Deer oh deer!

Josh and Mr Shiltonpig in the dog kennel again!

 Friday April 30th 2010

Now we know that part of the fun of geocaching is the journey...but today was a little bit too much excitement even for team Shiltonpig. We were driving along to Bignalls Wood near Calke as normal, all of a sudden a deer bolts out the hedge and runs across the road, swiftly followed by a further 4 deer, emergency brakes to the full as team Shiltonpig including the driver are in absolute shock. An accident is narrowly averted, the car on the other side of the road has to come to a complete

Evil looking tree

 stop too. Startled the deer just carry on as if nothing was any difference. It was a pretty scary experience...trust us....its a good job the worlds best driver was behind the wheel otherwise Bambi may not be starring in that sequel he keeps promising us. When we finally parked the car at The Ferrers Centre, we just sat there in shock. It seems at the moment that pheasants, cows, horses and now deers are all trying to attack us. Once and for all to any animals reading this (and we don't mean Mr Shiltonpigs mother in law) we love you and please don't harm us any more. So shaking like a leaf we staggered out the car and proceeded walking

"Why are they researching us?"

 to the first cache. We had been the other week in an attempt to find these caches first, but the cunning Ashby Bells had beaten us to it, so we came back to find them (although we were now 13th to find!!). We had seen an Ent the other week near Ingleby, but now we had come across the worlds most evil looking tree...now it probably is a very friendly tree, but we didn't stop around to find out before it trapped us with its evil clutches! We carried on regardless and found an area that the National Forest are conducting research in. Why they are conducting research on nuts, we have no idea....we decided to make a run

A Guard on duty

 for it before they captured us too. Its clear to us that dodgy things are going on here, as the next cache took us to a "Watchtower"...what strange research are they doing? Are they expecting the trees to escape? Are people going missing and they suspect the trees? Or are trees appearing and they have no idea on why? Its up there with this mystery as well! Well whatever the trees are up to, team Shiltonpig tippy toed out of there and on to the next cache. Things didn't get any better for Mr Shiltonpig at the next cache as the rest of the team forced him to take a bath in an old trough....why do the rest of the team always pick on him! Its just not fair!

Mr Shiltonpigs 1st bath of the year!

But the heavens were to have a say on the final part of the day as we were poured upon by big fat rain....Mr Shiltonpig literally ran back to the car (over a mile, nearly breaking his ankle and jumping across fences that were designed not to be jumped across) hoping that he could drive the car (avoiding any deer) and pick up the team without them getting soaked. He drove down roads that were not even supposed to carry traffic in order to collect the team, but he was too late....when he found the team, they were in a huddle, soaked to the bone, and looking pretty sorry for themselves. It was a rare moment where Mr Shiltonpig felt a twinge of sadness in his heart of stone at his family. Time to take them home, feed them, water them and change thier bottom...and that was just Mrs Shiltonpig!

Suicide Lake

Giant thorns used by Mrs Shiltonpig to inflict injury

Wednesday April 28th 2010

Mrs Shiltonpig has been up to her usual tricks again today, its been quite a week for her. She was very frustrated that Mr Shiltonpig had been the only one not to sustain injury this week and so in real anger she pulled back some large thorns (that should only appear in a Lord of the Rings novel but somehow appeared in the real world)and into poor young Mr Shiltonpigs forehead causing blood to be drawn. Wounded he may have been, but he persevered and kept on going to the end of the road. So yesterday a few new caches appeared in our very local area and

"Heres Johnny!"

it seemed rude not to go and do them. In fact the area of Donisthorpe (a viking settlement) and Ashby Woulds has the highest density of caches in the National Forest area, well worth a visit. First up a cache by a bench, Mr Shiltonpig was struggling to find it. When a man about 100 metres away came and told us where the cache was, whats embarasssing was that he isn't even a geocacher, must just know its there!! Thats a 1st for team Shiltonpig. We then took a visit to a church....we have been to quite a few recently that we are considering beoming monks and nuns (Mr Shiltonpig wants to be a nun)....real reason would

Maurice Maguire Masterpiece

be to escape Joshs moaning!! His lump from the other day is much better now. The final cache in the Donisthorpe area was actually a chance to see some artwork by Maurice Maguire. The artwork in question is the marker in the photo on the left. Using the digits on the other side of the marker (you didn't actually think we would show you them!) we actaully had to put into use that GCSE Maths without the use of a calculator we will have you know. Sadly it took us 4.5 hours to work out the basic clues....and then a further 2 minutes to find the cache!! Last but by no means least is the cache at Suicide lake....its official title is "Albert Village Lake", but lets face it, its not the most exciting name is it...so we named it Suicide lake a long time ago....and far more intriguing it is.

Sewer rats are getting bigger these days

One of the things we encountered along the way was a giant smelly rat near the sewer, we captured in on photo (to the left). The smell was awful....it was only then that Mrs Shiltonpig spotted that the smell was in fact Mr Shiltonpig. But be warned you may bump into him one day....so bring a peg. Did you know that Albert Village was actually named after Prince Albert who was married to Queen Victoria herself?? well, well, well you learn something new everyday! It is also home to something that we found in our geek bible, bird watchers.

"Wheres Wally?"

Bird watchers were in for a treat though when they looked out this rather strange looking bird hide. Can you spot the lesser spotted geocacher in the picture to the left? If you do, send your answer on a postcard along with a £20 note to "Shiltonpigs holiday to Barbados fund". Sadly we didn't bump into any birdwatchers so we couldn't make fun of any of them....however it should be noted that we found a robins egg today, and we looked it up on the net....and we have a bird book and binoculars....aaaarrrggghhhh, what have we become....and on that note, we will go home and have some jelly (the non alcoholic variety).

I've got the key....I've got the secret!

"Who lives in a house like this?"

Monday April 26th 2010 

Mrs Shiltonpig was up to her usual tricks today....she single handedly managed to destroy a fence. Josh was up to his usual tricks today....he single handedly managed to trip over and give him a nasty bump. Even the cache had a fatal accident. In fact the only one that wasn't up to any mischief was the angel otherwise known as Mr Shiltonpig. He is perfection personified (big word for Mr Shiltonpig, give him a pat on the back). We were near Calke today by a reservoir entitled Staunton Harold. The 1st cache was called "the key clue conundrum"

Geocache R.I.P.

 which led us to a rather fine bit of stone work which had a keyhole in the middle of it. It was here that Mrs Shiltonpig went on a rampage and broke the fence, kicking and kicking until it finally broke. There were loads of strange people at this site today...we wondered if it was one of those "local" kind of places, you know the ones I mean. By the time we worked out the final cache location, we noticed that the entire area had been ploughed and dug up. We raced up to the cache location, only to find the cache dying and breathing its last breath...we got there just in time to hear it utter its last words "the monster got me" it said. There will

Monster in the woods

 now be a state funeral for the geocache and he will be buried at Westminster Abbey. We then walked up to Dimminsdale nature reserve, team Shiltonpig really like this whole area and is well worth a visit. The whole area was mined for limestone until the end of the 19th century, and the pond is covering over several of the lime kilns. We came across a hole with 2 small monsters in them...we hope that they don't eat you if you go visiting. The small one is known for his huge appetite. We walked around trying to spot large fungus (not the ones on Mr Shiltonpigs feet) and Kingfishers...we saw none of them, though we did see white and orange pretty

A second head appears on Josh

 butterflies. It was around the time we found the cache that Josh decided to jump off a step do a triple somersault and fall spectacularly on his forehead. This lad just seems to be going through a bad time at the moment after being very poorly at the weekend.  A huge lump appeared shortly after, but after a few rice cakes and some juice and a lot of TLC, he was pointing out the fish and frogs in a pond that had neither. The last couple of caches took us a short walk north to a wood. The cache was called "Bluebell Wood". And guess what we found all over the wood....thats right...tulips!!! No don't be silly we found pretty pretty bluebells. This

is the only time of year that they come out and if you live locally, stop what you're doing, get into your car and drive there now (even if its 2am). Lovely walk...when we first moved to the area, we thought there wasn't really anyway that nice to walk....how wrong we were, we have found loads of beautiful walks nearby. (Mr Shiltonpig takes a big gulp having to swallow his pride). So I know I know all those that read the blog title were hoping that Urban Cookie Collective were going to make an appearance, well I would hate to disappoint so for all those 90's pop music fans out there (all 2 of you) here is the linky poo for you. So it just leaves me to tell you that a pheasant was hiding in a bush today, and as Mrs Shiltonpig walked by, it flew out and gave here the shock of her life....most amusing to the rest of us!!!

"Neigh"bours

"Evil Horse" looking calm

 Saturday April 24th 2010

Go get some tissues and make it a big box, we have a tale that may upset even the most hard nosed geocacher amongst you. Yes folks the horse that appears in the photo to the left moments before nearly ended Mr Shiltonpigs and Joshs life. The 3 of us had been minding our own business walking away from the cache near a massive crows nest....when all of a sudden Mr Shiltonpig with a recently awakened Josh turned and looked at a noise. The horse (which from hearby in, will be called "Evil Horse") was galloping, charging with

team Shiltonpig find their 1st anaconda

 foam coming from its mouth. Mr Shiltonpig saw his life flash before his eyes (all 21 years of it) while Josh looked on bemused. But just when it all looked doomed evil horse ground to a halt, and then pressed the two of them in against a fence, trapping them. Mrs Shiltonpig was carrying the food bag and with some quick thinking took out an apple and threw it in the direction of the horse. Evil horse didn't move at the sight of an apple, but looked away for a second. Crying and screaming Mr Shiltonpig ran quickly to the fence and jumped over hoping that the evil horse wouldn't follow. This left poor old (hey-less of the old Mrs Shiltonpig cries)

"Trig"onometry

by herself, what happened next will make you shocked. Evil horse had a friend (hearby in called evil horse 2") who came in also to trap Mrs Shiltonpig. Mrs Shiltonpig was trembling with fear, she let out a little squeal...was this the end of Mrs Shiltonpig??? No, backed in with nowhere to go, she had one choice left...to climb the fence (no easy task as she is the size of a hobbit). But I am pleased to say she made it and even found the time to stroke the horse. But evil horse had one last trick up its sleeve, Mrs Shiltonpig came out in an allergic reaction 30 minutes later on her hands. Yes folks its been quite an adventure today.

Australia or Derbyshire??

Yes today, we had been on a 4 mile round trip collecting 11 caches in the area of Linton. Now I am sure that when you think of Linton you think of chocolates (linky poo) but we were very very disappointed to find out that there were no chocolates on offer today. In fact the series focused on beer ...as nearby Burton is famous for its beer. Each cache had a picture of a locally brewed beer which represented a number, collect the numbers for a bonus cache. This series of caches would take us on a journey to see an anaconda the length of 3 fields, see the photo above for proof. We also found our 2nd trig point after finding our 1st in Rutland a short while ago.

Mrs Shiltonpig crowing as usual

One of the more unusual sites on this particular caching journey was a massive crows nest, it covered pretty much the whole woodland and you could hear them for miles....if you click on the photo you might be able to see the nests. We wondered if there were in partnership with the two evil horses....but then we may just be too paranoid for our own good.

The caches take you through fields, an entire wood and 3 lakes. The one lake had more fisherman than the North sea...and we even saw one catch one (Captain Birds eye won't be pleased). As always we didn't find one cache and had to guess the co-ords for the final and bonus cache, but after surviving the evil horse attack, we were more than capable. So all in all its been quite a journey and one that would be better had the chocolates or beer been at the end...but we can't have everything. So we sat down by the lake ate some cheese and salami sandwiches and tried to stop Josh 1 million times from trying to jump in....(he is poorly today...so spare him a thought..poor wee thing).

Burton on Flower

"Tra-la-la...pretty pretty flowers"

 Wednesday April 21st 2010

Burton on Trent. A town normally associated with beer...but today beer was not on the menu...but spring was out in force...we will try and add in as many cliches as we can in todays blog about spring....it was almost as if someone had known we were coming and tipped out the countries spring related flowers, young animals and butterflies and dumped them in Burton..not that we are complaining, it was great. It felt at times as if Walt Disney himself had painted the picture and we were just caching in his own personal animation studio. So we needed 8 caches today to break our monthly record....just 8....

"look out, its a Triffid behind you"

But the cache owner in question had other fiendish ideas...this was to be a caching experience like no other. Stapenhill (on the right side of the river Trent) was the start of our journey and we struggled even with the 1st cache in the area. It was Mrs Shiltonpigs keen eyes that spotted it....hidden with cunning camoflauge. The blossom on the trees and flowers is amazing...and brings a tear to our eyes (pauses...to blow his nose and eyes). Now you know how normally when spring comes around, you clear out your garage full of stuff..well we think the cache owner took some of this stuff and used it as caches....without any spoilers the only thing we

"Wheres Batman?"

didn't find was a kitchen sink....(rats we have just given uk89camaro an idea for his next cache!!!). We have been extremely fortunate this week, 2 caches that go straight into the top 10 caches of 2010....for us "Stapenhill Serpent" is a cache to be seen. The amount of effort that went into the cache being designed was to be seen...and a scary surprise which even had Mr Shiltonpig cowering behind a rock and using his son as a shield. In addition to the huge variety of caches we came across this cheeky little robin who even ate some of Joshs rice cakes..(rice cakes you may ask....yup Josh loves them). On our travels we saw a swans nest, some butterfiles fighting each other,

"Wallace and Gromit smile"

a white (yes white) mallard duck and the cutest little calf we have ever seen near the Burton Mail Centenary Woodland. Of course we didn't taunt the cow by shotuing "burger king" but we were tempted. Our GPSr was playing up today...the co-ords should have been pointing to a tree and instead they wanted us to go to Australia....most annoying...must be something to do with the fact Burton is in an area known for its confusion as to where it belongs in either the East or West Midlands...bit like the Bermuda Triangle, compass starts playing up everywhere.

We keep telling you swans should only eat bread not steroids

Burton is unusual in that it has washlands which flood every time it rains or even that the cloud look like it wants to rain. The area has produced islands that are connected by bridges, walkways and pathways....and this area is by far the best that Burton has to offer...and on its day could rival any major Tourist town in the country. For more info on Burton in days go by please click on Burton super website...please its needs some visitors lol. We make Burton sound so good, we should work for the tourist board! However while we hit our target of 8 caches today and broke a new monthly record, we did have 3 DNFs....and this was most frustrating

Team Shiltonpigs back garden

 , so frustrating that we want to scream "AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!". Thats better, we feel sane again now. A religious Irish woman founded Burton in the 7th Century (she used a GPSr to find it) , the washlands some say have healing properties that remain from her days of making miracles happen. Well were not saying they don't exist, but the only healing properties we found today were sitting on a step by the Ferry Bridge eating ice cream (Mrs Shiltonpig had a nobbly bobbly...weird name or what?). So having found caches (and not found in some cases) of all shapes and sizes today, we want to say thank you to all the flowers and animals that made today possible...and to thank our darling son for being as grumpy as he possible could all afternoon lol

Billa Barra and other stories......

Smile you're on Candid Camera

 Monday April 19th 2010

Come on admit it Billa Barra is such a cool name, we think it should have been in Australia....and is easily the best name in the National Forest. More about that later. We had woke up and had a very clever game plan in mind and then someone went and posted 5 new caches in the area close to us....so we changed our plans....and because our gps is so ancient we had to write down all the clues manually. But the reward would be a FTF. So we went to Bignalls wood, which is home to plenty of wildlife....with a spring and a bounce we walked onwards to the cache.

But alas it wasn't to be this morning...as we got to the cache we found we had been beaten to it...by the Ashby Bells!!! Rats, rats and more rats....and so we sat there in sackcloth and ashes and mourned and wailed as long as we could. How dare someone else go look for a cache on a Monday morning lol So we picked ourselves up and went and gave Josh a hug to cheer ourselves up, he wasn't having any of it....he kept saying "num nums". We did a cache near the ferrers centre, sadly we didn't get chance to have a look around and so we will be back (anyway there are plenty of caches in the area we haven't done yet). In the afternoon we headed our way down to the Kelham Bridge Nature Reseve....a small woodland that boasts that it has otters, but again we didn't see any. We found the cache after a short search, but as always it was on the other side of the hedge. Josh then found some green tube type thingy ma bobs and made a kind of man out of them...well actually that was Mr Shiltonpig...but Josh would have done better.

Totem Pole Shiltonpig style

Sence Valley park was next on the agenda which is a short walk up the road (but hey why walk, when you can drive!!) It used to be an opencast mine but these days old aged pensioners seems to have overtaken the place along with their dogs. However it hardly seems the place to leave a totem pole lying around...now you may struggle to work out which is the totem pole...so its the one on the left. The cache in question was aimed for dogs or geomutts as they are called in geocaching language, but we just had a Josh....though knowing him he would have tried to eat the chewy sticks and doggy biscuits. Mr Shiltonpig was also able to trick Josh into thinking

Ugly Mug and the wooden statue

 he had seen a snake, when it was in fact a large garden hose in the nearby lake. Sence Valley also gave an Easter Island theme to the place as well which was nice.....Easter Island is full of weird looking big faces...it seemed the perfect place for Mr Shiltonpig to fit in then. This meant that Mrs Shiltonpig was confused as to where to aim the camera. So last of all we headed to Billa Barra, the name derives from "corruption of barrow" or a burial site after an ancient saxon battle. Now thats the official version...but we think some Aussies came over a while ago with a few boomerangs, koalas and kangeroos and other assorted cliches and named the place.

"Flowers"

Either way we will leave it to you to decide. The cache was on top of the hill with a great view of the area. Josh stopped every so often to admire the flowers on the bracken....reminds us of Ireland...plenty of Bracken over there! So another good caching day today....and it feels as if we have been all around the earth today....Easter Island, Australia and Calke, Derbyshire! The life we lead....

High Noon Frenzy - Shiltonpigs 3rd "First to Find"

Mr Shiltonpig catching some "rays"

 Monday April 19th 2010

Caching can be extremely addictive and what had started out as a normal afternoons caching soon became a caching frenzy we were worse than 100 piranhas in a pond trying to get the only piece of meat....we were even slobbering at the end (well Mr Shiltonpig was anyway lol). So it had been a slow start to the day we had started off at Bignalls Wood otherwise known as the posh part of the National Forest, this is where all the reservoirs and stately homes and rich people live...lol Of course as always we were on the trail of those elusive high noon statues.

Josh "King of the molehills"

 We found the statue fairly straight forward...we had little excuse this time as it was in a field with no trees to block it. Mr Shiltonpig thought he would lie down and hope he could catch a tan when the sun shone through the hole in the statue....thats when Mrs Shiltonpig pointed out that the sun wasn't shining. Josh loved it here and was running around without any fear of thorns, stingers or thistles. So then we thought lets go and get another high noon statue....and so after some well deserved nouvelle cuisine (aka McDonalds) we drove to the Sence Valley park for the next one. Sence Valley is located in the part of the National Forest best known for coal.

Mrs Shiltonpig had given him 2 black eyes

 This cache was a sneaky little thing however the mightiness of Mrs Shiltonpig proved too great for it....the valley has 3 ponds which we then decided to have a look around....But then we thought to ourselves, lets go and do another high noon cache. So we then went to Billa Barra park and we found the statue no problem....but the cache was going to be a lot harder. Now if finding empty packets of durex was a competition we would have won, but it wasn't and we looked and looked for the cache and just couldn't find it. So we had found 5 of the 6 high noon caches....to find the bonus cache we had a choice, do we go home email the cache owner for some help or do we get out the fingers and toes and

Josh just didn't want to leave without finding it!

do the math. Well by now we were caught up in the moment, so we sat and worked out where we thought the co-ords should be. Driving with Mrs Shiltonpig directing via the gps was a new experience and lots of fun...and we soon found ourselves in roughly the right location. We drove down a bumpy lane and parked up....this was just the first half of it. We then had to find something that would give us more digits...we walked around for 10-15 minutes and then we saw it. We knew we had arrived in the right place! Then we had to work out some more figures, this took another 10 minutes....but we were not sure we had it right. We entered the co-ords into the gps and away we went.

Great cache...FTF prize was larger than expected

After 5 days, 30-40 miles driven, 6 woodlands and the bonus woodland, 6 statues we walked right up to the cache and its hard to describe the joy and smug satisfaction in finding a series like this first. We can't tell you where we found it....you will have to go yourself. There is no question that this is our favourite cache in the region and should be in everyones "to do list". It really shows off the National Forest in a positive light and jumps straight into our top 10 list of caches found yet. We go home shattered, satisfied and a little disappointed that the series is now over! Thanks to the Ashby Bells for a great series!

Bigfoot encounters at Needwood Forest

The UKs own "Bigfoot Mystery"

 Sunday April 18th 2010

For regular readers of this blog they have come to expect journalism of its very highest standard. They know that the words that are written down here are the "absolute truth" and were not just some weird rantings written on the back of a fag packet. So it is with great honour that we give you a world exclusive...one that I am sure you will see on the BBC or Sky news tonight. This is a real photo of Bigfoots footprint found by team Shiltonpig in Needwood Forest near Needwood (funny that Needwood near Needwood...simple things and all that).

"Go on do it" SHOUTS Mrs Shiltonpig

Some of you are wondering whether Mr Shiltonpig just got a stick and drew a picture of a footprint just to increase reading figures....but he is wounded at the mere suggestion. He is an honest geocacher who would never sensationalise such stories....we leave it to your own judgement on such matters. So Needwood then...this is an ancient forest, so ancient it was around when Mrs Shiltonpig was born....some say that it was lost in the 18th century....team Shiltonpig says...how can you lose something so big???? The Needwood forest is home to another of the "High Noon" statues that we have been hunting down over the last few days. This one is surprise surprise in the shape of a tree....why Mr Shiltonpig is pretending to stick two guns to his head, we do not know.... perhaps if he were to do this it would knock some sense into him, but Mrs Shiltonpig doubts it. We were in this part of the world to knock this cache off and a series based on the Jackson 5. Thankfully it didn't require us to put on 70s clothes and sing in high voices....but just in case we have any fans reading this, this is just for you....(and if this isn't reason enough that you are glad its not the 70s anymore then we think you need something examined).

Shrek wearing a "Josh" mask

team Shiltonpig were on a roll today after bumping into bigfoot, we came across our second fairytale character...this time Shreks son. We found him whinging in the corner watering the flowers and playing with a magic star....some more astute readers amongst you, may notice a similar likeness to Josh...we thought so too....but then dismissed it. Josh is a little monster....but hes no Shrek. The forest of Needwood is home to lots of flora...shamrocks with flowers...gave Mrs Shiltonpig a lump in the throat (probably tried to eat them)...bluebells. Did you know the spanish bluebell is killing off the English bluebell? Why is this issue not on the agenda for the general election we ask?

"wheres my ice cream?"

But of course that darling little cherub of ours called Josh was far more interested in something more important to him...his belly, so he began eating an ice cream, the fact it was plastic seemed of no consequence to him...we tried to tell him it was hard to drive a Mr Whippy van in the middle of a forest, but he just kept saying "no, no, no" so we left him alone. All the land is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster and they very kindly let us keep a couple of caches in the area...how very nice and kind of them. Do you think they will donate to the team Shiltonpig chosen charity? all proceeds go into a box marked "team Shiltonpigs new car fund".

Heave-Ho

Another interesting feature is that work horses are being reintroduced into Needwood forest to help with the logging...though why they were felling trees on a Sunday afternoon is beyond us...plus team Shiltonpig have their own workhorse in the form of the hard worker (and strongest member)....Mrs Shiltonpig. She would clear the logs in no time, she would show them horses a thing or two!! (Horse walks into a bar, the barman says "why the long face"?). And after finding the bonus cache in the area we moved on to a couple outside the woods....now we have heard of "tin pot religions" but a tin pot church is what we found in Draycott in the clay.

Not sure whats the oldest thing in the photo?

Apparently in the 1930s you could order churches via a catalogue...so you could modify the church design in whatever way you pleased. Its survived 1 world war, 1970s music and even the y2k millenium bug....whats pleasing is that the church spire acts as a satellite and picks up Sky Sports. We jest of course but its a testament to the fact it has survived 8 decades. So 8 caches in and we needed a break so we went to the worlds greatest pub that we have plugged on this blog before....the Cherry Tree near Willington. If you haven't been, why not...and its no excuse that you live in Wiltshire! The last caches of the day were a different type of satisfying.

Archive photo from as far back as March 2010

We have previously not been able to find 2 caches in the Willington area and tonight we were able to find them...sometimes when you are not trying too hard things fall into place. So after spotting Bigfoot and Shrek and stuffing down a carvery into our contented bellies we braced ourselves for that time of day that we dread the most....Joshs bath time and cleaning his dirty nappies...and on that note we wish all our readers pleasant dreams...and remember don't let the bed bugs bite!

National Memorial Arboretum

The main entrance

 Saturday April 17th 2010

Situated just outside Lichfield and just at the start of the National Forest boundary lies the countries National Memorial Arboretum. It is a very uplifting and sad place all in one and should be on everyones list to do when visiting the region without a shadow of a doubt. To describe the place is quite hard....imagine a huge parkland with lots of trees and flowers and dotted around are some small, some medium and some large memorials to all kinds of different military and civil forces from across the country and over the last few decades.

In the car park in the entrance is a moving memorial to the 64 UK citizens that lost their lives on 9/11 and includes fragments from the twin towers themselves. Anyone old enough to remember that day (can it really be nearly 9 years ago?) will find the memorial thought provoking. There is a cache based here that sends you around some of the more interesting sites in the arboretum, though the final cache location is outside in a nearby park. Another area that we found interesting was the National Association of Memorial Masons, it has replica grave stones from across the centuries and shows the differences through time.

1 section of the main armed forces memorial

The centre piece of the whole arboretum is the large marble armed forces memorial. It has two large circle walls with the names of all miltary forces killed in action since 1945. To try and give you the idea of the amount of people that have lost their lives for Britain. Each section of the wall has 3 large slabs of marble...each slab can contain a maximum of 22 people. The wall that you can see in the photo on the left is full of names. There are still huge sections of the wall empty left for people still engaged in combat and for those battles and wars that are yet to be fought. It is a very profound and saddening place to see. It begins to put some kind of reality to war itself.

"Shot at Dawn" Memorial

 One of the most upsetting places we visited in the park was down "shot at dawn" lane. The photo shows stakes in the ground. Each stake represents one soldier that was shot by their own government for cowardice during World War 1. Each stake carries the name of the soldier it represents. Soldiers as young as 17 were among the dead. It is quite something to walk around the "stakes" and read all the names and ages and regiments they all came from. We are sure that there is a story in the several hundred soldiers that the stakes portray that we may never know. As there are so many memorials it would be hard to see them all and hard to read about them all.

 There is far too much to mention in a short blog such as this but some of the things we came across of note....memorials to the police including a police dog. An interesting section on the Galipoli campaign from 1915....plus a sad woodland dedicated to stillborn babies. These are some of the things we found interesting...but we hope that someone is inspired after reading this to go and find their own things of interest. The arboretum is a large place and we spent about 4 to 4.5 hours there and we certainly didn't see it all...towards the end of the arboretum it leads out to a National Forest trail of which we came across a genuine World War 2 pill box.

World War 2 Pill Box

In 1940 it seemed as if Hitler would invade Britain anytime and a series of pillboxes were set up all over England to monitor the threat of an invasion. For more information please click here. It was strange we had never seen one of these before and yet within an hour we had seen 3. A very educational place and one that needs to be seen firsthand.