Ferry Meadows Rumble - A Cachers' Day Out!!

Pip_Squeek and I have been on the look out for events recently, and we were very excited to attend our first, Ferry Meadows Rumble!

We arrived a little after 10:30 with EveryonesMum and the Anticachers in tow, and signed the log. We stayed around a while and chatted, explored the TB's on offered and I swapped some around before we decided to head out. Unfortunately, EveryonesMum couldn't join us today as she is not yet a Premium Member (Boo!) so she and my Anticacher left to have an impromptu driving lesson, and we dragged Pip_Squeek's Anticacher around with us!

He found a stick to harass us all with...!

We had the intention of hitting all of the FM Rumble series, but that quickly became apparent it wasn't going to happen - they're a lot bigger than they look! We started off chronologically, picking up a few that we were also missing as neither of us had cached the park at all yet but the first cache evaded us. We weren't sure what we were looking for and with a large amount of tree cover, our GPS's kept throwing us back and forth. With such a large selection of trees and possible locations, and with so many caches to find, we moved on after about 10 minutes. 

At #2, we caught up with the Chilly gang and their lovely Geokids. They already had this cache, and thanks to the Anticachers keen eye, we soon did too. Working together for #3, we then split so that we could do up and do GC2PXJC - 007 Octopussy Bridge. I had no idea we had a local interest in the 007 films, so it was an interesting historical aspect for me, but no cache here, unfortunately. :(

Do do do do do, de do do.... DO DO, do do dooooo!

(Sorry!)

Back on track at #4, and catching Chilly again and they left and now the finds start rolling in again. We joint find #5 and split again - we had already decided to do it in an order that felt logical for us, so we headed for #6, then #8, #7 and #9, resulting in us zig-zagging across the field. At #9 we headed for an interesting piece of local art, passing a family on the way down, only to realise we were heading the wrong way and turned ourselves around. In doing so, we caught the eye of the family we passed and they came and introduced themselves as Rivereagle, and we shared the find with them after their geokids had struggled - Lovely to meet you all!

Triumphant Gandalf-Cacher!

We were warned by Rivereagles that the next cache's co-ordinates were out, as they were working the opposite way around, and so we were cautious at the next, using the clue that they had given us. We were joined by not one but two other cachers, 2versus1 and Smiglet, and Pip_Squeek claimed the find by eye here. Onwards with 2versus1 and while we hunted by the bank, Mrs2v1 claimed the find at #11, after we all thought Mr2v1 had got it! We stayed with them for #12 and then split again, and feeling rather like we were stalking them stumbled upon the Chilly gang again, we shared our find at #14.

Back at the main centre of Ferry Meadows, we decided enough was enough for one day, and after having found Frenchtart and Canillo25 to help us with the last find, we packed up and went home.

The caches were a lovely circuit but I'm not sure they're worthy of being premium caches - It's such a shame that everyonesmum couldn't join us! Mind you, it is just my opinion that a cache should be exceptional in order to attract the premium only tag, perhaps I'm being snobbish with that.
After reading through comments on this post, and a bit of googling, it appears in a chinese-whisper sort of way I've misunderstood this! Although my understanding that Premium caches can be exceptional containers or locations is correct, it is also accepted that they are in high-footfall, high-risk areas where muggles are likely to destroy containers. It also turns out that Everyonesmum could have joined us and there are ways to allow her to log the finds, but from what I've read on the forums it's becoming increasingly controversial, with a quote from a Groundspeak moderator being; "We are currently looking into out Guidelines in regards to basic members logging Premium Member cachers and will clarify this issue in the future". I wait with baited breath.... (Thanks to HolyWarrior/MarcusMaximi for helping me clarify this!)

The event was lots of fun and I have lots of trackables to catch up with now, as well as some new ones to trael it. It was really lovely to see so many cachers around, meet with them and to share our experiences with them - Really looking forward to the CITO events now!!

OH! I just remembered - This took me over 400 too! Yippee!!

-RFF

-Finds Today - 18 + 1 event each, just the event for EM.

-Finds Total - RFF; 402, PS, 284, EM; 44