Another a"moo"sing tale!

Cowpats with love

Monday April 12th 2010

You would be forgiven for thinking that the cows near the ancient forest of Charnwood were friendly...simply because cows are generally regarded as placid and grass eating. Your view would be strengthened when as you walk down a field, you find freshly laid cowpats laid with a purple heart in the middle of them....but you would be wrong....the cows of Charnwood have you deceived. Imagine if you will 3 inncoent geocachers by the names of Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig and Josh, who just wanted to go happily on their way to their 1st and second letterbox hybird caches (more on that later).

Cows attempt a pincer "moo"vement

But the cows had other ideas....oh yes they allowed us to enter the field and have a look at the beautiful reservoir of Blackbrook...but when we tried to leave, they had us surrounded. Using tactics not seen since the English Civil War...the cows attacked us from both flanks, they had even broken down a nearby fence hoping to trap us....all seemed nearly lost, the 3 of us huddled together and wept bitterly (well actually, that was just Mr Shiltonpig)...when all of a sudden we noticed that one of the wooden planks around the footpath was missing....while Josh starting distracting them singing "baa baa black sheep" we climbed over the fence and onto freedom....just as we got far enough away we shouted back at them "were off to McDonalds"....

Mr Shiltonpig is a stamp collector

In 1796 some blokes decided that it would be a good idea to build a reservoir here, they put an awful amount of time and effort into it...so much time and effort that 3 years later the dam burst and within 11 minutes the water was already in every house of nearby Loughborough, with screams and moans of all the local residents....oops! In 1957 an earthquake measure 5.3 in the area made more cracks in the dam...will somebody just take a hint and just admit that the valley just doesn't want a dam. The caches here are letterbox hybrids, which means that they have their own stamp book and inkpad. We stamped Joshs hand..though he immediately tried entry into the local nightclub....with some fake ID.

Err...whats that?

Charnwood Forest is an interesting place...coincidentally in the same year as the earthquake a schoolboy discovered a fossil known as a charnia, and it shattered the scientific world as it became the first fossil found from a really really really long time ago. These days strange looking creatures also can be found in the forest, just look at the strange one on the right...no, no, no not Mrs Shiltonpig, the mushroom on the tree. The area however is adjacent to Mont St Bernard, the only monastery of its kind left in the whole of England....these guys have it easy though, they get up at 3.15am and go to bed at 8pm...thats 7.25 hours sleep a night....thats double what we get having Josh in the house!!

Leicestershires answer to Rio's Christ the Redeemer

The abbey itself looks like its missing a roof....which is kind of weird....but a short walk to the side shows Leicestershires answer to Rio De Janerios "Christ the Redeemer". Inside the abbey is a wealth of bible related literature and 1 booklet dedicated to its opposition to 1 religion. Interesting. There are more caches in the area and we are all glad, firstly because it gives us a chance to get our revenge on the cows and secondly because there is so much history here that we can learn about. Oh and spare a thought for poor old Josh today...he bumped his head and has a little egg in its place.