A Gothic Tale - Ashby Style....

A spooky place...."oooooooo"

18th July 2010

Be warned readers...we have a tale to tell you that will shake you up indeed. In fact if you were a jelly you would wobble off the plate...the story is indeed creepy. Ashby de la Zouch may be more commonly associated with having housing that is ridiculously overpriced compared to its neighbour Swadlincote (no offence to Ashby people). However there lurks a gothic side to this small town that many do take for granted. What follows is a first hand account into the unknown....think of this tale as X-Files Ashby style.

The terrifying tower

There have been many ghostly sightings in Ashby over the years, many being linked into the White Hart Pub on the high street, many talk about seeing weird characters lurking around. Team Shiltonpig was investigating a new cache in the area called "Ashby Ghost" this took us to a local cemetry which had a dark and imposing tower....it was so scary that Mrs Shiltonpig and Josh stayed in the car while Mr Shiltonpig braved the elements and crossed the road. Once inside the cemetry he saw a very strange sight one that he had never seen before and fortunately he had his camera to take a photo of it.

A member of the black cone cult

 Yes thats right it was a black highway traffic cone...yes I repeat a black traffic cone. Perhaps it belongs to some kind of weird cult...team Shiltonpig are unclear but this clear unnatural cone was giving Mr Shiltonpig the heeby jeebies...and then in the corner of his eye, he saw something that startes running off down the lane. Mr Shiltonpig rushed to the car and chased after the beast....he floored the accelarator pedal as quickly as he could, and was doing nearly 20mph in pursuit. The beast was in sight, as team Shiltonpig pulled into a wood known as Sarahs wood. Now team Shiltonpig don't know who Sarah is but we would like here to come and

Please clean me Sarah

 clean the entrance sign that bears her name, as it is very dirty. Anyway back to the dark tale, team Shiltonpig rushed out the car....with the beast in sight. Sadly Josh needed his nappy changed which slowed us down, but we had a good idea where the beast was headed...yes thats right an appropriately named cache called "Sarah's Wood Cache". The nearby woodlands were overgrown with grass that was taller than dear little Josh, but that didn't stop him or any of us as we chased the beast down. As we approached the cache site in the prickly tree we slowed the pace right down and did our best to keep the noise down....but it was hard we had Josh!

The gothic beast in all his glory

Yes thats right the chase was nearly over and finally team Shiltonpig could find the beast, it was very timid and a little bit scary. Now some of you clever readers (did I say readers, sorry I meant reader) may think that this photo is actually Mr Shiltonpig, but it is in fact the beast that we chased through Ashby to near Conkers. Perhaps you will be so fortunate that when you have a go at this cache you will see this monster....changing subject for a minute, we have some adventures and a half coming up in the next few weeks....be prepared to be blown away (and not just by Joshs trumps)!

Little Quest: Derbyshire

Josh braves the giant doc leaves

17th July 2010

So Little Quest number 7 (Is there really still 40 Little Quests to go?) took us to Joshs county...Derbyshire. So what do you think of when you think of Derbyshire? More than likely the Peak District...and perhaps if you are old enough you may remember a programme called Peak Practice. But hopefully you won't hold that against the people of this fine county. Sadly Josh is too young to realise what a beautiful county he was born into, but he will in time we are sure. Though hopefully he won't end up supporting any of those dodgy teams in the area!

A "Wow" moment

The little quest in Derbyshire took team Shiltonpig up a very very steep hill, you know the kind I am on about...the ones that make Mount Everest look small...and the kind that somehow you still see cyclists riding up them to try and prove "they still have it." In our humble opinion it is fair to say they don't...its madness!...its madness in a car and our 1905 1st edition Ford car nearly didn't make it to the top. At one point we made Josh get out and push, but he kept wanting a rest so he gave up. Kids today just are not made of sterner stuff....in Victorian times kids were mining coal....but our 2 year old son can't even push a car up a hill!! Tut tut!

Mother and Son sharing a moment

When we had made it safely to the top, there was a slight walk to the top of the hill. You can see Riber Castle...apparently a few years ago it used to be some kind of zoo and those nice people calling themselves animal rights movement let out some Lynx into the area, we didn't see any sadly but dark gruseome tales still exist of flesh eating cats devouring the local population. We did see a Josh however who devours food quicker than any Lynx could. When we arrived at the top of the hill, it was one of those "WOW" moments. You know the ones I mean, when you can't help but go "WOW" at what

Knocking on a Watchtowers door

you see. The whole of Matlock and the surrounding area could be seen, as well as the cliff face and Derbyshire dales. It was absolutely breathtaking, and was also pleasant in the fact that normally to see such a sight you have to walk miles uphill, but we cheated and drove. The photo above doesn't even begin to do this justice....and very very worthy of representing Derbyshire. Though to be fair Derbyshire is blessed with plenty of great places...probably to make up for the fact that some people locally calls everyone "duck or duckie". Josh took it upon himself to examine every rock and stick. This Little Quest cache has caused much debate in team Shiltonpigs household, as one half feel this is the best Little Quest cache so far and another one is still saying that Lincolnshire has the best. What is in agreement however that we have been treated to a fantastic cache and one that all should visit when in this neck of the woods. So far we have travelled 434 miles on our Little Quest journey...and we are enjoying every minute of it....we hope you are too. If not please send your complaints to the Derbyshire Tourist Board and start your petition now to get this blog offline.

Mr Shiltonpig posing with his beautiful son

A Bath in Matlock?

I liked this window...enough said

17th July 2010

Bath Time is never a favourite time in the Shiltonpig household...and thats just Mr Shiltonpig. Josh on the other hand is still at that stage where he gets confused and thinks the bath is just one big toilet...but out of common decency I will not bore you with any more of those details. So when we found out we were going to Matlock Bath for a day visit you will forgive us for being a little scared. It was comforting to find out upon arrival that Matlock Bath is actually the name of the place and no bathing

At least Josh would have been safe in 1965

would actually be required. Having said that if you look at the photo to the right you will see where the river flooded in 1965 and is almost as tall as Josh on Mr Shiltonpigs head! Now its fair to say that Matlock has a lot of history being famous for its healing water...one cache took you to where the spa water comes out and trust me you would not want to drink from that particular spot. Queen Victoria in the early 1830s visited here and I wonder whether she tasted it..ho hum I wonder. Of course it was Saturday morning and while caching and the beauty of the area was calling we had to get our priorities right...breakfast at Wetherspoons....surely the

An ususual species of bush

greatest breakfast on these fine British shores? Although if the owner is reading this blog...please reduce the brekkie back down 20p please. These geocachers are skint! Anyway a cache by a bandstand provided us with an opportunity to watch some cub scouts attempt to play mini golf....attempt being the correct word in this instance. Now please don't be offended citizens of Matlock when we also did a few caches on the outskirts of the town...one of which was a Curiousities of Derbyshire cache which took us a long wall...granted the wall in China need not worry yet, but it was still a long wall. What

Josh was thrilled with the flowers

was special about this wall was it was made with the middle bit of mill stones. Yes you have guessed it the wall has huge holes in it...what next walls made out of the middle of polo mints? A traffic warden was looming around where we had parked so it was time to make a move before we ended up with a ticket. Next up took us to a village called Lea...now it appears that Florence Nightingale once lived here in the 19th century and you can see pictures of her everywhere...one cache took us to a church where she must have been to at some point. It was a lovely little church very atmospheric and a rare thing happened to Mr Shiltonpig while he was there...

Would have made a great prison for Josh!

some walkers were actually nice to him. This threw him off guard and was unsure what exactly to do lol. Josh by this time had gone to sleep and we could have done with Florence to look over him while we went caching, sadly she had passed away many years ago. Well at least I can thank her as she ended up being used in Mr Shiltonpigs favourite film...Back to the Future....the classic line where Doc Brown talks about "the Florence Nightingale effect" to Marty McFly. So we left Matlock still dry and several caches to our name. A thoroughly pleasant Derbyshire day out it was indeed.

Geocaching again after a 5 week absence...

Can you read the writing?

11th July 2010

So the world cup was all but finally over.....and now team Shiltonpig were sitting there twiddling there collective thumbs (all 6 of them) and wondering what to do next. Then we remembered that before all those football matches that we used to geocache....so we blew the dust off the gps and went on the website and looked for a suitable cache. Gopsall Hall cache came to mind...and so off we set. We had almost forgotten what to do...but fear not avid readers we were about to have our

Josh just won't let go

own adventure none the less. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, the sun was shining, the cows were mooing and Josh was shouting "stick" and "plane" several miilion times over and over again. Gopsall Hall doesn't actually exist anymore....and that remains is a little bit of a garden temple. A farm now sits on the site and the farmer clearly wants to remind you that it is in fact private property and that you must not park on the road. I am surprised he didn't run out of money for the amount of signs he has put up....put hey we found somewhere to park. Within a few minutes Mr Shiltonpig realised that he was unfit....5 weeks without geocaching has left him

Inspiration for the famous Sting song

tired and feeling very old. The field was full of cows on the way to the cache and looked very suspicious of us....and to be fair to the cows I would have been suspicious of us as well. The remains of the garden temple are not actually that much, and the local council has gone way overboard in ensuring that you don't get anywhere near it...in fact the only thing missing around the perimeter fence was a patrolling guard. The cache itself posed us a rather unique problem....the co-ordinates took us to an arch, to which you then had to walk 17 paces to where the cache should be located. Probelm for team Shiltonpig

Grafitti 19th century style

is the fact we are all different heights. For example Josh is about 2 feet tall...and his paces didnt go very far. Next up was Mrs Shiltonpig she is about 3 feet in height and when she counted 17 paces (granted she got help with her counting from Josh) she hardly moved very far. Next up came Mr Shiltonpig and he is about 10 feet tall and his paces took him back home. So we tried to guess what a normal persons pace was and had a go....low and behold after 15 minutes of trying we were able to find the rather large cache and that had neon lights on it saying "how can you possibly not see me."

Wind in the Willows

The final thing I would like to say is that the actually temple itself had been used by the military in the late 19th century and into the 20th century, even being used as a prisoner of war camp. So to see grafitti from 1874 on a wall is quite funny to say the least. They also say Handel was here when he wrote his famous "Messiah" song...but seeing as its not in the current top 40, we don't know what its on about! So after 5 weeks away we found out that we missed geocaching....we gave the geocache a big hug and a kiss and apologised for not giving it enough attention. Right...so wheres the next cache...

Back in Time.....

Mr Shiltonpig runs out of steam

 10th July 2010

So apart from the world cup...we have been up to a couple of other non geocaching things as well. Now I know this blog is for geocaching adventures but hey what the heck we shall tell you a tale from the deepest darkest corners of Nottinghamshire. Once a year for th last 50 or so years the village of Rempstone hosts its annual Steam and Country Fair. As Josh loves tractors and diggers we thought it would be a great place to take him. What we didin't expect was another type of geek there instead. Many of you are aware of the geeks bible

The Original Tractor Boy

 which includes geocachers of course. We have a bad reputation...especially to any of you who heard Chris Moyles make fun of us the other morning. So it always gives me great pleasure to meet different types of geeks. Now one section of the fair took us to the engines section where several people in their caravans and tents were closer guarding late 19th and late 20th century mowers and water pumps. Made us chuckle.....finally somebody more worthy of a geeky title. What is more worrying is that Josh is starting to have these tendencies at such an early age....just look at him in th photo to the right and you can see how much he enjoys being behind the

Lewis Hamilton wannabe

 wheel of a tractor! The show also had bagpipes...now I am not entirely sure what the Scottish connection is between Rempstone and Scotland is, but it was a worthy addition to a country fair. Other strange items to be seen were in the tent entitled "Models Tent", instead there were loads and loads of model circuses, which were great to look at. What was weird however were all the adverts advertising several model circus shows across the East Midlands area. Starting to wonder if the cut-throat world of model circuses might next be the focus of a Hollywood film...Tom Cruise would be the actor I would recommend for the part.

Who is afraid of who?

 So much to see and do in the several hours we were there (and good value for £6 per person...free parking...and you know how much Mr Shiltonpig hates having to pay for ridiculous parking)...The reptile tent didn't just include reptiles, massive massive spiders meant that Mr Shiltonpig was hiding behind the tent. Josh loved them...and got stuck in poking at the snakes and lizards. Fortunately none of them were Josh eating so we had to take him home with us (A note to social services- we do love our son...honest!) There was also a tent with you could enter a beehive in...but we spotted a hole in the tent so decided not to enter it. Did you know that

A needle in a haystack

there is a society in the East Midlands for looking after bees? With so much to offer it seemed rude not to take up the offer of a Mr Whippy in the nearby van...I think its fair to say that we have single handedly kept the ice cream business in business this summer. Josh alone accounting for 98.5% of all UK sales. After looking at some kites, Shire Horses, chilli plant stand and many more amusing and unusual stalls it was time to go home. So while we may not be the geekiest family out there....we fitted right in with this crowd!! See you next year Rempstone....see you next year...

Attack of the 50 Foot Animals!

Little Josh....aaaahh!

 5th June 2010

Yes, yes I know that it has been quite a while since I last wrote in this blog....however there is such a thing as the world cup to concentrate on as well. This geocaching excursion was taken before the world cup started and probably explains why you may be seeing some world cup t-shirts being worn along the way. Now that the misery of the world cup is over and Mr Shiltonpig realises he has put on too much weight drinking beer and not exercising, its back to business of geocaching. This adventure took us to the boundaries of Nottingham.

Just need the cheese and pineapple now

 Now I have used this blog before to say that I have seen giant animals, but finally have some proof that we were in some kid of "Honey I shrunk the Geocachers" type of Hollywood B movie. Just for the record I would like to point out that I am too young to remember what a B movie actually is. Mrs Shiltonpig isn't though. For those of you wanting to know where we exactly went please click on the linky poo. It really is a family friendly place and about 12-14 caches in the nearby area, so well worth a visit if you ask me. It was at one end of this park however where we noticed all the giant animals.

Can you spot the Gecko?

 One of the caches in the area required you to fill in details of a crossword with all the animals you would find. Then certain letters would represent a number and before you know it you had the co-ords to a geocache. In the same area there was a maze where you could find a real treasure chest which was a very small deviation of your geocaching type adventures. It was boiling today and Mr Shiltonpig actually gave up geocaching at one point, collapsed on the ground and demanded a Mr Whippy ice cream. He was fortunate that Mrs Shiltonpig had just enough energy to make it to the ice cream van otherwise he might still be on the floor

Help me..please help...

 as we speak. It was around this time that Mr Shiltonpig was lying on the floor when a huge 50 foot wooden snake crept up behind him and then trapped him in his jaws. Sadly Mr Shiltonpigs karate type skills were not captured on video and so sadly all is lost, but needless to say you could have eaten snake burgers for a month after he had finished with him. Next up was a giant grasshopper that viciously attacked Mrs Shiltonpig...but the grasshopper had picked the wrong geocacher to fight with and soon enough Mrs Shiltonpig had the hopper just where she wanted. It would spoil the surprise to say what other giant animals lurk in this corner of

WWF Wrestling Shiltonpig style

Nottinghamshire...you will just have to get some courage and tackle it yourself. We also saw a stream train when we tackled the asher lane cache, and Josh was going wild as he loves his "choo choo's" at the moment. Well the humidity today was like being abroad and so we sneaked home early (a bit like Englands performance in the World Cup).