100th Cache!!!

This was logged on the 20th of June 2011

Thame Town Teaser [Oxon]

Not only my 100th cache, but also my last one in Thame (that is capable of being done at the moment) my caching started in Thame at St Marys so it seems fitting that I'm back here for the 100th. I have been doing this one on and off for the week. Starting on Thursday the 16th I spent a lovely morning in Thame. I thought I knew Thame really well I live nearby and spent much of my youth here but this series has not failed to surprise me with each step, I swear I must walk around with my eyes closed!! I managed to find all of the numbers up to P pretty quickly but I could not find the micro at St Marys. I left it for the day (I thought) and entered a DNF to let track my progress. Later that day at home I thought about it a bit more and decided to abandon the micro. After using Google and some local knowledge I found the next bit of the trail and I was off again to check for the next micro even though it was getting quite late. I hadn't realised but I was much further on than I thought and I spent a fair amount of time looking in a place that had been muggled (which was why the cache was deactivated). As I scratched my head I got an email from the owner of the cache. The first of many it turned out! Team Hippo are probably the most friendly and helpful owners I have ever encountered since starting this hobby. The email wasn't very detailed and certainly didn't tell me exactly where to look but it was more than enough to help me to find the micro at St. Marys, it was actually dark when I found it that night. I had left the grid until this point figuring that something later on would help with that giving it no more than a cursory glance. At the prompting of Team Hippo I took a better look and solved it quickly while lying in bed at about midnight (not that I was obsessing about it or anything). From there it was a wait until the cache was reactivated. This happened some time on Sunday and I flew out the door as soon as I saw it come up. I found the relocated micro without too much drama and carried on from there... which I won't go into so I don't spoil it for you. Suffice to say I needed several other tidbits of help from the owner and had a brilliant adventure involving often needlessly laying face down on the ground (planking?), a newfound mistrust of animals, stinging nettles, a crown of thorns, cannibalism, mud / water and near death. I will be actively looking for more team hippo caches I love the way this cache has stretched me, it has been annoying, challenging, and hard work but utterly rewarding and it never failed to make me smile and shake my head at the genius / evil of the cache owner and has been really funny in places it absolutely deserves it’s place as a special milestone in my caching history it’s safe to say this has permanently changed the way I look at caching as well as inspiring me to do my own someday. I can’t recommend this highly enough. Thank you so much for the cache and all of your help Team Hippo you are legends.