouting: 

"It's not safe for me back there... I'm not a virgin!"

After much trekking across some interesting terrain we came to a likely spot for GZ. Whilst looking around for further markers I spotted the well hidden, huge cache. It was great to see it well stocked and in good condition. We signed the log and started back for the car with mjcross leading the way. This was an adventure in itself as, like me, mjcross likes to take the 'direct route'. If the GPSr says I can go straight through that wall, then I'm going straight through that wall!

Overall it took us about 2 hours to locate the cache and get back to the cars. This was an amazing experience and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day, Nige and I went out to Leighton Buzzard to complete a trail of caches called LB Sandpit Series. Even though the difficulty and terrain rating for the caches were low, the wind was blowing hard that day which made the 4.6 mile walk a little extra challenging. The scenic area was completely muggle free and we found the first few caches with ease. Our luck soon changed though.

I usually love doing trails of caches but for the first time since I began geocaching, I became a little fed up and disappointed with this series by the end of it. It wasn't because of the weather, the wind was tolerable as the sun was out and it was quite mild for the middle of October. The walk didn't bother me either; the trail we followed was beautiful with some great views despite the lack of discernible public footpaths at some points. 

I think what frustrated me most was that out of fifteen caches most of them were micros, had no hints and we logged five DNFs. Most of the ones we did find had naked logs - film pots are not waterproof - so most of them were damp or too wet to write on. On the bright side, it has taught me a lesson; if I ever set my own trail, I will use a variety of cache containers and not place a hide just for the sake of placing one to make up numbers along the trail.

I would like to end this post on a happy note so here is a picture of a rainbow that I took at Brands Hatch:

I wonder if there is a geocache at the end of that!