• Reading time:3 mins read
  • Post category:2023 / Eastern England

The Sketch

A day in Beachamwell, close to Downham Market, for a bit of geocaching action as ever.

The objective was a bunch of series close to Beachamwell, including the Beachamwell Bandicoot, the Beachamwell Bijou, and possibly a couple of puzzle series nearby.

The Walk

It was a beautiful morning, to be honest. A little cloudy and breezy but warm and the threatened rain stayed away all day.

We parked up in Beachamwell village next to the church. The first target was to walk a clockwise loop around the Beachamwell Bandicoot series. The first dozen or so were really quick as they were along roads, so minimal time spent in between each one.

After the road there was a stretch along a bridleway before crossing the road again and then back to the bridleway. By “bridleway” what I mean actually is a broad grassy road with occasional field entries and hedges down both sides. The English countryside is littered with them, especially in arable areas rather than livestock areas. There’s certainly plenty of them around here. I mean, they have them in areas of livestock farming too, but they tend to be more rough underfoot and, shall we say, aromatic.

Anyway, the caching was quick, as it usually is with poshrule series. So we were done in a while and we had plenty of time to go do another one. I, however, didn’t have the legs for another walking series. I was struggling a bit, so we decided to give my legs a break by doing something else.

Something Else

The first “something else” was to do a few drive-bys in the villages of Gooderstone, Oxborough and Stoke Ferry. This gave my legs a well needed break from walking whilst keeping the numbers ticking over. In Oxborough there was a set of Ad Labs as well as a couple of “normal” jobs. Anyway, it gave my legs a bit of a break.

More Something Else

We still had a fair amount of time left, and since last time I’d been up to Downham there’d been not one, not two, but three whole new sets of Ad Labs released. They were all in the town centre, so it made a worthy trip despite having finished all the other caches in town on a previous trip. We were able to park in the local supermarket and walk round all three sets in under an hour.

So overall that made a decent day out, aside from having to drive home again. That takes me a while, but it’s worth it. There are just so many caches in such a small area.

At the time of writing, there’s still more than enough caches within 10 miles of Downham to warrant three or four more trips.