The main event, Mega day itself, and it was dry and sunny and a lovely day. There were two focal points for the proceedings, the Marquee at the campsite where all prior events had taken place and the college building itself where the stallholders were to set upWe, the Yorkshire 2018 Mega committee decided we didn’t like the place we had been allocated in the building (it just wasn’t big enough) so set up outside on the lawn instead… and just to get a second bite at the cherry we also set up another stall outside the Marquee, where all the food stalls were. So you couldn’t get into the main building without passing us and you couldn’t get to the food stalls without passing us… two bites at the Cherry !
5th August 2017 – Devon UK Mega 2017 – GC6JZNY – cache #4443
All week the number of people wearing Purple 2018 Mega shirts was great, and on the Devon Mega day itself purple was definitely the colour of the day… We really nailed it with all the shirts we sold.
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 1 – cache #4444
As usual at Megas there was a set of Lab Caches, some better than others. The theme for this set was 10 years of Megas and all the codewords were Mega venue in leetspeak so that they couldn’t be easily guessed
The first one ‘Eh Up Me Duck’ was written on the bottom of a duck – GAY>ON
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 2 – cache #4445
Geocaching Crossover’ A QR code reader was required for this – BUDLE!GH SAL^ERTON
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 3 – cache #4446
‘Puzzle Me This’ Put the pieces together to reveal – WEST0N-SUPER-MAR3
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 4 – cache #4447
‘Granny’s Pants’ when hung out on the line spell out – LLANGO((EN
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 5 – cache #4448
‘Musical Chairs’ and on the bottom is written – @YR
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 6 – cache #4449
‘The Treasure Chest’ Try all the keys until you get the right one to reveal – SWAN$EA
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 7 – cache #4450
‘Locate the Code’ sort through the jackets to find – P3RTH
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 8 – cache #4451
‘Gunge Tank’ maybe their initial idea got scaled back because this was more of a ‘slime bucket’ – C%RTMEL
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 9 – cache #4452
‘Water Torture’ plug the holes to get the water to flow – #ARROGATE
5th August 2017 – Lab Cache 10 – cache #4453
‘Flag to Signal’ the Popham code reveals 8ILLER!CAY
2017 Mega Day 7
The day following the Mega is traditionally reserved for the following years Mega to introduce people to what is happening in 12 months time – thing is I think everybody already knew !
At this event we revealed just one thing – Skelton the log sheep !
6th August 2017 – DM17: Thank You Devon! – GC76554 – cache #4454
So to thank the local community for their hospitality we had a CITO on the beach at Exmouth, a nice day to clear up a fairly clean beach
6th August 2017 – DM17:YM18 Beach Barbecue! – GC76586 – cache #4455
CITO followed by a Beach Barbecue, bit of a split between the beach and the park, but everyone signed the logsheep
6th August 2017 – “The Hotspot” (Devon) – GCM8ZK – cache #4456
One of the last few Webcam caches left in Britain, In the photo I am the right hand person sitting on the blue box
6th August 2017 – Exmouth Seafront – Maer Local Nature Reserve – GC1916J – cache #4457
Found while at the Devon Mega Beach Barbecue event, well you had to walk past it to get from the beach where some people were barbecuing to the park where the others were barbecuing
6th August 2017 – Gone But Not Forgotten 5 East Budleigh – GC12H22 – cache #4458
At the Mega I was staying for the week in the Kings Arms in Otterton and every night I walked up this path to Bicton Campsite and about midnight walked back down the path back to the pub… Come the end of the week I had walked past this 12 times so thought on my last walk up to the college I had better actually stop off and find the cache !
7th August 2017 – DM17: “Bun and Brew” Farewell to Devon – GC6Z5TW – cache #4459
The traditional end to the Mega campsite, it was hard to believe it was time to go home already – There was a lot of standing around wating for the kettle to boil but that just meant longer goodbyes
7th August 2017 – Motorway Mayhem – M5 – Gloucester Services (North) – GC54KMR – cache #4460
I’d spent the previous 9 days caching at the Cheddar Piratemania and Devon Mega events with CoinKezza, &Ruby and Hedgehog Mum as “Team PAKA” an amalgamation of our initials
We left Bicton Gardens at about 11:30, in 3 cars all with different plans for places to go on the way home.
I had stopped for a coffee in one service station, been to Glastonbury for a look round and was back on my way home when at about 15:30 I pulled into Gloucester Services for an urgently needed comfort break.
Walking towards the toilets I heard “Hello Phil” from behind me, and turned around and there were CoinKezza, &Ruby and Hedgehog Mum at a table having some refreshment – apparently their two cars had met there at that time as coincidentally as I had met them.
“Come on, we’re off to find a cache” – and I was dragged out across the car park to the cache which was duly recovered and signed (Team PAAK I think this one was as I was the one with the pen so my initial went on first !)
I had no idea that there was a cache at the Services and I hadn’t intended to meet anyone there so this was a totally coincidental cache find for me !
