This is a lovely area to explore with its network of paths through woodlands and open fields. The village of Essendon also has a lovely church and a playground (which is located down the footpath adjacent to the school on School Lane), some weekends you might even get to watch a bit of cricket at the big playing field. From Essendon you can walk to Little Berkhampstead and I hope to place more in this series along this route.
Not big enough for trackables this one… you are looking for a micro container tied on to a piece of beige paracord. I am hoping it will survive if we get floods like we did in the winter of 2013. You do not need to leave the footbridge to find it.
You do not need to cross any fences to find this cache. Please be aware that the path heading ENE from here back to Essendon centre (between this cache at the footbridge and the cache up the hill “I Like big ones 2011”) has a steep hill that is not always passable in the wet due to slippery mud.
The river here at the foot bridge has been known to flood so take care during times of heavy rainfall.
Parking in the village of Essendon is on street either in School Lane or by the church. There is also parking in a layby oposite the PH at West End.
Not big enough for trackables this one… you are looking for a micro container tied on to a piece of beige paracord. I am hoping it will survive if we get floods like we did in the winter of 2013. You do not need to leave the footbridge to find it.
About the cache's name sake....
The great raft spider or fen raft spider (Dolomedes plantarius) is semi-aquatic, hunting its prey on the surface of water. It requires unpolluted water and likes fenland particularly. Adult females can have bodies of slightly over 2cm in length and can grow to have a span of 7cm including their legs. Great raft spiders are black or brown in colouration with white or cream stripes along the sides of the body. The great raft spider has only been identified at three sites in the UK. Due to this extreme rarity it is listed as endangered. Great raft spiders are predatory and hunt from perches at the waters edge. They eat pond skaters, dragonfly larvae, small fish and smaller aquatic spiders. They even sometimes dabble in a bit of fishing, eating sticklebacks and tadpoles!
To hunt aquatic prey they have special sensory hairs on their front legs. These detect vibrations. Great raft spiders typically sit on a perch with their front legs on the water surface, feeling for the vibrations of their prey. They are able to run across the surface of the water and also can hunt underwater by running down the stems of plants. They can also do this to hide from would-be predators.
For more info see http://www.dolomedes.org.uk/biology/index.html which is where the photo below is linking to...