Spawn and Cache!

Tuesday 30th March 2010

In the famous words of Sir Jimmy Saville "now then, now then"...what you see in the photo to the left is not in fact Mr Shiltonpigs brains but a new exclusive for this blog....who needs BBC Springwatch when you have spawn watch brought to you in the comfort of your own living room. Yes thats right folks team Shiltonpig has been on the trail for some frogspawn for some time now and some very kind geocachers gave us some today...and so our froggy journey begins today. We know that readership of this blog will now double with this news (which means 2 people now read it) and tune in to see Joshs reaction to the tadpoles and frogs.

So while Josh was otherwise engaged (important business meeting with some Directors he tells us) it left the 2 remaining members of team Shiltonpig chance to grab a couple of caches....whats strange is that it took us 2 years and 8 months to get to 100 caches and only a further month to do the next 100...its been a great month of caching. The two that took us to another milestone were 2 on the Ashby road near Tamworth. The one that Mrs Shiltonpig is holding up is a novelty container in the mould of a penguin (its the one on the left)...it used to hold pink and white marshmellows.....shame they have all gone....mmmm...marshmellows.

Lastly team Shiltonpig would like to moan about travel bugs...we have gone 35 caches without finding any, and then we pick this cache up and find 2....including one amazing womble travel bug (best novelty song ever?) . This cache needed some Wombles as the amount of rubbish would have give the local tip a run for its money. And thats all we had time for today....just a small couple of caches, but the itch is well and truly scratched today....some breaking news just in, I repeat some breaking news...one of the tadpoles has moved! In fact the tadpole had pretty much completed one of Jane Fondas workouts by the time it had finished. Day off tomorrow from caching, but we will be back for Easter!

Well well well....the legend of Griffydam

Monday 29th March 2010

England is known for many things...and today it seemed that April had come early as the showers were in full force, well not to be put off we decided to do some caching using the automobile instead....commonly known as cache and dash. However we were in for some surprises today as we encountered dracula...in the photo to the left and a hobbit a little later. But first up we have a legend to tell you....one that goes back many years...the legend of Griffydam. drumroll Now it is said that a griffin lived in the area and guarded the nearby well...

Now the villagers were so frightened by this that they had to walk miles to the next nearest water source (obviously they hadn't heard of home shopping in the 13th century otherwise Tescos would have delivered). One day a knight (a Mr Shiltonpig ancestor I'm sure of it) came along and said for a cup of water he would get rid of the griffin, he took out a bow and arrow and killed it. The villagers kicked themselves and thought why didn't we think of that, we could have saved ourselves all that shoe leather. The reality is that Griffydam is named after Griffiths Dam....but which would you rather believe? Its like all those nay sayers about the Loch Ness Monster.....the Griffin did live and Mr Shiltonpigs ancestor killed it....and thats all we have to say on the story....today at the site of the well, there was another animal like creature looking for a cache.

So where else did our merry little adventures take us today? We mentioned the other day about a series of caches based around a human touch, this took us to a level crossing, we thought about tying Josh to the railway line, but thought the local residents might complain so we kept him with us. Another cache made us look for holes in a wall...sound easy not to us....there must have been like a zillion holes in this wall, and Mrs Shiltonpig looked, Mr Shiltonpig looked, Josh looked, even the car came out and helped us...and then we spotted it in the wall and wondered how we could have missed it in the first place...the trickiest cache of the day...(Spacemarine....curse you lol)

So its worth mentioning at this point everybodys favourite Josh? The photo to the right shows him looking a little spaced out...he was a good little boy today, not only did he keep quiet during the times we were looking for a cache, but he waited till we got home to fill his nappy! Another cache took us near Blackbrook (couldn't resist another link) which we will definitely be back to explore the area again on a nice day..it looked like Dartmoor in parts with a splash of the Peak District thrown in for good measure...the cache in question did take us to a pond with a fake heron...though I don't think the resident geese really gave any thought or notice to be honest.

So as promised at the start here is a picture of a hobbit standing next to a small church...some of you may be disappointed thinking this is actually not a hobbit but Mrs Shiltonpig. However Mr Shiltonpig can give you personally his "100% honest guvnor seal of approval" that this is a hobbit, you should have seen how hairy her feet were!! The cache was a sea shell, which was a little unusual...especially as we are pretty much as far away from the sea as you can get in the UK...another cache was near the base of the tree...nearby was an empty vodka bottle, we think that the cache owner must have been up to some late night drinking even though we know he is under 18! Don't worry the police are coming now!

So the final chance of the day gave Josh the chance to pick up as many cigarette butts as he could and then after he finished with those he attempted stones, and finally sticks. In the meantime we were finsihing off a cache in Ashby. For once you can read it yourself...just click on the photo and it enlarges itself. Mr Shiltonpig laughs at the comment that Ashby failed to gain success in its fashionable status....erm then how come house prices are so much higher than 5 miles down the road? So if Griffins, Hobbits, Dracula were not enough for you...then I suggest you hold your breath and wait for tomorrows exciting episode of Shiltonpigs Geocaching Adventures (said in a deep echoey voice).

Strawberry Fields Forever...

Sunday 28th March 2010

So you may have gathered we were in the West Midlands today, and seeing as we were on a little quest adventure, we thought it would be rude if we didn't take in a cache with a rather fruity theme. The caches are all placed next to real life places with a fruit in them. We were next to the Strawberry fields estate and more commonly known hotel by the same name. The walk started off in a pub dating back to circa 1603 the year that Queen Elizabeth 1st died, it led us to Meriden Hall where Mrs Shiltonpig is modelling the wind swept look for us.

The pathway took us to something that we weren't expecting some kind of moor, which also was the place for sheep and lambs to practice "baa'ing". The gps took us to where the planks on this photo are, but it was in the middle of the field and this was a bit of a problem for us, especially as it clear the cache wasn't there. We spotted another path and so walked along there, but then realised we were in the wrong location as well....but disaster then hit, and I am not sure that you are prepared for what you are about to hear, so stop whatever you are doing and sit down and hold on to something tight....you may want to have some tissues handy.

This nail to the right, jumped up out of the ground and ran across the field, it then hid itself in the grass and deliberately lay in waiting and just when the moment was right lifted itself up when Mr Shiltonpig trod on it, piercing his trainer and his foot. Determined not to let this nail defeat team Shiltonpig, onwards they searched around the place until finally the cache was found and the rusty nail defeated. Injured but not defeated Mr Shiltonpig hobbled back to the car resting his arms on the shoulders of Josh and Mrs Shiltonpig. The lyrics of the Beatles famous song come to mind "It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out." Paul McCartney and John Lennon were writing a prophetic song about team Shiltonpig and todays final note is their amazing song please click me

Little Quest - West Midlands

Sunday 28th March 2010

So begins our Little Quest journey today! What is Little Quest (from herein known as LQ), it is a challenge where a cache is placed in all 47 counties in England, in each cache there are co-ordinates that will help you find the bonus cache located in an unknown place somewhere in England. It is one of the hardest challenges in the UK/Ireland....and today we made a start. We have no idea how many months or even years it will take us to go around all the counties, but we are going to have some fun trying.

The journey began in the West Midlands...so if I asked you what you think about when you think of the West Midlands...you probably think of dodgy accents and Spaghetti Junction but this cache took us to a largely unknown part of the county/country and to the village/small town of Meriden, which claims to be the centre of England. It is worth noting that Ordnance Survey say its 11 miles further north...but hey what do they know?are they map makers or something? The fact of the matter is Meridan has the pillar and monument to prove it...and so they must be right and a plaque from 1951, so in our minds this is the end of the matter!

Meriden is a very pleasant village and in some ways hasn't changed much in recent years. We parked on the lane to the left and started the day with another of Mr Shiltonpigs famous sandwiches....to which Mrs Shiltonpig claimed she could eat one everyday, fine praise indeed let me tell you now!. Josh of course was annoying the neighbours by accidentally hitting the cars horn every few minutes and then letting out a little "beep" once it had gone off. I'm sure the neighbours were thrilled when we finally got out of the car and started our short walk to the cache. In fact it was a very short walk. But Josh still managed to dawdle his way there...

It seemed strange to find the cache so easily as we understood that this cache was slightly different. And for a change we found a travel bug a duck from Switzerland. Josh was more interested in the nearby horses...or as he calls them "clip clops". So that was the first cache over and done with and we knocked up a round trip of 46 miles on the first leg of a 48 leg journey. It also gave us the chance to get the standard tourist photo of us next to the pillar. Job done, cache found and photo taken...who knows what the next LQ will be...and where it will take us! 

So the boring bit now for all of you out there that want to know a little bit about the West Midlands...first of all its home to Birmingham City Football Club...surely the best team in the country, and possibly the world? Secondly Balti originates from the West Midlands...and holds the record for having the best curry on the planet. Thirdly it has more canals than Venice...and Fourthly and by far the most important it is the birthplace of one of the greatest geocachers of all time....Mr Shiltonpig! Thanks for reading!

A"moo"sing Canal Capers

Saturday March 27th 2010

Of course, some times the jokes come that easily...this was the case with this photo...the cow is the one on the right! Boom boom! Yes another novelty cache on our afternoon outing today. So with lunch in our bellies...another Mr Shiltonpig special sandwich, we felt we had the energy to tackle some caches on another section of the canal we were on the other day. This was this canal linky poo . It was a much quieter part of the canal that housed a stack of caches...so sit back, relax and let us guide you through the pick of the caches in this area.

We parked the car near some donkeys and Josh literally ran to see though....though they were blinfolded, not sure why? (so if you know why drop us a note). Of course Josh pipes up and says "These pair of donkeys are just like my parents". Tut tut Josh you really shouldn't say things like that...sniff sniff. The first cache of the afternoon, was a do not find...and what was worse was when we got home someone had found the cache that very afternoon...in the words of the immortal Homer Simpson..D'oh! One of the good things about canal caching is that it limits the amount of caches that you can find because obviously they can't be in the canal.

One of the highlights of the afternoon came in the form of Josh needing a nappy changed, we took a photo for you to see! Fooled you, this is in fact another poo cache, our second this month. Do people in the East Midlands have a thing for poo or something? Anyway we like these caches, they always make you smile when you see them. Plus you know that they will never be stolen, as who is going to pick up a poo or steal a fake one? The following cache was the one we told you about at the start the cache covered in a plastic cow. We are losing count of the novelty caches we have found this year. We then came up to the village of Stenson, and its locally famous lock....amazingly called the Stenson lock. It is claimed that this is the deepest lock on the canal, we will take their word for it rather than walking all 93.5 miles and checking ourselves. Also of note is the Stenson Bubble...no no we are not talking about the local pub we are mentioning about a small stream that runs to the side of the lock. Its not surprising how popular this place is, it has a marina, 2 pubs and the lock of course.

We were fortunate to see a barge navigate the lock, and to be honest it is hard not to admire the engineering achievement from people in the 18th century. We weren't the only ones to witness it either I counted 40 people (they came out the woodwork, hedges...but mostly the pub) who just stood and watched a barge appear from the lock below them. Impressive. We carried on as we hadn't finished caching, and we were justly rewarded with the best cache of the day...a huge stonking massive cache pretty much the size of Josh...always good to see caches this big...its up there with the largest we have found so far.

But after 4 and a half hours caching, several nettle stings, and tons of thorn scratches (and avoiding the troll..see earlier blog entry for today) we got to the last cache of the day. And a new daily record for team Shiltonpig...yay to us. For all kinds of reasons today has been one of the best days caching this month and the joy that Mr Shiltonpig is showing is one that was going around the around the whole team. So back we trotted to the Stenford Bubble for a well deserved treat...2 cans of Pepsi Max. We thought we would push the boat out a bit....If you are ever in the neighbourhood you could far worse than the caches from Arleston to Stenson on the canal. Righto off home for a roast dinner now...and we will leave you in the immortal words of Josh "num num".

The Sinfin Moor Troll

Saturday March 27th 2010

Be Warned Avid Readers! Deep in the moors of Sinfin, south of Derby lurks an ugly troll that lives in a bridge. In an exclusive for this blog, we have the only known photo of this hideous creature and it is there for all to see to the left. Well before we get to this bit, lets rewind and start the story at beginning. Sinfin is a suburb of Derby and was mentioned in the Domesday book, but for me and all the others...it is home of one the most well known brands...Rolls Royce. The site of Rolls Royce is so big it could have it own caching series, however I am not too sure they would be happy for us to be snooping around, so instead we went to the nearby moors.

So this was a series of 11 caches set around the area, all of which had no hints and we didn't know what size they would be. We didn't have high hopes, as we never seem to do well on these sorts of caches. However we were in for a surprise...the first one being that Mr Shiltonpig forgot to write down the co-ordinates for one of them, plus he was telling some awful jokes. Mrs Shiltonpig had, had enough and ordered Mr Shiltonpig to start digging his own grave...thankfully by the time he had dug the hole she had forgiven him, so if you walk through the woods and see a hole, please think of poor old Mr Shiltonpig. There were some crafty hides on our finds today, some were tucked in all manner of holes and trees...but unlike the other day Mr Shiltonpig was on fire and finding all kinds of difficult hides.

As we walked through the wood, which isn't part of the National Forest we ended up on another detour and ended up at somewhere we shouldn't have been and the usual climb over barbed wire took place. We really should learn to navigate better or upgrade our gps...but I doubt either will be happening soon. Of course the inevitable happened today and we came across a cache that we just couldn't find, we even texted a friend, but to no avail, we still couldn't find the blinkin' thing. It supposed to be on a bridge but the evil sinfin moor troll must have got to it before we did. Oh that evil troll! Josh was shattered at this point and was starting to fidgit and fidgit on poor Daddys shoulders.

Of course the nearby river would not be complete without the resident trolley....some have claimed that this is yet more evidence of the troll, others would have you believe that the local vole population go shopping with it...we however just think whoever is using it that Tescos have a long way to come and collect it. Sadly despite Mrs Shiltonpig investigating the pound had already gone! One of the easier caches we found today was near the housing estate that we had started from, we were a good 50-75 metres away from the cache and we could see it. Very crafty the hide was...Josh however by this point was getting tired of Mr Shiltonpigs jokes, he though they were lame...so much so that the inevitable happened...

Josh fell asleep on his shoulders, the subsequent pain on Mr Shiltonpigs shoulders increased by the pressure Josh was creating. So a good morning was had by all in a quiet spot of Derby city...lots of horse muggles today. We met one that was scared of the picnic bag we had brought? whats that all about? Another man stopped to talk to us about the wildlife in the local stream (we didn't mention the trolley or the troll) and then just stood and stared at us for ages...very strange. Plus one of the houses on the estate had a boat the size of the Titanic on its drive...very bizarre...so with 10 caches in the bag...it was time to move on....time for lunch!

Fright and Seek!

Friday 26th March 2010

This is a face to be scared of...very scared...but sadly something is in the way of it! The old ones are always the best...Its a short blog today for one good simple reason, for the simple reason that rain called off play. Well the idea was that we would go back to the canal we were at yesterday and finish off the series of caches on the other part of the canal. We stopped off on the way to do one of the roadside caches. Yet again Mrs Shiltonpig finds the cache with ease....this cache is near the small village of Stenson, yet again being featured in the Domesday book of 1086...how many villages around here haven't been in that book?

Well the cache wasn't the only thing that was scary around here...so were the sheep as soon as we pulled up the car, they were straight up to the fence...thought sheep were supposed to be timid? Then as Mrs Shiltonpig moved towards the tree all the sheep followed her in the hope that she might have some food....she didn't and so the sheep got on their mobile phones and ordered pizza (don't be silly, of course that didn't happen, just didn't want you to fall asleep!) Then we drove to the canal and Ikid you not when I say at the exact moment I turned off the ignition the rain started to lash it down cats and dogs....and that was the end of our adventures boo hiss! Now I know that everybodys favourite person in these blogs wasn't mentioned today Josh aka Shiltonpiggy, but he is alive and well and eating more than his fair share of his moms crisps! I'm sure he will feature soon....

Height and Seek!

Thursday 25th March 2010

This afternoon was an awesome cache! But boy did it take some work. This morning had been some gentle caches by a canal...but today was all hard work.

First things first though, we drove to the back of Foremark reservoir where there was a cache outstanding from the other week. However Josh fell asleep and for some reason he refused to wake up when we took him out the car seat....so unable to put Josh on his Shoulders, poor old Mr Shiltonpig had to carry his son. As the photo shows it was hard work. And we hadn't even got to the cache yet!

By the time we had reached the cache we were starting to wonder what was going on. Where the cache was located would mean we would have to climb the ladder...and lets face it we all know that "we" means the long suffering Mr Shiltonpig. It may be worth noting that Mr Shiltonpig has a fear of heights....and the last time he had climbed anywhere with heights he had really freaked out croatia , so this was going to be a challenge. But its only 10-15 feet high I can hear you say! Well you climb it and see how high it feels for you! So Mr Shiltonpig climbs the ladder....ok job done...so where is the cache? Mrs Shiltonpig gives some kind advice at this stage...you're going to have to climb on the little platform....Oh no! So he wobbled and he swaggered but finally he had cracked it and he was on the platform....right so where is the cache? Mrs Shiltonpig again gives some advice it must be in the tree she says. Boy isn't it easy to give advice when you are on the floor!!

So onwards and upwards poor Mr Shiltonpig nervously reached out, first he felt a stick, next up he felt some mud, then he felt something he would rather not describe and finally there it was the cache in his hand. And boy was he glad to hold that tube. Slowly he signed the cache and climbed down the ladder....and what did he find? Josh laid out still fast asleep, oblivious that his dad had just risked his life for the sake of a plastic tube...and Mrs Shiltonpig lying there enjoying the sun. Life is just not fair at times....but as he conquered his one fear, the next was about to show its ugly face. Mr Shiltonpig decided that it was time to sit down with his family and relax...

Yes you have guessed it, we must have sat down on some kind of spiders nest as several crawled over the 3 of us. Know perhaps I slightly exaggerate in the photo of the size of the spiders lurking around here, but this was enough to prompt a quick get away. Oh and Josh decided to wake up and first thing he said is "Juice"...one track mind that lad. Well as the famous Baz Luhrmann song says"Do one thing everyday that scares you" and today just slightly we were scared...and it was good! The things we do for a cache and the smiley face!

Crazy Canal Capers!

Thursday March 25th 2010

So why is Mr Shiltonpig stroking a swans backside? Well before we get to that exciting tip bit, lets go back a bit and start at the beginning....well it all began in 1977...well ok not that far back...lets just go back as far as this morning. Today Mrs Shiltonpig chose the location..and where did she pick? A canal...to be precise the Trent and Mersey Canal. Its not the first time we have gone caching down this canal as we have previously done some in Stoke on Trent. For further info on the canal please click on this. Incidentally this is the first set of caches in ages that we could use the push chair, no wonder Mr Shiltonpig looks so happy today his neck looks normal!

Last night the heavens had opened and decided to rain so heavy that the canal path was just puddle after puddle. I think that this is the reason that the entire fly population of Willington decided to swarm around everywhere we walked....now now don't be unkind I know you were thinking they were swarming because you think we are smelly. Well I will have you know that we had a bath last year! The first cache took us to the local train station and there was a sense of satisfaction on finding it as somebody previously hadn't been able to find  it...a rare moment for team Shiltonpig! This then lead us on to the canal and all the caches that awaited us.

We recently have found all manner of cache conatainers, think its fair to say that the one Mrs Shiltonpig is holding is not only the brightest but also the only sunglasses case we have ever found. Believe it or not this took us a while to find even though it was bright orange! At the back of the canal was the main railway between Derby and Burton, so Josh was going choo choo an awful lot today, although by the time he looked up the train had gone by. The rather smug look on Mrs Shiltonpigs face is because of the 4 caches we had found up to this point, she had found all 4....and by the end of the morning she would have gone on to find 6 in total in comparison to Mr Shiltonpigs meager 2.

It is worth noting however that not being satisfied with 6 caches, she accused poor old Mr Shiltonpig of deliberately giving her the wrong place to look while he found the proper place. Clearly somebody is taking this caching thing a little close to the heart today!!!!! Anyway we had bread in our bag from before sliced was invented and thought that it was about time we did feed to to some poor unsuspected ducks....these swans came up and so a discussion ensued about whether or not a swan is a duck or not. In the end we just agreed that Mr Shiltonpig was right....that is until we looked it up on the internet and found out he was wrong....a swan is a member of the geese family.

So the caches trail took us away from the canal and then onto a road, we passed a sign saying "Cats cross here" a cache is nearby...but just a short distance up the road is a marina. The marina is pretty large and was full of pretty barges and the hedge in the shape of a swan that Mr Shiltonpig was so strangely feeling. But just look at Josh (who has been vaguley quiet in this particular blog) and Mrs Shiltonpig in this photo, lovingly looking up at Mr Shiltonpig for one reason and one reason only....he holds the picnic bag. So chance to relax, have some food and enjoy the marina view. Oh and for Josh to continue his ongoing obsession with stones! But the afternoon had more adventures to hand....

Bacon and other related piggy stories....

March 24th 2010

Of course all good adventures have to start somewhere....and ours started in the cholestrol kind. Lets face it you can't go caching on an empty stomach now can you? especially with that cheeky young pup Josh causing mayhem wherever he goes. Right, that the bacon bit of our story sorted...where did we end up next? A place called Hugglescote....what a cool name for a village! Apparently legend has it that at a time when England had brown bears roaming the land, one such bear started to attack a local man. The man ran and dropped his coat in the process, the bear picked up the coat and then hugged it...hence the name Hugglescote. I'm not making this up either before you ask lol!

Today as you will learn in a bit was not to go to Hugglescote, but seeing as there was a cache on the way then we stopped off. The cache owner is the same as the Alice in Wonderland series we did last week and this cache is a part of a series based around the human senses. The primary sense going on at this cache was laughter as Josh tried every kind of park ride there was going. Mr Shiltonpig has never seen a swing as big as the one Josh is on to the photo to the right. After this short diversion we drove all of 0.25 of a mile to our real destination Donnington Le Heath Manor House. (What is it around here that all the names of villages/towns have "le" between them? Are we French? Oh thats right our ancestors were)

So if you want to read more click on the link (please oh please click me) . It is worth noting that there is a cache here, and hence how we discovered it in the first place....and even better its free admission. Normally when it says free you know that its going to be pants.....but in this case it wasn't. Plenty of things that kept us occupied. The cache is one of Mr Shiltonpigs favourite types of cache and he found it in seconds....hooray! So inside the house there is another kind of treasure hunt. On one of the interactive panels you have to find 9 pigs to gain access to another picture....a little bit harder than it sounds. We found them eventually and it showed us a picture of a pig? Confused...well believe it or not between 1960 and 1965 some bright spark bought the property and didn't have the money to renovate it and so converted it into a pig sty! Please note how happy Josh looks to be here in the photo on the left.

Another great feature about this manor house is that it criticises its own council...after 1965 the council bought it and renovated it back into the original settings of the 13th century, but in doing so they demolished and got rid of several 17th century structures. Todays museum decides that it wasn't the best move and publically criticises itself....most amusing...well it was to us. So we then moved upstairs to the best bit of the place, the fancy dress cupboard and gave Mr/Mrs Shiltonpig the chance to imagine what life would have been in times gone by. The only outfit that would fit each of us was the one we tried, for Mr Shiltonpig he is modelling the latest Paris fashion peasant look circa 1253, the basic woollen outfit fits well with the hat. All self respecting peasants of 1253 wouldn't be seen dead without such a hat! Next up on the list was Mrs Shiltonpig, unfairly in my opinion the gentry outfit seemed to suit here rather too well. Josh was up next and he will we are sure kill us for saying this but he looked so cute and its the only time we have ever looked at him and thought he could have been a dress....we will let you make up your own mind on such matters!

Not sure that the gentry boys of 1253 would have worn such a girly hat, but hey all the clothes back then looked really frilly. We just wear jeans and t-shirts...but spare a thought for the poor people of the year 2810 who will walk into a 3 bed semi, which is now a museum and dress up in jeans and t-shirt and pretend that they are 21st century people.....but hey perhaps I am just waffling now. We had loads of good photos today, but space won't allow us to put them all up. Mrs Shiltonpig breaks the nearby beehive and has to piece it together, Mr Shiltonpig does his rubbing his sticks in a nearby tee pee and Josh holding the cache so tight that he didn't want to let it go. It is of note that Josh has developed a strange fascination for stones and all day he spent looking at them, picking them up and giving them to mommy and daddy. Could be worse though, could want something expensive....dreading the day he learns what an x-box or Playstation is! Seriously if you live locally and haven't been here yet then go get in the car and go and drive there right now....oh and in 3 weeks they are doing a civil war theme with real people from the 17th century there! (well ok 21st century people dressed in 17th century type stuff!) One final comment, for those wondering whether we were able to do 9 consectutive days caching...the answer is no... Toodle pips for now.

Joshs face sums it up!

Monday 22nd March 2010

Easy come, easy go.....yes some days its easy and then others like today is not so easy. The rain gods were not kind to us today, so we had a few errands to do today in Derby and so we thought it would be nice to knock a couple of the inner city centre caches off.....it would not be today, it would not be. No sooner had we got out the car than the heavens themselves opened up, granted not quite to Noah-esque proportions but enough to make walking in it miserable. This meant our long suffering son had to suffer a plastic sheet over his pushchair....and lets face it how awful that must be. So ok, ok you might be saying...there was a little rain...so what? Well next up the gps decided to play up, could I get a signal in the centre no I couldn't...I could get one for a split second and then it would go again....this made hunting for caches pretty darn hard. So the photo of Josh pretty much sums it up really, to be honest we were all pulling a jib by the end of the day!

There was one brief moment of joy though, hence the blog and hence me making you read about our afternoon. One of the clues for the cache was easy to understand and we knew we were roughly in the right place and sure enough after Mr Shiltonpig putting his hands in places he would rather not, he found the only cache of the day...which means 8 days of consecutive caching? Can we make it 9? Can it ever stop raining? and can Mr Shiltonpig and Josh stop posing in photos? If you honestly can't cope in life without the answers to these questions then I suggest you call the Samaritans...alternatively tune in tomorrow. A big team Shiltonpig raspberry to you all!

To The Manor Born!

Sunday 21st March 2010

So for all 1 of you that read this on a regular basis, you will know that yesterday we were forced to take a cache back with us due to some scramblers, so it was essential that we take the cache back with us (cough cough), it would be rude not to do some more caching while we were there wouldn't it, we don't want to offend anyone do we! So the photo on the right shows Mr Shiltonpig giving Josh a bath in a big tub of stinky and very smelly rain water, Josh really did look worried as he thought bath time had come early! Though the amount of mud on him by this stage, he could have done with a bath.

So where did this bath time escapade take place? The lovely village of Harlaston, by the equally picturesque river Mease. Harlaston has won best kept small village a whole 5 times (brings back memories of the film Hot Fuzz...again over your head if you haven't seen it) and its not hard to see why. The church to the left is very quaint and the nearby Manor House has been around for 300 odd years, very impressive. Josh had been asleep in the car (and Mrs Shiltonpig had closed her eyes as well) when he was rudely awakened by the sound of a chain saw from a nearby resident. This was enough to get us out the car as fast as we can and onto a cache. The best cache of the day took us

on a multicache tour around the village, getting us to work out the date this was built and how many miles it was to Ashby. Then jumbling around all these figures we realised that it gave us the phone number to the local kebab house...no seriously it gave us the place of the final cache hiding place. It was a micro (a very small cache, but larger than an evil nano cache) but very cleverly hidden in a hold in a post held by some plastic wire....crafty, but the on form Mrs Shiltonpig found it again. When we looked up the local neigbourhood watch was just staring at us, so Mr Shiltonpig just stared back, they continued to stare and so it would have continued until the end of time, but Mr Shiltonpig just got bored and went on to the next cache.

The whole idea of having a photo of a river bed weed, is to show you how clear the water is in this part of the world, a lovely little spot and well worth a meander away from the caching for a pleasant walk....(whats that I hear you say, a meander away from the caching...are you not feeling well?) We then drove a little way up the road and walked down a section of woodland and farmland with 4 caches down it. Josh found a pig in one of the caches and snorts his nose several times (he can't make the oink oink sound yet) and was taking a well earned break from the demands of being on Mr Shiltonpigs shoulders, pulling his hair, throttling him at times and whinging in his ear.

Love this last photo, not because it shows up Mr Shiltonpigs ever larger wrinkles on his forehead but the little cheeky face of Josh as he peeps around to join in on the photo. In the background we leave Mrs Shiltonpig to do the hard work and find and log the cache, surely thats what she is paid to do anyway? oh wait we don't pay her...oops. We must have been an hour or two behind another cacher today as they were signing logs ahead of us, closest we have come this year to bumping into some. So hand in hand we headed back to the car and watched Josh run into the puddles on the way back....it really is bath time now!