An Afternoon Out with Daughterus Minimums
It was a sunny Saturday and I had an afternoon of caching planned with Daughterus Minimus. I planned to go over to Letchworth, and it was great apart from the disaster near the end of our walk.
We decided to head off to Letchworth to finish off a series I’d started with Daughterus Maximus the previous year (see Greenway Gallivant). On that day we travelled by bike, moved really quickly, and gave up halfway around because it started snowing.
On this day we walked in very warm weather, for most of the day. We parked the car at Standalone Farm on the north side of town and headed off northwards to complete the Letchworth Greenway Gallivant series in a clockwise direction.
A Load of Baldock
It was easy going all the way around the Greenway until we got around to the Baldock side of town. It’s basically a wide path suitable for cycling, so it’s got a hard gravel surface all the way around. The hills are present but not steep. All the caches could be reached without walking more than 5m away from the pathway. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy (other citrus fruits are available). It was also quite easy, if a little more urban, coming back through town. Here we did a series of smaller caches of the magnetic variety, in locations that were quite public. The disaster happened close to the end of the day. I was a bit angry at myself, but we were still a handful of caches away from the car. Thankfully I could remember the exact route we’d walked and the caches we’d done.Disaster Strikes
So what actually happened? How can I describe it? No better way than by reading my log for the offending cache, in the bubble to the right here. The offending one was Letchworth Walkabout 6. I sort of got away with it though, because our home insurance covers replacement of items lost or damaged outside the house (so long as it’s in the UK). So the insurance offered me the cost of a Montana 650T from the Garmin website, minus my policy excess, which turned out to be the same as the cost of a Montana 650T on Amazon. In effect, all it meant really was that I had to survive a week and a bit of caching using my phone instead of a handheld GPS, including the afternoon on The Wirral.
My Caching Log for the Offending Cache
Forgive me while I swear. I sacrificed my GPS at this cache. I put it down on one of the metal bars while signing the log, then as I was going to pick it up I knocked it and it fell off. It bounced end-over-end and disappeared down the open cover of a small drain. If it had landed sideways it wouldn’t have gone down, but it went end-on and as a result, straight into the open hole. There was a crash, and a couple of bangs, then a splash. I looked down the hole to see what I was up against, and could see the lit-up screen peering back at me about 6 feet down. Absolutely no way I was going to get down there. So if you’re more slim and svelte than me and you fancy pulling up that big metal manhole cover there’s a Garmin Montana 650t down there for you. It might be a bit smelly and non-functional though. Good job I’d got the phone with me too so we could finish off our walk.
MKGees
