Cold War – No More (Essex)

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N/S ? ??.??? W/E ??? ??.???  [] In United Kingdom

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A gentle 1km stroll through a Nature Reserve which is a SSSI.

For pictures of this cache why not visit the The Cold War No More Project

This is a themed cache. It was inspired by the by the Royal Observer Corps bunker you pass on the way to the Cache (N51 38.01865 E0 4.36619).

Unfortunately you cannot now get access to the bunker, but we have visited it before it was made inaccessible. There was a network of these bunkers all across the country which at times of crisis would be manned by some poor unfortunates whose job was to map the explosion of Atomic Bombs as they landed on the country. They were all pretty similar and an on-line guided tour of one can be found here.

For an interesting trip you might like to visit the granddaddy of these bunkers which is near to Brentwood. We have included some leaflets about this in the cache.

Anything placed in the cache should be as part of an emergency kit to take down the bunker should the worst happen. All we ask is that when you place an item you justify its inclusion in the log (kind of like "Desert Island Disks" for cachers). For example the kit initially contains:

• 2 Books to help pass the time
• A cassette tape on which to document the end of civilisation
• Bob the Builder Scribbler to jot down messages
• Crayons and Toy car to keep the kids amused during those long nuclear winters
• A Meatloaf CD to block out the noise of explosions
• A Radiohead CD to stop optimism getting the better of you
• A Bottle of water in case you are thirsty
• A Logbook to record your thoughts
• And a disposable camera - to take a photo of yourselves for posterity.

The cache is a green ammo can which initially also has a stowaway, in that Krazy Koala has chosen this as his first stopping off point in the U.K.

The cache is within the confines of the Roding Valley Meadows Nature Reserve. . The land was originally a barrage balloon site (RAF Chigwell) that was used to defend London during the Second World War and the concrete paths and the bunker are all that remains from this time.

Parking can be found at N51 37.73797 E0 3.879114(follow the signs for David Lloyd) and it is just over 1km of walking from there. About half of the journey can be completed on the surfaced paths, from then onit can get muddy. Alternatively a longer walk can be had from either Loughton or Buckhurst Hill Tube stations. The park is a bit muddy in winter though there is a boot scrapper provided in the car park

Warning the cache appears close to the M11 - do not park on the M11 to access it -unless of course you want to lose your licence.

Please check out the G.A.G.B and G:UK web sites. They offer support for all Geocachers in the UK.

Additional Hints ( Decrypt ) 

Decryption Key
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below,
and vice versa)

Va na nern bs fpeho/jbbqynaq gb gur yrsg bs gur Zbgbejnl. Gurer vf n terl zbgbejnl obk gur bgure fvqr bs gur srapr. Fgnaqvat jvgu lbhe onpx gb vg, jnyx 40 cnprf sbejneqf (jrfgvfu). Gur pnpur vf vafvqr bs n ynetr ebfr ohfu juvpu vf fheebhaqrq ol svir sve gerrf. (Decrypted Hints)

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A Stroll by the River

The Reserve is so important for nature conservation that several of the meadows have been declared Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The meadows are home to over 200 species of wildflowers, 150 different birds, 50 types of trees and dozens of butterflies, dragonflies, fungi, spiders and many other insects.
One of the Paths

The 158 acre Roding Valley Meadows were declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1986. The site is the largest remaining area of traditionally ­ managed hay and flood meadows in Essex.

Logged Visits ( 128 total. Visit the Gallery (26 images) )

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Cache Logs

November 17 by gocmc (2 found) Lovely cache, my first 'real' one :) Left some cards, will go back one day and leave something nice. [view this log]

October 2 by H_Radar (61 found) 17:20 Found together with Lokir during a short walk from the Chigwell side of the foot bridge. I spent two last years as a student in Chigwell but discovered geocaching only recently. So it was my duty to look for some of the nearby caches. Despite the nettles, I really liked the position - at home we don't have that many 'exposed' caches as a lot of people just wanders outside the roads in the similar places :-) Also - wonderful size. And - we were both surprised by the sheer amount of good eadible mushrooms around. The rumour that the Westerners don't pick them up (or eat them) seems to be very true. Greetings from the Czech Republic! TNLN [view this log]

September 8 by Lesleyanne (31 found) Love the nettles rose bush a little dead but still found it placed a packet of tissues as they are always handly, women appreciate this more!!! [view this log]

August 2 by Chris n Maria (558 found) Added a new log book. Crikey its overgrown round the cache at the moments - not one for shorts! [view this log]

August 1 by bootsie&thebear (22 found) Needs new log book please. [view this log]

Current time: 11/21/2009 1:49:19 PM
Last Updated: 11/17/2009 5:01:28 PM
Rendered: From Database
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum