25. Feb, 2017

Another D/T Bites The Dust

You may remember that I qualified for a CM challenge by finding 20 CMs in a day last Thursday. The prize was a 4.5/3 cache at the church in Horton Kirby not far from the QE2 Bridge over the River ThameS. It was 33 mins from home so I planned to leave in time to get there by first light. I needed to be back home around ten so every minute counts!

The coords were spot on, a clever hint and another square on my DT chart was covered, great balls of fire. There were a couple of trads nearby so I picked them off and decided to deviate off my route to try a mini series nearby. 

There was a letterbox, a multi and four trads and unfortunately a DNF. Why is it that the furthest away is the DNF so I'm unlikely to come back for it. I could hear a lot of squawking above me and I saw quite a few Ring-necked Parakeets flying around. There were ones and twos but the most I saw was seven, a record for me. The footpath was firm and running alongside a small river, burbling along, very pleasant in the early light.

I had another DNF on the way back to the car to consult my list. I then found a VS, a ST and three more trads as well as dipping a VS multi in South Darenth. My bugbear was that I had to count the number of birds on the sign but there was so much muck, I couldn't make out a flying bird from a lump of mud. So with time running out, I called it a day and headed off home.

Fourteen caches on the day including the very welcome 4.5/3, only another 16 boxes to fill on the grid!