nother year, another East Anglia Cache Meet. This year it’s
planned for 21st April 2007 in St Ives. OK, so you could argue that
St Ives (the Eastern one, not the fishing town/artistic
hangout/hippy commune in the blustery South-West) is only just on
the periphery of East Anglia and I would be pressed to come up with
a good argument against. That being said, in mitigation it’s a nice
wee town, accessible from Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire,
Cambridgeshire and on into the dormitory counties on these
new-fangled steam engines, for example Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire,
Essex etc. On the down side it has a statue of Cromwell and was his
gaff for quite some time. Some people are fine with that, some are
most decidedly not (and as an Ulsterman I can see both sides). It
has a church in the middle of a bridge, some nice watering holes,
eateries and lots of existing caches in the immediate area. The
walking is flat and generally quite pretty.
The plan is to have me in position from 11am onwards in, or
outside, The Dolphin (see co-ords for the car park). We haven't
booked space at The Dolphin but the Hotel staff are expecting us:
just look out for the Geocaching logo, a map, GPSr or dodgy looking
bloke sitting at a table in the bar/lounge or on the patio with a
hat near him - and say hello....if it's a muggle my apologies and
explain yourself to the police. I will have print-outs for any new
caches laid to go live for the event just in case you left home
before they were published.
The Dolphin http://www.dolphinhotelcambs.co.uk/ is child friendly
and will serve cold snacks all afternoon. A lunchtime bar menu is
available from 12 midday to 2:00 pm but as it is based on the
restaurant lunches it changes by the day. Anytime I've been in the
food has looked excellent. For an all-day breakfast "Nuts Bistro"
has been recommended (1 Station Road).
Nearer the time I’ll produce more information and a Bookmark
Listing of local caches. In the interim please indicate if you
intend to come, do some caches, have a natter and laugh at my hat.
I’m looking forward to meeting old friends, folks I’ve since bumped
into whilst looking suspicious in the woods and people I have yet
to meet.
Mrs N, the Arch Anti-Cacher, has once again offered to host any
other people (who find blindly following an arrow on a little
receiver to look for a box under some sticks in the woods a bit sad
and pointless) to an all-singing all-dancing booze-up in the town –
or just the focus for a group of people bemoaning what their other
halves get up to, swearing a lot and looking for somewhere nice to
have lunch before shopping. I’m assured there is a good bookshop,
one of the best off-licences I’ve ever been in (and believe me,
that’s a few) and the excellent and free Norris Museum – sorry, it
has a cache in it but you can’t have everything…....now STOP
beating me Mrs N!!!!.
I recommend approaching from the A14 in the South. At the first
roundabout opposite the garage turn left to the Hemmingfords, then
take the first right. The Dolphin is about a mile up on the left.
They now charge £1 for their carpark, but will give you a token if
you buy as much as one drink!