With a difficulty rating of 2/5 I thought this would be a reasonably easy puzzle, but I guess my poor heat-addled brain isn’t up to the task. I thought that perhaps visiting the Bate
Collection early this afternoon might help, but it turns out that they only open at 2pm in the afternoon (by which point I had to get back to work), so I’ve not had any luck yet! Some
day, perhaps!
But be warned: if you plan to visit the collection, they don’t open until 2pm on weekdays.
Paced around for a bit and, I confess, needed the hint before I found this cache. Left the “Signal Football! Tag” travel bug, which just barely fits into the container alongside the log
(apologies to anybody who wants to sign the log but NOT take the TB; you’ll probably need to remove the TB before you can get to the log!).
I’m out in Aylesbury today, so I’ll probably swing by the hashpoint late-morning/early afternoon, by car. Hopefully it’s possible to get to it without climbing through any hedges!
Expedition
I was in Aylesbury this morning for an interview, and I’d discovered last night that a hashpoint had appeared pretty-much right between my home and the place I was visiting. It
was off the major roads by a little way, but the day was beautiful and I relished the opportunity to go for an explore, by ZipCar and on foot. And that’s exactly what I got.
After driving through the village of Ford, I came to the end of a road and the beginning of a private driveway, and found a place to park. The locals looked at me strangely as I found
my bearings and set off up a bridleway. Suddenly, I realised that the hashpoint was off to my right somewhere, so I hacked my way through some trees to get closer to it. The hashpoint
turned out to be pretty-much exactly on the spot of a tree, at the edge of a field. Sadly, the tree was on the otherside of a barbed wire fence, covered in vines, but I was (with some
effort) able to lean far over to “touch” the hashpoint-tree, as shown in the photos.
Later, I got stuck in traffic and almost delivered the ZipCar back late, but just barely made it, vacating the car just as the (very prompt) next occupiers turned up. Phew!
Photos
ZipCar “Seashell”, my trusty ride for today’s expedition
I parked as close as I could before the start of a private road, and took a nearby footpath
“Turn right here”, my GPSr advised, to my horror
It wasn’t as overgrown as I’d thought, until I got close to the fence
Leaning forwards and reaching over at full stretch, I could just-about reach the hashpoint
Almost… just a few… more…
…there! A full stretch through some awfully prickly bushes, but I made it.
Found without difficulty, because the gods of GPS were shining upon me today and I was directed right to the spot. However… there was no log in there: the entire cache was empty!
Muggled, perhaps? Will attach a picture both as proof that I was there and so you can see that I’m not kidding when I claim that this cache is completely empty!
I’d hoped to collect all of the caches in this series today, but alas I was called away while on my way to the second. Great area, though: shall have to come back another time. TFTC!
Took me far too long to work out what I was looking for, here. Like “mandles123”, I even stopped and sat down to have a think about it for a bit. But after I walked away for a bit, and
then walked back towards the GZ again, by GPSr decided that it knew EXACTLY where to go, and lead me right to the cache. Wonderful spot.
Picked up Signal Football! Tag. Shall find him a new home next week.
Hunted for a bit among the nettles, but kept getting interrupted by passing cars and hikers: had to give up after people started looking at me with much suspicion. Maybe another day…
Cycled past this one on previous occasions and had guessed at the hiding place. Was good to see that I was right. Amusingly, the same tool I’d (mis)used to sharpen my pencil, minutes
earlier, proved helpful in extracting the cache from its hiding place…
Decided it was time to find a few more from this lovely series, so came out this way on the way home from work today. Nice easy find. Discovered that the end had come off my pencil,
though, and had to sharpen it using the only tool I had to hand: my keys! Got there in the end; TFTC.
Despite having helped the CO to hunt for hiding spots, it still took me a while to retrieve this one as muggles kept passing by! Got there in the eve. TFTC!
