The Plan
Cambridge CacheAthon Part 2 – my second visit, having done the first couple of loops away back on Good Friday.
The objective today was two-fold. Firstly, I wanted to complete the loops of the CacheAthon through Caldecote, Toft, Comberton, Hardwick and Bourn. Secondly, and more importantly, I wanted to finally finish off the “Days Found” matrix. This day was my final day of the 366 available. The main reason I had this one leftover was because I failed the previous year. That day I simply forgot I needed to go find a cache. No failed finds – I just miscounted and by the time I realised I’d already missed the day. Sunday League error.
How did that happen? Away back in 2013 I had been off for a day of 100+ finds in Northamptonshire on June 15th (a Saturday) and believed that I’d got the following Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to do. Whilst out caching on Tuesday I noticed I’d actually got the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do. So basically I’d just missed a day through not paying attention. It sat there on my matrix grid along with March 26th looking all lonely. Especially after March 26th got well and truly “done”.
To make sure I made a find on this day I booked a holiday all the way back in January, as soon as I was able, and thereby guaranteed myself a day of caching.
Off We Go
Kas allowed me to leave nice and early rather than having to drop the kids off, on the condition I didn’t linger too long. So off I went around Bedford and on towards Cambridge in my spangly new car looking forward to a busy day.
I parked up in Caldecote in a layby near the church to check my bearings. I’d grabbed a drive-by in Bourn on the way. It was one that I’d solved on the Good Friday trip but didn’t collect it was a bit off-piste for that day. It turned out that my bearings in Caldecote were pretty good, as I’d parked about 10 metres from its Church Micro cache.
I was in the middle of a figure-of-eight shape with a big overlap through the middle. That made route planning was a bit tricky. I decided to walk my way up that middle section at the start and then to carry on in an anti-clockwise direction towards Comberton before looping back around the north to Hardwick, on to Bourn and then back to the car again. OK, so Wavvy would swear at me for going anti-clockwise if he’d been there, but he wasn’t. So I uttered the chant (“Hot potato, orchestra falls, Pluck will make amends!“) and set off on my merry way.
It was a fairly short walk from here over to Toft, which contains what was up to that point my lowest numbered Church Micro find (CM0631). Comberton contained my second lowest (CM0633).
On my way through Comberton I collected the information for another Church Micro, but it was designed for people walking this circuit clockwise not anti-clockwise, so I left it for the next trip, as I was getting tired and had still a long way to go.
A Couple of Failures
The top of the loop was all fairly straightforward apart from all members of the “Millenium Meander” series. One was a multi taking me in the wrong direction (so I probably walked right past the final) and two were trads that I just couldn’t see. As I passed Hardwick heading round to Bourn again I also missed one of the Cambridge CacheAthon series.
Not a bad day though – 72 finds certainly qualifies as filling in that last day on The Matrix.
The caches I found were :