Great Leap Forwards...

Motorway Mayhem M4 J16: Come into the garden Maude (traditional cache)


Motorway Mayhem J7 M3 (Traditional (nano) cache)


Motorway Mayhem M3 J5/4a Fleet Services North (traditional cache)


Motorway Mayhem Fleet Services North (traditional cache)


History Cache: 1497? (virtual cache)


JAG001: A cache with a view (traditional cache)


Jag-in-a-bag (traditional cache)


Sulhamstead Lock (traditional cache)


Garston Lock (multicache)


Write in the log (multicache)


Travelbugs (x4) "Sassy", "Bettrina", "These Boots", "I'm Number one"

"Magic" Geocoin


"Mayma, Russia" Unite for Diabetes travelbug


The last few weeks has raised the question of whether or not I would hit the 100 caches in a year target (i.e. by August 31). After an incredible first few months of 2007, things went a bit quiet stuck in the 70s.

However, I had some long-standing business to conclude in Guildford this week. It would be fair to say that I devoted inordinately more time to my geocaching plan than to the formal business which was the raison d' etre of the trip in the first place.


Pic 1: view of Guildford from the North Downs way. Note the Cathedral.

My formal business was conducted in the university buildings just behind the cathedral.

Taken on new Sony Eriksson K800i.

I left the house at around 5.30am and was keen to get off the mark early. M4 J16 cache was perfect start - a couple of mins off the M4 in the vicinity of a garden centre near Swindon. Dropped a travelbug, and took a travelbug originating from the USA that wishes to see "all of God's creation". I have logged a runcible note for the TB owner which TCA and Maalie may approve of.

I could have done any permutation of 5 caches on the M3 between Winchester and Fleet. My decision was made for me by a calamatous driving error on the outskirts of Winchester. I went all the way round the roundabout and ended up going back up the A34 the same way as I'd come down!

Pic 2: "Keskerdh Kernow" memorial stone with my trusty "Geko 101" - the "Trabi" of GPS systems - also in view

Ended up doing a nano (extremely small) cache which was magnetically fixed onto a roadsign near Basingstoke (M3 J7). It was a bugger to get to but very satisfying to complete.

Next stop shortly afterwards was Fleet Services. Two easy caches - one micro behind advert hoarding, one (including a geocoin) in woodlands beyond the service area. Crossed over the footbridge to try the southbound side, but the micro was not to be found.

In summary - I reached Guildford with 4 caches under my belt, up to 89 altogether. The formal business didn't take very long. After a quick buffet lunch with my friend, I headed up to the ridgeway outside of Guildford which looks out over the city. This is part of the North Downs National Trail - so I was now in "enemy" Sensesless Thing country for the first time in my geocaching life.

Pic.3: Classic "Altoids" tin, which keeps foreign coins as part of a themed cache (Jag in a bag) on the North Downs near Guildford

Three caches were planned here and I got all 3 in little over 45 minutes. The first cache was of most interest to me. It was a "virtual cache" (History cache 1497), a commemorative stone placed in 1997 in honour of the 500th anniversary of the Cornish March - "Keskerdh Kernow" - on London which was repealed by the English army. Incidentally I list Cornish links on my sidebar (on the right and down a bit) under the same title "Keskerdh Kernow".

Found the two other regular caches on the ridge easily enough and made the descent back to the car to start the next phase of the journey. one of these caches, Jag in a bag, included a classic Altoids tin (beloved foodstuff of Gareth Hoskins, IGES) for foreign coin swaps. Anyway, it was back to Fleet Services for another crack at the M3 southbound cache - again no luck. Was starting to attract suspiscious glances so I quit and headed up to Reading.

No luck either at Reading services (M4 Westbound) where a muggle was guarding the lampost where a small metal cache was supposed to be hidden. On, then, to the Kennet and Avon Canal - and what a finish!

Pic. 4: Flower arrangements on a narrowboat on the Kennet and Avon canal (note the sleeping sombrero guy)

Once I'd arrived, there were four caches. Two regular and two "multicache" which depend on aquiring a set of numerical clues. Funnily enough, I missed out on the first (and suppoosedly easiest) regular cache (M4 J12). Again, I was put off by the beady muggle eyes of a canal boatman staring up- at me through the narrowboat window.

Managed to regain momentum with a regular cache at Sulhampstead Lock. Then back to the car park and the canal milage post where the numerical clues for both multicaches were to be found. Had to wade chest-high in nettles for the Garston Lock cache. I grabbed 3 travelbugs here.

Pic. 5: Rescuing travelbugs from the nettle-bound Gaston Lock multicache. NB the wacky pink one hadn't been properly logged for nearly 8 months.

But the real highlight was "Write in the log", the second multicache on the Banks of the Kennet and Avon. I took two wrong turnings. Again, lots of nettles and grass to wade through. But a very creative cache hide - one of the best I've seen - the cache was neatly slotted into a "jigsaw" of log pieces which had to be removed to reveal the cache. Unfortunately contained one of the ugliest travel bugs I've seen today - a pair of plastic legs called "these boots".

Pic. 6: Ingeneous hiding place for the "Write in the log" multicache.
In conclusion - a grand day out which had the air of a "geocaching stag party" about it given that caching is about to slip very rapidly down the list of life's priorities. Only 5 to go before I can activate that 100 finds geo-acheivement coin which has been sitting in my desk drawers since my 50th find...