My journey home was planned with 15 Church Micros. The first stop was in the village of Walpole St Peter which also has a YOSM that I had DNF’d on my way home the year before because it is not visible from the narrow road and there is nowhere to park anywhere nearby. But as I was stopping for the Church Micro I parked by the church and walked over half a mile along to the nearest access to the trig point. There must have been some sort of event going on in the village as the air was filled with the sounds of a band playing rock and blues music at a loud volume (The Yardbird’s ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’ and Elvis’s ‘Little Sister’ were typical of the music while I was there), but I never found out what or where it was – certainly not visible from any road I walked or drove along.

27th July 2014 – Ye Ole Survey Monuments GC45CC – cache #3361
YSM042 – Walpole St Peters
This time I did claim the find as at least I could see the pillar – which is down a private house’s drive behind a locked gate, so a photograph from the end of the drive is the best you can get without intruding.

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5464…Walpole St Peter GC51ZGJ – cache #3362
The cache was easy enough to find and I had a walk around the churchyard to look at the enormous church (apparently one of the largest ‘village churches’ in the country… never seen a church with a tunnel through it before ! (the church is so long that the end of the knave is raised up to go over the footpath through the churchyard)

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5593…Walpole St Andrew GC51ZGW – cache #3363
I was muggled while doing this cache by a guy driving down the road in a Scorpion Tank… fortunately he was going at such a high speed he would only have seen me standing by the trees not known what I was doing !
(Scorpion tanks have rubber treads on their tracks so as not to damage tarmac roads and a top speed of about 50mph… he wasn’t going quite this fast but it did slide well on the sharp corner !)

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 4952 …Gedney GC4WQQH – cache #3364
There was a flower festival on at the church so plenty of people coming and going… and the cache was just too high for me to reach from the ground, so I had to wait for a gap in the passers by and then use the gate as a ladder to reach the cache… and to replace it

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 1550 – Surfleet GC2MGCD – cache #3365
I was a little concerned by the amount of nettles here and the length of Armco barrier to be searched, but I managed to find it without getting stung 🙂

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5090…Gosberton GC4XET1 – cache #3366
I struggled to find the church here – I guess I am so used to navigating to CM’s by spires and towers of medieval churches that a modern one just doesn’t look like a church. But eventually when I had found somewhere to park I walked along to the coordinates, found the cache and saw the church

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5362…Beckingham GC4ZPHY – cache #3367
I decided then that two CM’s that I had planned to go for I would miss out on, I just couldn’t face going into Sleaford town centre on a hot Sunday afternoon, so instaed I just stayed on the A17 until I got to Beckingham, where I had an easy find as the prescriptive hint (third tree on the left at head height) made this an easy find

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5332…Cromwell GC4Z8R0 – cache #3368
There was an old couple sitting on the bench by the side of the road just next to the church… I pulled up at the church, got out of the car to have a look at the church and take some pictures, all the while being watched by these two, then I got back into the car and drove 50 yards up the road and pulled up on the opposite side by the cache.. still being observed, so I lifted up my boot lid and rummaged around inside, then when they weren’t looking reached up and grabbed the cache, signed it and then again when they looked away reached up and replaced it.

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5333…Norwell GC4Z8TW – cache #3369
Sunday is not a good time for visiting Church Micros, in the morning the churches are full of worshippers and in the afternoon full of people visiting graves and also cutting the grass and tidying up the churchyard. At this cache I had both the latter, the obvious place to park was occupied by a car with some people taking flowers to a grave, there was a bloke strimming the grass in the churchyard and another mowing the lawn of the house on the other side of the road. So I had to park at the other end of the church and be very surreptitious about grabbing the cache from next to the parked car !

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 4064…Moorhouse GC4J3RK – cache #3370
A lovely old country village church, pity all the farm machinery is parked next to it.

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 4069…Egmanton GC4J3RM – cache #3371
The biggest Church Micro cache I have found and also the one most in plain sight (as long as you are looking in the right place !)

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5803…West Markham GC54JE4 – cache #3372
Parked next to the church and started walking down to the cache, exchanged friendly greetings with the bloke who was painting the end house, but fortunately he went inside straight after that as the cache site is in full view of his garden… then a couple came walking down the road just as I grabbed the cache, so I had to walk further up the road, cache in hand and exchange pleasantries with them as well… after a few minutes I retraced my steps, replaced the cache then went up into the churchyard to have a look at the church and take a photograph

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 4943…Elkesley GC4WMVE – cache #3373
A nice easy find, could hide in the bus shelter from the people sitting outside the pub so they couldn’t see what I was doing

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 5621…Hooton Pagnell GC52MD2 – cache #3374
An extra CM that Ihadn’t actually planned on doing – and if I had I would have done it on the way down as I had to pass the churches at Marr and Brodsworth to get to it, but it was another nice easy find, then I went to have a look around the churchyard and take a photograph

27th July 2014 – Church Micro 4553…Wentbridge GC4RZ4V – cache #3375
Last of 14 Church Micros found my way home. A final diversion off the A1. No problem finding the cache, the co-ords were spot on