London Flash Mob Event

I went into London on Sunday with three other cachers. Our aim was to find as many caches as we could on way from the train station to the London Eye, where there was a Flash Mob Event at 6pm. We also decided to try for a six icon challenge as well. This meant trying to find six different types of caches, each with a different icon.

It was a very long day, but we had a great time and achieved both our challenges - to attend the Flash Mob event and to obtain the six different cache types in one day.

The first cache we attempted was a simple traditional one - a micro hidden behind a metal gate to a small garden. The garden was a very tiny oasis amidst the tall city buildings. Fortunately on a Sunday there weren't many people about, good job really as we did make ourselves a bit obvious! Finally the cache was found and the log signed. We moved on to a simple multi. I think this is one of my favourites of the day. The clues were on the ground; we had to search interesting dates and figures in history and do a simple maths sum to find the co-ordinates to the cache around the corner.

We then moved on to an Earthcache which involved looking for fossils in the limestone walls of a building. Fascinating stuff. Here are the three fossils I was travelling with today!

From there we walked down to the river, but on the way we had a little mishap. One of the cachers, Alan tripped over this nasty hole in the pavement. Photos and details of the location were taken so it can be reported. We don't want anyone else having a nasty accident. Fortunately Alan landed on Bob, so no harm done - this time. What a relief he was able to continue the day's walk.

Our next adventure meant climbing under the boardwalk, down by the river. Ralph was the hero of the day, being able to reach up and fetch the cache for it to be signed. This had a high difficulty and terrain rating so we were pleased to find something exciting in the city, other than the usual expected micros. After a few more caches were found, the lads walked another 2miles, whilst I cheated and took the underground train as I was beginning to tire by now. As I was walking to the train station I came across this. I've seen Dr Who's Police box before, but never a police post. I wonder how many more there are around?

Whilst I was waiting for the lads to turn up I sat in a park and picked up a couple more caches nearby. In the park was this lovely memorial to the Camel Corps in World War I. Many of the corps came from New Zealand, Australia, India and Canada as well as Britain. It's an amazing statue. We totted up some more caches and also managed a puzzle cache. This meant a bit of a detour to the west, but this was easily reached by the underground. The AtoZ had to come out to work out which way to head towards the cache as none of us had ever been to that particular spot before. The puzzle cache required some German translation, so well done to Bob and Ralph for working that one out. I found the cache, as Alan's GPS was 100ft out - so a good team effort.

Then after another nice little multi in a Royal Park next to the river we went on to the main event. It was great to see some other cachers from Essex and we said hello to many more from all over the world. An American woman took some trackables that wanted to head that way, as did some some Belgiums with a trackable that wanted to get to Disnleyland Paris! We all proudly displayed our flags, signed the logbook and swapped more trackables, before heading off to our various corners of the world. Two ladies were actually going straight from the even to the airport. How's that for cosmopolitan.
Have you noticed that the large England flag that I am holding up is upside down? Apparently this signifies distress. I declare that I was sincerely distressed and utterly exhausted after a hard day's caching. But I went home very happy and finished the day off with a nice cold cider on the train home.