Mud Central aka "Briz Valley"

February 27th 2010

So with 3 caches already in the bag from this mornings session, it was a well fed team that went back out in the afternoon. Just 2 caches in the afternoon would mean we have a new monthly record....5 more and we would have a new annual record!

We set off to a new housing estate on the outskirts of Burton on Trent. The first one that Mrs Shiltonpig is currently working on to the left was fairly straight forward for us to find and was strange to find one in this type of location.....

Next up was the first a couple that we would care to forget...sadly the first we will mention was on a bridge and we couldn't find it, it didn't help that it was muddy and when I say muddy it was muddier than mud itself...oh and the nearby dog poo didn't help.

We walked to a nearby pond, the self taken photo of Mr Shiltonpig sums how he felt about this next one...he had to squelch and squelch over the muddiest of fields to reach the cache, then he couldn't get near the co-ordinates and so he had to squelch around some more...finally though he was able to find it. Sadly Mrs Shiltonpig couldn't get to this one because of our wee Josh.

However one of the things we would like you to think about is whether or not the picture on the left represents a pond or not....Of course for those of you by now that are keeping track, we have found 2 caches and that means a new Team Shiltonpig monthly record! Yay to us....

Next up was a cache that we didn't take a photo of, it was a cache and dash type of cache....didn't have any redeeming features and to be honest, can't imagine that it will stay in our memories very long...unlike the ones from this morning.

That meant we only had one to do this afternoon and took us to what the cache owner calls it "the lolly stick". Sadly by the time we got there the lolly had all gone and Mr Shiltonpig was left to pose by it with a cache that curiously looked like something you might take to the hopsital with you full of urine. Nevertheless the cache was found and made 4 this afternoon and 7 in total today....very pleased we are with ourselves too. While the caches this afternoon themselves were not the greatest we have ever done, they did provide a challenge at times, and we still have to go back and finish one off.

We are now on the countdown to our 100th cache find....with only 7 more caches to go until we hit that big number. Not sure what adventures we will get up to before then...but onwards and upwards...

Righto, off to make a cuppa....wonder whose turn it is?

Winshill Water Tower Part 1

February 27th 2010

Last night had been a celebratory indian takeaway and a bottle of nice Italian wine.....today it was back to business....working our way to that seemingly impossible target of 100 cache finds.

Josh had finished playing with his toy snake meaning we were out the door by 9.30 (a new record in itself) ready to drive to the Winshill district of Burton on Trent. Interesting read on this area http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=12371 The first cache took us to Winshill Water Tower and for the life of me I can't seem to find out why they built this tower in 1907, it is in the middle of a very nice surburban road and cannot see a direct reason for this being here.

The cache itself took us a short while to find, and we were on our way onto the next one. Now this second cache was approached with some fear, Mr Shiltonpig had done his homework and had been able to find out that specialist tools would be needed for the cache.

Mr Shiltonpig had been carrying many many tools in team Shiltonpigs backpack ready to tackle this cache. Ironically when we got to the cache, not only did we spot it straight but we didn't need any tools what so ever to be able to access it which was great. Certainly one of the best caches in terms of innovation, we have yet to come across. The East Midlands caches certainly give you a chance to exercise those grey cells that it for sure.

We have never been big fans of Burton on Trent for some strange reason, but the views that this particular cache offers is well worth it. You can see the entire town and we would never have thought that the views would be that good as they were up here. It was at this precise moment we met a lovely lady who had lived in this area for 26 years, she told us that on a clear day you can see Dovedale from here....thats pretty impressive that is for sure. She told us about how nice it is in the summer at sunset.

The photo on the left tries to show you some of what you can see, but so often with photos, it doesn't do the area any justice at all. Mrs Shiltonpig was supposed to have captured the horse in this photo as well...I will leave it up to the reader of this blog to decide what you think of her photo skills!!

As we walked further down the path we came across another horse, its a shame we didn't have a carrot, as clearly it wanted more than a stroke on its nose....but Josh loved the horse and was mesmorised by it. Having said that Josh doesn't know the noise a horse makes yet and so he will have to learn that for another time.

The 3rd and final cache took us down an even muddier path and we bumped into the lovely laday again with her dog. We wondered how it was possible to bump into the same woman at exactly the 2 places that caches were hidden...coincidence or was she some kind of geocache spy lol! Anyway it didn't take us long to find the cache...Mrs Shiltonpig claiming the honours for this one.

It was a lovely walk that we carried on right to the end and came out at a cemetary, much to Mrs Shiltonpigs joy. On the way back however we didn't realise just how much uphill it was, and poor old Mr Shiltonpig was carrying the lump known as Josh on his back. Pretty muddy too on the way back and poor old Mrs Shiltonpig was slipping and sliding all the way back.

This is the reason we go geocaching...an area we never knew about, never would have go and yet has turned out to be a really nice morning!!

Right time for some lunch!

Ashby De La Evil Cache!

Sunday 21st February 2010

When a Norman man in the 1100's by the name of Alain de Parrhoet, la Zouch came to what is now known as the region of Leicestershire, little did he know that 900 or so years later that Team Shiltonpig would be searching for some of the most evil caches we have yet come across.

It had snowed 3-4 inches this morning and by some amazement it had melted largely by 1pm, which meant that we could get out and do some caches......

First up was a cache alongside the most dog poo ridden path team Shiltonpig had yet the honour of walking down....and just to top it off we looked and looked and had our first "did not find" of the day.

However next up was a cache by the local museum, the truth be told, we couldn't find this cache either. We looked in all manner of trees and stumps and ivy and even found a box of raffle tickets that we weren't suposed to, but we couldn't find it.

We went home, did some research on the net and came back out again....and if you look closely at the photo on the left you will see why we couldn't find it.....this is called a nano cache and surely is the smallest cache we have ever found...can you believe there is actually a rolled up paper log book inside this tiny thing....this was an evil cache and one that had us baffled quite a lot...didn't help with the snow and the fact that the co-ords were slightly off.

Ashby Castle has hosted all manner of famous guests and royalty....Henry 7th and Mary Queen of Scots.....but none are as special and important as the two visitors on the right. The cache at this location was superb, and was definitely in our top 5 of all time. If you look closely at the photo you can actually see the cache, but were not going to tell you every secret that we come across....some things are best left to yourself......plus not sure quite how they fitted a video game into the clue but they did......

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.11638

This was a lovely day and got us walking around the area of Ashby that we had never been to before...we were used to being around the Chinese takeaway and local curry house but never stretched to the castle.

As we started walking through a field to the next cache, we came across a large snowman...we will not repeat what Mrs Shiltonpig said about the snowman when we first saw it, but needless to say Josh was just as impressed as this snowman as the one that I did for him yesterday.

After Mr Shiltonpig had got us lost, we finally came upon the last cache....as before we looked and looked and looked but couldn't find it. When we got home to do more research it didn't help that 3 year olds who were blindfolded had found it, in fact everyone and their grandmother had found it...bar us.

So the "never say never" attitude of team Shiltonpig meant we were back out in the car and heading back out for the third evil cache of the afternoon.

Yes by the grimace on Mrs Shiltonpigs face, you guessed it this was another teeny tiny cache again, magnetic and stuck to something we had checked the first time!!

We have now found 86 caches in total....all shapes and sizes....there is no question about it, the 3 that we found this afternoon were the most evilish devious caches that were known to team Shiltonpig.......

A Day out in Lichfield!

Saturday 20th February 2010

Lichfield....a city of 2 halves....

Recently I posed a question on the geocaching forum of when do you stop becoming a newbie when it comes to geocaching...I had many answers, one of which is "when you start to plan your holidays around how many geocaches there are in the area"....Well Mrs Shiltonpig needed to do some shopping, so we looked at which city centre had the most caches and sure enough, there was a whole array of caches for us to look at in Lichfield, certainly more than we could manage with Josh....so off we set.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichfield

Lichfield for us is in two parts, the new part of the city which is pretty much like any town in the country and then there is the old part which is sooooo pleasant to walk around...

So first up was a cache just a stones throw away from where we parked the car, right next to Lichfield train station, took us just a moment to find the cache, much to Mrs Shiltonpigs delight. This cache was very well camouflaged and just goes to show you that with a bit fo effort you can make things interesting. Josh is holding the barkoflage in his hands and wondering what the heck it is.

Next up Wetherspoons, Team Shiltonpigs favourite pub to which we spend our hard earned cache...sorry hard earned cash! (Don't worry the jokes will get better...honest!)

After some gammon and salmon (though not on the same plate) we headed out for some shopping and then much to Mr Shiltonpigs relief we carried on to Beacon park for some pleasant walking.....

Mrs Shiltonpig got quickly into the spirit of it and was soon shoving her hand in all manner of holes, and fighting off branches and beating off twigs and sticks. In fact the second cache of the afternoon saw Mrs Shiltonpig have to face the most twig infested tree we have ever seen and took some getting to, and she did it in all fairness. Not afraid of getting her hands dirty!

It was quite a large cache for the middle of the tree and Josh was just itching to be let out his pushchair and couldn't wait to explore the snow ridden field...

Just look at that gorgeous face to see the genuine happiness in his eyes as he ran everywhere in his new shoes.....

The next cache took us right to the other end of the park, and past plenty of ducks, streams and child play area, full of parents and kids having a good time.....

It was only natural then that despite the next cache quite clearly being not there, that Josh should have his fair share of play time as well.

This blog cannot show all the photos of Josh on a swing and all kind of other bits and pieces...but Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig enjoyed seeing him happy and causing all kinds of mischief as he wondered aimlessly around the park.

Next on the cache list was certainly not a glamorous one, it was on the corner of a supermarket roundabout. In order to find it Mr Shiltonpig had to pretend that he was tying up his shoe laces, the only thing was as he bent down, he realised he was wearing slip ons...oh well. Inside was a toy slug, which had its own suckerpad on...it was cool. We dropped off a geocoin there and started to walk back to the car....

The final cache of the afternoon took us to another railway at the other side of the city, this was a micro cache. Initially the co-ords positioned the cache in the middle of the road, but having done a little research we knew where it would be and after looking for a short while in ivy, Mrs Shiltonpig gave that big smile of hers to say that she had found it! Hooray our fourth of the day and a thoroughly enjoyable cache it was too!

So after travelling all the way to Lichfield and finding 4 caches we were very pleased with ourselves, but this meant only one thing was left to do!! McDonalds large chocolate milkshake and Greggs Belgian Bun (2 for £1)......yum yum yum.....(and a choccy cookie for Josh too!) Lichfield....we will be back!

Signal in the snow!

Saturday 20th February 2010

How did this interesting snow frog come about? Well for those of you that don't know the East Midlands has had its fair amount of snow recently and it was only fair that while Mrs Shiltonpig had her haircut that Mr Shiltonpig try and keep Josh occupied with things to do.

Well after being inspired by the BBC last month with viewers posting in their ice sculptures and igloos and fancy snow figures, I realised these days just creating a snowman is just so 20th Century lol I decided to make a snow "Signal the Frog". For those of you who have no idea who Signal is there is a real picture for you as well. Signal is the mascot of Groundspeak who own the http://www.geocaching.com/ website.

So while Josh was stomping around the garden in his new blue suede shoes (Elvis eat your heart out) and preparing to be told off by his mommy when he came home...Mr Shiltonpig was giving Leonardo da Vinci a run for his money with his snow portrait......

So what did Josh think of this amazing feat of human design and creativity? I think the photo below say it all....oh well I won't give up my day job!!!

Shiltonpigs "First" First to Find

Friday 19th February 2010

Wow! What an evening...never in a million years did we think we would find a cache first...otherwise known as a first to find or FTF.

The story starts in a warm cosy living room watching a film with the fire blazing and team shiltonpig all cuddled up and warm...Mr Shiltonpig was looking at the Emcache website, when up pops someone saying....ooh a new cache has just appeared in Ashby de la Zouch. Mr Shiltonpig tells Mrs Shiltonpig and after looking at each other going "shall we go for it"...we decide...yup!

We grab the cache bag and of course take time to make Josh aka Shiltonpiggy nice and warm, we rushed to the car and started on the journey along the road....all kinds of thoughts were going through our heads...not being premium members means we are always too slow to find a cache first, but the fact this cache was published on a dark evening meant we were in with a chance.

Its hard to explain the adrenaline rush that this particular cache provided us, and had to be up there with our best cache experience! By the time we had drove down the country lanes, we realised that we were now in blizzard conditions with snow coming down fast.

In addition we had never been caching at night before....(night caches are a different kind of cache and we hope to do one soon, will explain the difference when we do one), so was unsure if the gps would even work...however Mr Shiltonpig switched it on and after some rare moments 5 satellites kicked in and hey bingo we were in busy....you can see the conditions we were walking through in pitch darkness to the left. And if the isn't good enough for you, we took a close

up of the snow as well...just to show you how crazy these particular geocachers really are!

So anyway when we switched on the gps we were a mere 300 ft away....soon 200 ft...120ft, 80 ft and finally we were at the correct location!

In front of us lay a log.....in the dark with only a torch and Josh as company, we realised that finding this cache may not be as straight forward as we thought, however Mr Shiltonpig shoved his hand around many different parts of the log, when finally he noticed something strange and sure enough after getting a pile of thorns in his hand, Mr Shiltonpig found it and generated the first photo in this log!

The feeling of finding our "first" first to find was brilliant! The snow was coming down heavy, but we didn't notice....I'm sure some song out there talks about doing something silly everyday, well today we met our quota!

When we opened the cache and spotting the empty logbook and a sealed bag it was in, was music to our ears! We had finally found it, after 78 previous attempts and 2.5 years and 1 child! But it was worth it......

This was our craziest and fastest cache to date, but there is no doubt that this cache will remain in our memories for a long long time to come!

The drive home in blizzard conditions was a mere blur as we reflected on a very very strange 30 minutes....but well worth it....

No doubt about it...geocaching at its best!

Cache and Poo!

Feb 14th 2010

Apparently the world record for caches found in 24 hours is 324. Which means 1 cache is found every 5 minutes...clearly however these amazing record was not completed with a 17 month old toddler....in particular one called Josh.

Some geocaches are called "cache and dash" because they are close to the road and can be quickly found. We wanted to get some paint from the newly opened Wickes and thought along the way we could do a few sneaky caches.

First up was a cache near a wood....this wood had clearly got into the spirit of geocaching as it has hidden a millenium stone in the woods for the public to find....the rather smug looking Mrs Shiltonpig however spotted the cache within 30 seconds....(the fact that it had a 100 foot high neon light above it saying "Find me" was not the point).

The cache in question was indeed "lucky" as it had a horseshoe around it to identify where it was....strangely we didn't notice that until after we found the cache.....

Josh however was starting to smell and as soon as Mr Shiltonpig put him on the shoulders...it was clear that this was not going to a be a cache and dash it was going to be a cache and poo!

One nappy change later and we were ready to tackle the next one....this was to take us down the very busy main A road in this part of the world...as we walked down it, we realised just how crazy we were...and the lengths that geocaching had taken us to.

But yet again geocaching came up trumps...we were walking in what would be considered an unattractive part of the world, the clouds turned a dark grey and looked like rain...Mr Shiltonpig turned to the left and saw this corn? field and took his favourite "moody" picture to date..something about the colurs just make it a nice shot...of course you might be looking at the photo and thinking whats special about it...but lets face it "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Now caches come in all shapes and sizes and we knew from the records that this was going to be a unique container, didn't realise just how unique. In fact even though the gps took us right slap bang to the correct location, and Mr Shiltonpig spotted the correct cache, because of the nature of what it was, we almost discarded it instantly...but a double take meant that we looked again and sure enough it was a cache.

Josh is holding and looking curiously at the cache...to be honest we could not believe that it was a cache.

Now some caches are collated together in what is known as a series. Some series then go on to have clues in them, which in turn once you solve the clues will lead you on to one last final cache. This cache was the first of one such series and as we have never successfully done this type of cache, we look forward to more as the weeks go by.

So back in the car and we drove to the nearby Tescos for one last cache of the afternoon. Josh started grumbling, but Mrs Shiltonpig was in form today as she walked on ahead and within 10 seconds was shouting what Team Shiltonpig always wants to hear "I've found it". Again a very very strange container and one that we couldn't get into fully, plus the log was soaking wet so we couldn't write on it...instead we used our brains and stuck a very appropriate "piglet" sticker on it. Josh was still grumbling so we started heading back to the car....as we got into the car Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig couldn't help wondering if we had trod in dog poo...we took all our shoes off and checked and thankfully we hadn't. But the smell continued to linger....

As we got home it became evident that the smell was in fact our dear son Josh...the biggest poo we have seen...so big that the only way was to get rid of the smell was a long bath!

There are many reasons why this blogger enjoys the hobby of geocaching.....today like most days, its just nice to get out and be with family.

Oh and by the time we got to Wickes it had closed...oh well...who needs DIY anyway?

3 steps forward...1 step back!

13th February 2010

Geocaching can be like a toilet...sometimes you can be the person sitting on it, sometimes you can be the toilet bowl. Today for the main part we were the person sitting on the toilet!

Over the course of the last 3 weeks, we have collated 3 caches which for various reasons we haven't been able to find....one cache was because Mr Shiltonpig entered the wrong co-ordinates, second was because we couldn't find it, and the third was because it wasn't there when we looked for it the first time.
We had to go back to Conkers, we might as well post the website as we wish we were on commission as we have plugged the place so much over the course over the last several weeks...
http://www.visitconkers.com/ . The first cache was stuck in a tree and Mrs Shiltonpig is known as being the size of a hobbit and so couldn't reach the cache (photo below). Mr Shiltonpig being known as being the size of an Ent was able to reach it and the first cache was in the bag!















Josh of course was on the back of Daddy and enjoying looking for planes and birds. Back in the car and after some amazing reverse driving we parked about 1 mile away. With Josh on his back again, team Shiltonpig set off for the final cache in the Waterside Wander series...number 13...(spooky music goes on in the background). After a short walk we were able to find this cache easily it was stuck in a hollow....we could swear that it wasn't there last time we looked, but hey the geocaching gods were being kind to us today lol Josh fell over twice and was covered top to toe in mud, he loved it!














Back in the car again and we drove to a place called Saltersford Valley...nobody was there at all. It was great. We had been last week but the idiot otherwise known as Mr Shiltonpig had typed in the wrong co-ordinates meaning they had walked all around the lakes a few times without getting close to the cache. This week aimed with the right co-ords, we still managed to walk the wrong way. However we able to find the cache in no time....our 75th cache and 3/4s of the way to our first proper mile stone...100 finds! Mr Shiltonpig spotted the likely hiding place in seconds!

As mentioned last week we picked up 3 travelbugs, this week we picked up two more...the one that Josh is holding called Bonzo and a London Eye geocoin. Its always great to find them, and rehide them...it might be a good time to say that we dropped one in some water...but it was perfectly fine! After some Cadburys chocolate and 7UP (product placement....eat your heart out) we were ready to try and tackle one more cache. This cache would be one we had not attempted before.....















We then drove to "The Heart of the National Forest"and parked the car....does anyone else notice that moles seem to love this time of year...everywhere we look moles are a plenty...but do you ever see one? No. However we did spot a very rare purple hat spotted bird....but noticed it was just Mrs Shiltonpig.

This 4th cache would get us unstuck...yet again. We spent around 45 minutes looking for a cache that was not there...(it was really, just we couldn't find it). I mean the clues are supposed to help you....the clue was look under leaves by a fallen tree. That would normally be the best clue in the world but in reality, there were like a million billion zillion fallen trees with ifinite amounts of leaves all over the place...plus to top it all off the gps signal was bouncing all over the place due to the tree cover making it impossible to track it down! Team Shiltonpig implore all cachers to give meaningful clues! Please...pretty please with sugar and icing on top and even a cherry!















Team Shiltonpig has had a recent addition to the team in recent weeks, and if it carries on will be more popular than the other 3 put together....the new addition? Joshs hat!

Joshs hat clearly feels that it can last by itself and find caches quicker than the other 3, this can only explain why it chooses every opportunity to try and escape, just look at the photo above, it jumped off Joshs head and secured itself in a nearby tree. Poor old Josh look what happened to his hair when that happened...and Mr Shiltonpig aged 10 years by the look of the photo. Who knows what will happen next on the journey!

So as team Shiltonpig get back in their car, muddy, slightly wet and looking at the nearby, bull finches, blue tits and robins. They remind themselves that they went 3 steps forward by finding 3 caches that they had struggled to find before..but 1 step back as yet again those pesky caches had got 1 over on team Shiltonpig....but we live to fight another day! And in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger "We'll be back!"

Battys Revenge!

6th February 2010

Geocaching has the ability to take you to places that you would never have walked in your life....and so was the case of today.

The first cache took us to a place called Stretton en le Field...no no this village isn't in France, it is in fact in Leicestershire....Stretton was mentioned in the Doomsday book around 1000 years ago...things haven't changed much....

This was one of those rare moments for us where we just walked straight to the cache, there was the sight of several pheasants near the cache and the sound of several bangs in the distance....can't imagine that those pheasants having a long lifepsan! Think we will have chicken for tea!

While Mrs Shiltonpig was taking her time finding the cache, Josh was too busy looking at the trucks going by on the nearby A42. Its a good job that the cache didn't take us into the next field

as it was clearly flooded from this weeks snow and rain. Josh looks bearly eyed in the photo, think it was too much drink the night before lol

The cache in question was a "high quality" cache meaning that there was a calculator, alarm clock and several other good finds...instead we were able to find two travel coins, which we took instead.

The first originated in California Death Valley...Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig visited there before Josh came on the scene and it is the hottest place we have ever been around 50c! The second was a sheep from Germany that had been to all manner of places before ending up in this corner of the East Midlands!

We then decided to walk back up the path to the church where we took a photo of some snowdrops...after all Spring is on its way. The nights are getting lighter...yay...more time for geocaching in the evening!

Mrs Shiltonpig has a rather smug look on here face...it could be that she found a cache all by herself but more than likely its the fact she is watching poor old Mr Shiltonpig carry Josh on his back all the way around the geocaches, and watch him get smaller and smaller as he shrinks with the weight.

The church in question is now longer used for anything....although the graveyard has been used more recently.

Do other people do what we do? Every graveyard we come to, we have a competition to see who can find the oldest grave....Mrs Shiltonpig must have been on a roll today as she won this competition as well. 1750 was the oldest she could find.....perhaps the reason she was able to find it was because she was there when the grave was dug out!!! (Think its fairly obvious who is writing this particular blog).

So once this cache had been accomplished...we were then on our way to the next. This took us to an unfinished cache that we didn't get around to last week due to the "muddy buggy".

It took us to a railway...now that may not sound exciting, but actually this area of the country doesn't have any railways at all which means that we were a little surprised to say the least. What was stranger is that it is right next to a modern housing estate. We made a meal of this cache...we crossed the railway line, realised we were heading the wrong way. Then we started walking up the railway line and realised this was wrong as well, finally Mrs Shiltonpig took control and took us right to it. And another travel coin to add to the collection as well!

So two caches in the bag already, it was time to tackle one from last week, the one that got away from us. Having had a look at the website it was clear that the cache was there, it was just team Shiltonpig being useless at finding caches....

So when we arrived what does Mr Shiltonpig go and do? Put his hand in dogmuck....yuck! In fact the whole area that he looked in had dogmuck.....after looking through so much ivy, a lot of leaves, lots of trees, posts, holes and bridges.....He started to widen out the search.......and then when all else failed...Mr Shiltonpig found the 3rd and final cache of the day! And what a cool cache, no wonder he looks so pleased with himself.

Even his hat is lopsided as he holds the "bat" cache in his hand! Josh was screaming by this point so we had to call it a day but for an afternoon of tiding up a few loose ends in the area we were able to enjoy some very different caches.

February starts off well with 3 caches in the bag...and the weather has been kind to us recently.....

No geocache can beat us!!!

The 3 geocoins are proudly displayed after a hard days caching!

So as this blogger goes and washes his hands after all manner of geocaching adventures, he prepares himself for the biggest adventure of them all...Joshs bath time.....