A few days previously I heard some chatter on Facebook about a massive new series that ran pretty much covered all of the distance in between Biggleswade and Cambridge. That’s a long way, and as a result, it’s a lot of new caches.
The first time I took a look at the map after they’d been released I was somewhat aghast, to be honest. Count them all up – there’s nearly 500 of them.
So for a first attempt I managed to persuade Ami to come with me so we could pick off a few of the loops near to Biggleswade. I wasn’t quite sure how many we’d get done, because it was the end of October, the weather can be variable, and the distance Ami is prepared to cover can also be a bit variable, but we set off in good heart.
We parked up in a little retail area on the edge of Biggleswade, where the series runs right alongside the roadway and alongside the “bleeding edge” of Biggleswade’s urban expansion. We dashed inside for some “provisions” before setting off with any walking.
Because it’s a big series with miltiple, overlapping loops, we set the precedent that on any stretch that formed part of two loops we’d only do every second cache, so that we left something to come back to on a different day and whilst doing the other loops. That cost us about 8 perfectly reasonable finds on this day, but it proved a good overall strategy, because otherwise some of the loops would have looked very unappealing for a visit if we’d left a 2-3km barren zone down one side.
The loops on this day took us north and east out of Biggleswade and eventually round to Dunton, before turing back to Biggleswade again.
As with most of the series, there were lots of caches, none of which was particularly worthy of note. We did have one mishap (towards the end) when we made the mistake of trusing the map on the GPS and assuming there was a bridge in the corner between two particular fields. There was no bridge and no way through the hedge. We ended up walking about 500m along the edge of a field through long grass to get to a road, and then walking about 30m along the road to find another path so we could follow it 500m back again to a point that was visible from where we’d started. I wouldn’t have minded, but it was close to the end of the day and the light was beginning to close in a bit.
75 caches found in total though, which is a good old bash for me and Ami. We walked about 18km. The caches were :
- 273/1 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Anduin
- 273/10 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Tirion
- 273/12 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Uther
- 273/14 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Alexandros
- 273/16 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Galen
- 273/18 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Antonidas
- 273/2 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Arthas
- 273/20 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Daelin
- 273/3 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Bolvar
- 273/4 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Darion
- 273/6 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Jaina
- 273/8 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Medivh
- 321 Hatley Heart Attack – Up the Track
- 322 Hatley Heart Attack – Field Corner
- 323 Hatley Heart Attack – Water Cache
- 324 Hatley Heart Attack – Rock in a Tree
- 325 Hatley Heart Attack – Poster Girl
- 326 Hatley Heart Attack – Muddy?
- 327 Hatley Heart Attack – Woodstock
- 328 Hatley Heart Attack – A Rose by Any Other Name
- 329 Hatley Heart Attack – Tree Foo T..
- 330 Hatley Heart Attack – Overshoot
- 331 Hatley Heart Attack – Oh! It’s a Mystery.
- 332 Hatley Heart Attack – One Tree Junction
- 333 Hatley Heart Attack – Wood Troll 1
- 334 Hatley Heart Attack – Wood Troll 2
- 335 Hatley Heart Attack – Wood Stroll 1
- 336 Hatley Heart Attack – Electric Woodaloo
- 337 Hatley Heart Attack – Wood Stroll 2
- 337/1 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Moira
- 337/2 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Dagran
- 337/3 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Fenran
- 337/4 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Modgud
- 337/5 Hatley Heart Attack Link – Thane
- 338 Hatley Heart Attack – The Elder
- 339 Hatley Heart Attack – Hedera Hedera
- 340 Hatley Heart Attack – Highway Arithmetic
- 341 Hatley Heart Attack – Off Road
- 342 Hatley Heart Attack – Bushy Beard
- 343 Hatley Heart Attack – Marcus Special
- 344 Hatley Heart Attack – CND
- 345 Hatley Heart Attack – Silver Back
- 346 Hatley Heart Attack – Gorgonzola
- 347 Hatley Heart Attack – Another Poshrule Special
- 348 Hatley Heart Attack – Stilton
- 349 Hatley Heart Attack – Cheddar
- 350 Hatley Heart Attack – Parmesan
- 351 Hatley Heart Attack – Danish Blue
- 352 Hatley Heart Attack – Double Gloucester
- 353 Hatley Heart Attack – Wensleydale
- 354 Hatley Heart Attack – Rochefort
- 355 Hatley Heart Attack – Brie!
- 356 Hatley Heart Attack – Naga Morich
- 357 Hatley Heart Attack – You Feeling Lucky Punk?
- 358 Hatley Heart Attack – Dorset Naga
- 359 Hatley Heart Attack – Habanero
- 360 Hatley Heart Attack – Bhut Jolokia
- 361 Hatley Heart Attack – Komodo Dragon
- 362 Hatley Heart Attack – Naga Viper
- 363 Hatley Heart Attack – Bedfordshire Super Naga
- 364 Hatley Heart Attack – Moruga Scorpion
- 365 Hatley Heart Attack – All Year Long
- 366 Hatley Heart Attack – Jalepeno
- 367 Hatley Heart Attack – Scotch Bonnet
- 368 Hatley Heart Attack – Carolina Reaper
- 369 Hatley Heart Attack – Quattro Formaggi
- 370 Hatley Heart Attack – Ai Funghi
- Church Micro 7616… Dunton-St Mary Magdalene
- Jess and Tates circular walk 2
- Jess and Tates circular walk 3
- Jess and Tates circular walk 5
- Jess and Tates circular walk 6
- Tate and Jess’s circular walk. Number 1
- Tate and Jess’s circular walk. Number 4
- VS #261 – Dunton