"Caching in the Rain!"

Saturday 20th March 2010

This blog should be read with the following song played in the background.... link numero uno as lets face it today was what Britain does best,,,rain, rain and more rain. So the only thing we could possibly do under the circumstances was to go caching! The story of how Mr Shiltonpig ends up in the picture to the left will be revealed shortly. Today we went to two villages...firstly Clifton Campville which according to the official website "insist that it is a wonderful place to live" if you don't believe me, check it out yourself another link . We also went to another village called Haunton, it has more history than Clifton, is prettier than Clifton but for some reason doesn't have its own website so this one will have to do yet another link worth reading for the religious history there.

So whats that in Mr Shiltonpigs hand? A Tardis you say? no surely not, you are going caching aren't you? well you would be forgiven for thinking that Mr Shiltonpig is doing a Dr Who impression, but no this is actually a geocache. Our 1st sci fi geo cache ever found and for that reason alone deserves a worthy note in our blog. Take us an age to open the thing though! We next went up the road to the nearby river and another interesting cache, it was full of foreign coins (all out of date I have to say). Next to it was a lovely view and Mrs Shiltonpig is modeling next to it the beautiful river and weeping willow...will have to return in the summer to have another look at this place and have a walk.

One of the best bits of the day came next as we drove to a place in Lullington. It was a driveby cache meaning you can just drive up to it and find it. Sadly I'm not going to post the picture but the nearby church had a carpet of daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses, it was outstanding. Next up at the cache location Mr Shiltonpig saw some kind of owl fly off into the woods which was great...guessing Tawny Owl. Finally we parked up and had some mushroom soup and buttered french stick for a picnic in the car while it rained down outside....it was great! What else do you need in life, than family, food, the outdoors and of course some geocaches!

After a full belly and a variety of toilet breaks which were very different depending on which member of team Shiltonpig you ask, we made our way to the next on Clifton. The big stone that you see next to Josh could have provided him with hours of fun, the plaque made a thumping noise when you hit it and he was playing around for a while there, while we looked for the cache. Josh was trying to tell us something however and when we listened we were pleasantly surprised. Another cache in Haunton had a novel idea where each finder adds a little bit to a story, we took the cache back to our car because it was starting to pour down with rain to read the story.

At the very moment we sat in the car, some kids with scramblers pulled up and then proceeded to go up and down the very lane that the cache was located on, it was impossible to put the cache back without them noticing. So in a new first for team Shiltonpig we took the cache home with us, and will return tomorrow to put it back....the scramblers had better have gone by then!! Oh and the phtoto on the left shows Josh picking the tops off all the little daffodils, he seemed so at peace, just shouting out "flowers" to himself, seemed a shame to have to stop him.....So by now the rain was cats and dogging it down and so we drove to some caches close to the road....team Shiltonpig volunteered Mr Shiltonpig to get the next cache and so he borrowed Mrs Shiltonpigs coat

and jumped over two brooks, falling into one and putting his hand in thorns, he then proceeded to drop all the contents all over the floor, cold and shivering he managed to sign the log and put everything back together again! He then runs back to the back tripping as he goes....all in the name of the cache, so no wonder he looks so down on the first photo. Of course regular readers will know that Mr Shiltonpig has a thing for old oak trees, and this week has seen old oak trees falling out the sky to meet him, today was no different. Photo of Mr Shiltonpig shoving his face in the air....

All good stories have to end and already finding 10 caches today and breaking the daily record for caches found, we went to our last one. Mrs Shiltonpig holds up a porcelain pair of wellies as believe it or not this is also a cache. Its been a good day, hard at times with the weather but our perseverance payed off....sleepy villages in rural England is a pleasant way to pass an afternoon. We still have more to do here, so watch this space for more adventures with team Shiltonpig!