Objectives
The 2014 Caching Diary – back on the caching trail for another year. This year I was armed with a new Garmin Montana, which it took a while to figure out. The only question really was what kind of targets to set.
Well, I ended 2013 on 3624 total finds and I did 1500 caches. So the obvious target would be to attempt to get to 5000. Oh ! And to fill in those two remaining slots on the matrix. And some other stuff. Well, as I originally wrote this on the 5th of January I probably hadn’t really decided. I maybe never did.
As the year started I had just two days to fill in on the “Days Found”. One was March 26th, which I failed in 2013 through not allowing enough time and not having enough options. The other was June 17th, which I simply forgot about in the middle of a 4-day streak. Both days for 2014 were already booked as holiday as the year started. This was a “must-do” challenge for the year. If I hadn’t finished the matrix on June 17th I’d have been upset. Or surprised.
January (83 finds)
- 1st January – The BBH Cakey event on the Ashridge Estate. It was very wet. Really wet. Think “swimming” – 3 finds
- 5th January – I had a near disaster of a day with BingBongLong. I hadn’t set up the Garmin correctly – 11 finds
- 11th January – I went over to Spaldwick with BingBongLong to hit a few more of MarcusMaximi’s S2E2 and Woolley Mammoth Series (see S2E2). This time I managed to get the Garmin working properly. We bashed our way through 60 caches in 4 hours or so – 60 finds
- 14th January – A quick lunchtime dash over to Campbell Park. There was a newly released challenge. It required me to have found 5 caches with a total of more than 1250 favourite points. It turned out to be an FTF too, and got me up to 3699 total finds. Ideal to make the BBH event in Stoke Mandeville my 3700th – 2 finds
- 16th January – I dashed to Bow Brickhill Station for another one of these challenges. This one needed 5 caches for 1500 favourite points. I achieved this using 5 different caches to the previous challenge. There was also one in Dobbies Car Park – 2 finds
- 28th January – I grabbed a few quickies in Little Horwood and Swanbourne – 3 finds
- 31st January – I popped out at lunchtime to grab a couple of new ones. All were in the new estate down the bottom end of Bletchley – 2 finds
February (171 finds)
- 2nd February – I drove over to Aynho with Ami. We met BingBongLong to have a bash at Gingko’s COYQ series (see The Mighty Quins) – 32 finds
- 8th February – We were up at my folks house in Measham. I went for a long afternoon drive with the lady of the house. We did a load of Church Micros in Leicestershire (see Leicestershire Churches) – 20 finds
- 9th February – The lady of the house was out running in the morning. I went over to Packington to grab a new series – 16 finds
- 15th February – We headed down towards Brighton for a much awaited weekend away. Kas was running a half marathon on the Sunday and we booked hotels for Saturday and Sunday nights. On the Saturday we stopped at some motorway services on the M25. There was a cache in the car park – 1 find
- 16th February – I grabbed a few caches with the kids in the middle of Brighton in the morning while Kas was running. After that we went for a long walk around Saltdean in the afternoon. Kas took the kids went back to Brighton to meet one of her old workmates. They played crazy golf and had ice cream (see the Brighton Half 2014) – 42 finds
- 17th February – We had a little shuffle round Brighton in the morning. We managed to sit out in the sunshine, and grab a few more caches. We stopped for a random church micro in a new county on the way home. Then while Kas went for a coffee break I noticed another one in the Motorway Services car park – 5 finds
- 22nd February – I went over to Hargrave in Northamptonshire with BingBongLong for a “full” Saturday out (see Hargrave Hobble) – 55 finds
March (117 finds)
- 2nd March – We were in Reading while Kas was running the Reading Half (see Reading Half 2014). We grabbed a couple of nearby ones – 3 finds
- 8th March – I went out in the afternoon with Izzy to grab some of the new Church Micros in the Milton Keynes area – 7 finds
- 15th March – I went up to Blisworth near Northampton to do an interesting looking series named after a Keane song (see Oh Simple Thing) – 29 finds
- 26th March – I had one of my two remaining Matrix days to fill. It just so happened that the NUT were on strike too and so school was shut. Ami and me went over to Letchworth with our bikes. We had a pop at the Letchworth Greenway Gallivant series and a few others (see Greenway Gallivant) – 61 finds
- 29th March – Izzy decided she’d like to go and hit a few caches so we scooted over to Marsh Gibbon to do the Zoo Trip and MG Series there – 17 finds
April (162 finds)
- 3rd April – I found myself in Lytham St Annes in the evening with nothing better to do. I managed to pass 4000 total finds with a fairly uninspiring trad at the bottom of a fencepost – 18 finds
- 5th April – We were in Measham and Kas and me managed to pop out for an hour in the afternoon to grab a posh coffee and a Church Micro – 1 find
- 11th April – We all went down to London for Kas’s Virgin London Marathon expo at the ExCel. After that we popped up to the West End to meet Happy Hunter HP20 and grab a few caches (see Marathon Weekend) – 11 finds
- 13th April – Kas was running the Virgin London Marathon. I went down on the bus and had myself a busy day looking for caches around Greenwich. After that I met up with Kas in Westminster (see Marathon Weekend) – 19 finds
- 14th April – There was an event down in Princes Risborough. I popped out at lunchtime to grab three local challenge caches. In the evening there was an event in a pub nearby – 11 finds
- 16th April – I dashed out at lunchtime to grab a new Church Micro in Milton Keynes – 1 find
- 18th April – (Good Friday) I had a caching day in the calendar. I drove over to Cambridge to have a go at two loops from the Cambridge CacheAthon Series (see CacheAthon Part 1) – 83 finds
- 26th April – We were back up in Measham. We took advantage of a warm Saturday afternoon to take a walk around Foremark Reservoir (see Foremark Reservoir) – 17 finds
- 27th April – Everyone was snoozing in the afternoon after a large Sunday roast – 1 find
May (158 finds)
- 10th May – I scooted up to Rutland and Lincolnshire with Wavvy and BingBongLong to fill in a couple of new counties (see Not the Smallest County) – 75 finds
- 11th May – I was still restless so went over to Sawtry for a dash round a couple more circuits while the girls were all away (see Sawtry, Sore Feet) – 61 finds
- 18th May – I went over to Stewartby Lake for an event and a few new caches (see Marston Vale) – 16 finds
- 24th to 26th April – We went to Liverpool so I could run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. We did a bit of caching too (see Rockin’ Liverpool) – 6 finds
June (172 finds)
- 4th June – I popped out at lunchtime for a couple of quickies – 2 finds
- 6th June – I did a “Friday Night is Caching Night” with Izzy down near Marsh Gibbon for a slightly disappointing 5 finds
- 7th June – I shot off round the north of Bedford for a new(ish) series (see Birthday Bash) – 46 finds
- 13th June – I did “Friday Night is Caching Night” with Izzy again, this time in Milton Keynes – 6 finds
- 15th June – I grabbed a couple of local caches whilst doing maintenance on my own – 2 finds
- 17th June – I had my final “Matrix” day to complete. I went over to have a bash at some more of the Cambridge CacheAthon (see CacheAthon Part 2) – 72 finds
- 18th June – I had my celebratory Beds-Bucks-Herts event at the new pub on Tattenhoe – 1 find
- 22nd June – Kas was doing DLRR club run at Marston Vale so I took the girls for a few extras there and then went round the north of Bedford to have a pop at some more of the series there (see Birthday Bash Deux) – 38 finds
- And that was enough for June apart from spending a Friday night walking one chunk of the MK Boundary Walk to fix a few of my own.
July (120 finds)
- 9th July – There was a BBH event in Bovingdon – I left home early to allow time for a quick walk around first – 18 finds
- 12th July – I went up to Alcester with Wavvy to grab a few (see Alcester Dash) – 51 finds
- 16th July – I grabbed a couple in the evening including an FTF – 2 finds
- 17th July – I grabbed one cache at Caldecotte Lake on the way home from running whilst waiting for Ami to finish zorbing with the guides – 1 find
- 23rd July – I dashed over to work to intercept a moving cache that found its way back into Milton Keynes – 2 finds
- 24th July – We began our trip to Holland (see On Our Way) and I spent a chunk of the afternoon caching Bruges – 14 finds
- 25th July – We moved from Belgium to Holland (see Over the Border) but finished a frustrating cache in Bruges first – 1 find
- 26th July – We went to my former home in Brielle (see Old Haunts) – 3 finds
- 27th July – I spent a couple of hours walking up and down Brouwersdam (see Not a Lot Happened) – 6 finds
- 28th July – The Deltapark Neeltje Jans (see Deltapark Neeltje Jans) – 1 find
- 29th July – Kinderdijk plus a few bchallenge caches in Hellevoetsluis (see Windmills) – 5 finds
- 30th July – Amsterdam and Scheveningen (see Capital Cities) – 3 finds
- 31st July -Walking from Hellevoetsluis to the Quackstrand (see Hellevoetsluis) – 13 finds
August (173 finds)
- 1st August – A run and a family bike ride (see On Yer Bike) – 19 finds
- 2nd August – The rest of a puzzle series in Ouddorp (see Old Trams) – 10 finds
- 3rd August – A couple of Earthcaches to get the souvenirs (see The Grevelingenmeer) – 2 finds
- 4th August – A single cache at the Atomium in Brussels (see Atomic !) – 1 find
- 5th August – One each in Dunkirk and Calais (see Coming Home) – 2 finds
- 9th August – Finishing the 2 Birthdays series with Ami (see Birthday Bash Trois) – 34 finds
- 12th August – A dash around Caldecotte Lake for a new letterbox series – 10 finds
- 13th August – A business trip to Bristol, including a new county (Gloucestershire) and a couple at the M4 services – 4 finds
- 14th August – A BBH event in Milton Keynes – 1 find
- 15th August – An epic journey to Munich, passing through 5 countries (see All Aboard the Gigabus) – 6 finds
- 16th August – The world’s first Giga event in the Olympic Stadium in Munich (see Going Giga) – 26 finds (including lab caches)
- 17th August – Munich city centre, including an event at Hofbrauhaus (see Munich Old Town) – 28 finds (including lab caches)
- 18th August – A long journey home, taking in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and France (see A Very Long Journey) – 5 finds
- 24th August – A half marathon on the Severn Bridge, and the opportunity to grab caches in Gwent, City of Bristol and Somerset (see Severn Bridge Half 2014) – 5 finds
- 29th August – A lunchtime wander from my folks’ house – 6 finds
- 31st August – A dash up to Snibston – 14 finds
September (132 finds)
- 7th September – I drove over to Cambridge to finish off the Cambridge CacheAthon series (see CacheAthon Part 3) – 81 finds
- 20th September – I went down to Hampshire with Happy Hunter HP20 and Ami. We attempted the Forty Sortie Challenge (see Forty Sortie) – 49 finds
- 24th September – I attended an event in Milton Keynes and grabbed a single cache before going in – 2 finds
October (146 finds)
- 4th October – I did lots of walking just outside Chester (see Chester Marathon 2014) – 68 finds
- 5th October – I did a few more in Chester and Wrexham ( see Chester Marathon ) – 9 finds
- 25th October – We all attended the annual Halloween Hides and Creepy Caches Mega Event (see Halloween Hides 2014) – 65 finds
- 30th October – We drove through East Yorkshire so I had to “fill it in” – 1 find
- 31st October – We had a day out at Hadrian’s Wall – 3 finds
November (169 Finds)
- 1st November – We were still in Sunderland and I popped out for a few in the afternoon – 5 finds
- 8th November – I scooted over to east Bedfordshire with BingBongLong and Ami for the Walk on the Wild Side series (see Walk on the Wild Side) – 50 finds
- 13th November – I attended an event in the new “Roundabout MK” series – 1 find
- 15th November – I grabbed a few caches in Leighton Buzzard while Kas was running the Dirt Half 2014 (see Dirt Half 2014) – 9 finds
- 16th November – I scooted out for an ultimately quite disappointing walk on a dank, foggy day – 17 finds
- 22nd November – I shot up to Brickhill Woods with Ami to plant a couple of new Church Micros and did a YOSM and a Challenge on the way back – 2 finds
- 29th November – I went up to north Northamptonshire to have a go at Izaak Wilson’s “Bulwick and Back” series (see Bulwick & Apethorpe) – 85 finds
December (112 finds)
- 6th December – I went up to Houghton Regis with BingBongLong (see Houghton Regis) – 22 finds
- 14th December – I popped down to the bottom of Bletchley to do a few new MKBW Red section caches – 5 finds
- 16th December – We and Ami attended the BBH event in Dagnall and also collected a nearby challenge cache – 2 finds
- 19th December – I took a day off work and went up to finish the Woolley Mammoth series (see Woolley Mammoth) – 58 finds
- 26th December – I made a special trip out to find a cache to fill my “Days Placed” grid – 1 find
- 27th December – We all drove around west Leicestershire looking for a few church micros – 10 finds
- 31st December – We went for a leisurely stroll around Willington to finish off the year (see Willington Wanders) – 14 finds