Coming up to the weekend we knew that a fair few caches had gone missing and it was in need of maintenance on others too. So myself. Kev (Lorri-Ann & Kev), Ash [Monki] & James (pfaffabouters) contacted the c/o's and agreed to do the maintenance for them.
The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation Series
http://coord.info/GC21RZV
A series of 110 caches over approximately a 14 mile walk along the canal. There are other caches on route and a few with a slight diversion.
Today. Myself, Ash & James met up with Kev by #110 and then all jumped into Kev's car to get to #1. There is free car parking close by, so we left Kev's car here to pick up once getting back to the other end.
We were greeted by caching friends Mel & Ray who I have met twice before with both times being at Piratemania. They assembled a table together and gave us all coffee & biscuits before sending us on our way to start the walk.
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| At the start of the walk |
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| Looking away from cache #1 |
The walk was very nice which we all enjoyed but it was a shame due to the state of all the caches, we had to replace logs at almost all of them and there were many more missing than we anticipated.
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| Low tide I guess |
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| There we lots of boats moored up. |
I think we would have all been gutted had we not agreed to do the maintenance as it really is a lovely walk. It can get very muddy in places but today we hardly encountered any.
The weather was good with no rain at all and a perfect and comfortable temperature to walk at.
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| A lock on the route. |
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| We passed lots of weirs |
At least now the series is fully maintained and I believe that Mel & Ray are hoping to adopt the series which was originally theirs.
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| Kev & Ash looking for a cache |
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| Still smiling |
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| Lovely area |
Once getting back to first car we drove back to start of series and said our farewells to Kev before setting off to Southend on Sea for some fish and chips. We stopped off at a couple of Church Micro's on the way and then bagged another challenge cache from the Little Quest series.
LQ:ESSEX - West Wood Ho!
Set in West Woods was the latest LQ cache to be added to my collection, I think thats 21 found so far.
We parked up opposite and entered the pitch black woods. It's so much fun caching in woods at night but unfortunately we didn't hear any strange noises to scare us. We bagged one cache on the way to this one but struggled with this at first and had to resort to a spoiler pic.
After a few minutes James spotted the tree it was hidden in and Ash made the retrieval.
So back to the car and off to Southend on Sea where we had fish and chips and grabbed a handful of seafront caches.
We were all pretty tired after that as we had walked around 20 miles today in total, so we headed back to Chelmsford to our room for the night.
We all slept really well but were all well zonked from a hectic day. We hit McD's for breakfast and decided to grab a couple more Church Micro's and then hit a couple of series on the route home.
We settled on doing 2 of Isaakwilsons in which we could do without moving the car.
Lowick and Back
Lowick and Back is a series of 35 caches set along Bridleways, Public footpaths, Byways & quiet country lanes. There is also a Church Micro that can be picked up in Lowick.
If the series was done on its own it is approx 5.5 miles.
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| Off we go again |
Lyveden and Back
Lyveden and Back is a series loop of 36 caches (plus 6 other caches en-route), starting at the historic Lyveden New Bield, taking you around Lyveden way towards Wadenhoe,before returning you through Fermyn Woods to Lyveden once more.
If doing series on its own it is just under 7 miles.
We began the walk at #13 Lowick and back and took the very muddy route in reverse order to #5 before joining the Lyveden and Back series at #17.
Lyveden and back was hardly muddy at all and really is a fantastic walk. We all agreed that this is one of the nicest walks we have done over this way. We resumed the walk from #17 going round in normal order and just diverted as necessary.
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| Lyveden New Bield |
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| Lowick Church |
It was great seeing Lyveden New Bield, a National Trust property on the walk and the woods were really nice....I love the woodland bits on a trail.
We carried on around series and after completing #16 we rejoined the much muddier Lowick and back.
As we hit the last straight back to the car we caught up with Brigstock Dolphins and had some nice geochat, we even dnf'ed a cache together.
Upon returning back to the car at around 4pm we decided enough was enough and had a nice drive back home.
I very much enjoyed the weekend and despite 4 dnf's today, we still found a total of over 200 caches this weekend.
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