Looking at my Google map of all the places that I have visited, for free, with my bus pass, I noticed a bit of a gap out to the east. So today’s destination is Leicester.
Checking both the Geocaching and Adventure Lab apps, I was glad to see a number of both in the city but I would be concentrating on the AdLabs but with Team Balders’ seven thousandth cache coming up, I wanted to make sure that #7,000 was a real cache.
To make it something, a little special, I found a, rare, virtual cache at the site of King Richard III’s final resting place.
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch, the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.
Richard’s corpse was taken to the nearby town of Leicester and buried without ceremony. In 2012, an archaeological excavation was commissioned on the site previously occupied by Grey Friars Priory. The University of Leicester identified the human skeleton found at the site as that of Richard III as a result of radiocarbon dating, comparison with contemporary reports of his appearance, identification of trauma sustained at Bosworth and comparison of his mitochondrial DNA with that of two matrilineal descendants of his sister Anne. He was reburied in Leicester Cathedral in 2015.
Going out East, I needed to get to Coventry which was achieved by use of the X12 and X1.
At Coventry’s Pool Meadow bus station, I had a wait of forty minutes for the X6. After topping up on provisions I could do little else but wait.
When the bus did finally arrive, and once it had cleared Coventry, I whizzed along the M69 at a rate of knots.
The bus detoured off to service the village of Burbage before rejoining the motorway.
In Leicester, I alighted a couple of stops before the bus station and set off for my first AdLab.
I steadily, ticked off the AdLabs, being cautious so that when my total was to hit 7,000, I would be at the cathedral doing the virtual cache.
To claim the find, I had to answer a few questions about Dick and post a photo at the site (see left).
With find #7,000 in the bag, I continued with the Adventure Labs discovering some of the history of the city.
I have been to Leicester before (back in my working days) but never saw half of the places that I’d been taken to today, thanks to Geocaching.
Checking the time and the timetables, I decided that it was time to wrap up and make my way back.
A short stroll along the Grand Union canal (Leicester Line) brought me to my stop and a wait of around ten minutes before the returning X6.
As I was waiting, and at the time the X6 should arrive, a coach trundled down the road. Oddly, it had ‘X6’ on the front of it. It stopped, and I climbed on board.
Although it was a coach (a Temsa Safari HD12) it had a ticket machine and pass/card reader.
I settled down in my reclining, air conditioned seat, ready for my return trip to Coventry.
This X6, returned by a slightly different route, calling at Hinckley which added a fair few minutes to the journey. Luckily it didn’t add too much extra and I caught my connection with minutes to spare.
Approaching Birmingham Airport (BHX), I discovered (thanks to Bustimes.org) that I had missed my next bus.
However, as some compensation, I managed to complete the Birmingham Airport Adventure Lab series. Scarily, the map shows that locations as on a taxiway, but the geo-fencing was set very wide to the drive past the front of the building put me in range.
The next bus heading my was would be a 97a (the ‘a‘ signifying that it calls at the airport). Whilst waiting I got chatting with a woman who started reminiscing about the now defunct 966 service from Solihull to Sutton via the airport. When I did my stint at BHX, I used to use the 966 bus get home.
The 97a deposited me at Chelmsley Wood from where a 94 took me home.
To top off the evening, Sue and I retired to The Griffin where I regaled her with my ‘adventures’ in Leicester.