Objectives
Time to sign off on my 2022 Caching Diary. It’s been a busy year.
2021 was a somewhat improved year compared to 2020, what with there being no pandemic lockdowns for most of the year and with me having the time and energy to meet up with friends and go out caching. 2022 looked like it ought to be even better.
My plan for 2022 was mainly to suck it and see. I mean, at the start of the year, planning was still a bit tricky with the whole pandemic thing is still around. Anyway, I planned to find loads of caches.
Over the winter I was planning to stay on roads and paths. I’m done with being knee-deep in clart. The “agricultural” series could all wait until spring and summer. There’s several hundred available within an hour’s drive that are designed for bikes, and hence won’t involve muddy fields.
So here we go. A whistlestop tour of my year in tupperware, in the form of a list with links to specific blog posts for the longer days (i.e. those where the caching was significant enough to warrant an individual post).
| Month | Total Finds | Blog Posts |
|---|---|---|
| January | 160 | Yaxley Peloton - Ticking off a day from the Shifty Fifty Challenge in Yaxley Animated - A bit of a day out in Hertfordshire |
| February | 386 | Brandon - If you're going, go big! Plasticine - Hacking around a bit more of the "No cheese, Gromit!" series Full Circle - Completing my 360° from Home Challenge Peloton - A monstrously massive day doing poshrule's peloton |
| March | 122 | Pelotoff - Finishing the Grand Tour by completing poshrule's peloton |
| April | 236 | Girton - Testing out the new bike in earnest, over at Cambridge Brigstock - Pounding round the Northamptonshire countryside |
| May | 108 | Ashwell - A birthday bash over in Ashwell for Ryo62 - a day that saw me pass 1,000 finds for the year and 15,000 in total |
| June | 521 | EHB Series - A day of insanity driving around the EHB Series for 384 finds |
| July | 129 | |
| August | 530 | Knotty - Up to Uttoxeter for the West Midlands Mega Mega Day - The day of the actual UK Mega in Uttoxeter, spent mainly in Lichfield Sudbury to Tutbury - Walking from Sudbury to Tutbury followed by some Ad Labs near East Midlands Airport Norfolk Villages - A monster bike and car-based hack near Downham Market |
| September | 116 | West Harling - A wander round the woods at West Harling near Thetford |
| October | 328 | Bouncing Butterflies - A big day up near Downham Market Pentney PedalAthon - Another monster day up near Downham Market Bedford Walkabout - A day of multiple Ad Labs and other caches near Bedford |
| November | 139 | Bury St Edmunds - A trip to Bury St Edmunds and Newbury for a load of Ad Labs and an event |
| December | 251 | Therfield - A walk Therfield and Kelshall as a final (probably) mud-plugging day of the year London Labs - Down "the Smoke" for a day of Ad Labs |
| Totals | 3026 |
Summary
So there we have it, my 2022 Caching Diary. So what did I actually achieve:
- A total of 3,026 finds
- One new country (Greece)
- 102 sets of Adventure Labs finished
- 26 days ticked off my Shifty Fifty Challenge
- 10 days of more than 100 finds
- A new one-day high of 384 finds when doing the EHB Series in June
I’m calling that a satisfactory year of caching. I haven’t (still) finished the Difficulty/Terrain grid and I still haven’t finished the “Full English” because I’ve not been setting out specifically to do that. Maybe that can be a target for next year (at least one of the two).