The Hadleigh Mega Tree Trail
This is the 1st. cache in a new 2009 series for Hadleigh Country Park.
Hadleigh Country Park lies between South Benfleet, to the West, and Leigh, to the East. The park consists of a mix of scrub, woodland and grassland hillside running down to grazing marsh and seawall, which is adjacent to a narrow strip of salt marsh. This wide range of habitat provides many places for plants and animals to live. In summer this is one of the best places in Essex to see butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies.
The rangers tell me that the best place to park is in the main car-park (N 51º 33·130' E 00º 35·724'), however, this is £2 for the day and closure varies throughout the year so check the entrance board for times.
This is a trail / multi-cache. It consists of a series of containers or metal plates with the co-ordinates in/on.
The pictures show some of the trees that you may see at Hadleigh Country Park. To get the initial co-ordinates you will need to be able to recognise your trees. (if you are not sure there is a key at N 51º 33·129' E 00º 35·655')
The co-ordinates for the first stage are:-
N Holly, Sycamoreº Oak, Elm · Ash, Spindle, Wild Cherry
E 000º Sweet Chestnut, Hawthorn · Hazel, Crab apple, Hornbeam
To find the cache you will have to collect tree names and their corresponding numbers, some of these will give you the co-ordinates for the final cache. There was a Bonus cache but this had to be removed.
The trail has 11 stages, is about 5Kms. and will take about 2-3 hours. Hints will be found on plates or in the pots. All these are close to the paths.
Please be aware that some of the paths are steep, slippery and muddy.
You are looking for a camouflaged pot slightly bigger than a 35mm film cannister.