March 3 : Frustrating failures in Frimley

Hello, Mrs Hg137 here.

After a freezing week when the ‘Beast from the East’ storm spread ice and snow across England, we just wanted to get outside. Anywhere. Though it was still cold and grey, a local caching trip seemed a good idea, so we chose Frimley, a very short drive away. It was going to be mostly caching around a suburban estate, as we didn’t fancy sodden undergrowth, slush and mud out in the countryside.

Tomlin’s Pond, Frimley

Our first target was somewhere on the banks of Tomlin’s Pond, one of several ponds large and small dotted around Frimley. And we couldn’t find it. Oh well, there would be another chance at the end of the expedition. At least we didn’t fall into the frozen pond … Grumpily – it’s always dispiriting to fail at the first cache – we moved on to another, smaller pond for a second attempt. After looking in vain at ground level, we read the cache logs to see that the container had been replaced. We resumed our search at head height, looking for a different kind of container, and soon found a slightly rusty tin with a very tight lid. After a tussle, we opened it to sign the log. I hope the rust marks on my hands will wear off in time!

Still some snow …

Our next three caches were all placed by the ‘Kaos family’. We had mixed results – we couldn’t find one of them, another was found, but was very soggy, and retrieved and replaced in full view of some car washing muggles, and the third was easy to spot as its contents were spread about the woodland where it was hidden. We collected them up, wiped them off, and rebuilt and re-hid the cache.

Cache as discovered …

Cache tidied up and replaced …

Returning to the car, we had another attempt at the first cache of the day – we still didn’t find it – then set off home. To try to finish on a success, we stopped part way home to find a cache, from the ‘Postcode Cache’ series – this one was Golf Uniform 16 (GU16). Even this cache wasn’t to be easily found. It was likely to be hidden on or around a piece of street furniture, and there were a lot of possible places. We tried all of them, at least twice, and found the cache when we were on the point of giving up, in a place we (thought) we had already searched. (Editor’s note: This series of caches is placed in different postcode districts throughout the UK. The series originated in Scotland but is now spreading further south. There are a few near us, but it’s the first one we’ve found.)

So that was it: four caches found out of six attempted, not the best of find/fail ratios. And, part way round the route, my camera stopped working, which is why there are not so many pictures as usual. Drat! But I’ve replaced the SD card and all now seems well.

Postscript:
Quite close to our last cache find is an earthcache, ‘How the earth was made’, which is about rocks and geology. We found it back in August 2014. It’s still there, but it has changed quite a bit since we found it. Here’s how it is now, and how it was before.

Earthcache then …

Earthcache now …