In need of T.L.C (Ticknall, Limestone and Caches)

Josh on his trail of destruction

Sunday April 11th 2010

You may be a parent yourself...or you may yet to have children....but nothing upon nothing can prepare you for having a "Josh". Josh is a whirlwind of destruction that makes the Tasmanian Devil look calm....just have a look at this wall....moments before Josh showed up it was in perfect order and had survived several centuries, through civil wars, the industrial revolution and 2 worlds wars...but 5 minutes after Josh arrived it was in pieces....he is a handful and some more that is for sure.....so we were clearly in need of some TLC....otherwise known as Ticknall, Limestone and Caches.

Light at the end of the tunnel

We last came to Ticknall on St Paddys day, but had one remaining cache to do, another multicache. We thought we knew all the secrets that Ticknall had to offer, but team Shiltonpig were in for a surprise. As mentioned previously the Ticknall tramway bridge...of course as you can see in the photo the bridge is actually a tunnel...one that is 140 yards long....we know that because we measured it (well to tell you the truth, between you and me, we just looked it up on wikipedia). The walk is near Calke Abbey a place we also know all too well, as we took Josh here when he was a mere 3 weeks old. But this walk is a must when you come here...

2 Become 1

Now readers of a more delicate disposition may feel that they need to skip ahead...as we have to talk about the birds and the bees, froggy style. Yup just days after capturing a frog sunbathing, team Shiltonpig capture two frogs mating in one of the many ponds on this walk. They were clearly too busy to notice Mrs Shiltonpig taking this photo...(click on it to enlarge, if you are having difficulties seeing them). The ponds are a highlight of the walks and must have been a connection to the lime that was mined here in the 19th century. Talking about frogs....our tadpoles are doing well...they haven't changed much in the last few days...but we are proud of the bigger ones in the "tank".

A little bit of Australia in Derbyshire

"Tank" being the codeword for large plastic tub! Mr Shiltonpig feels that this photo could have been taken in Australia as it reminds him of a creek...not that he has ever been...but just take his word for it. This particular cache made you use your maths skills to work out the final co-ordinates...basically you had to be Albert Einstein and understand E=MC squared....well not really but maths had never been Mr Shiltonpigs strong point! The final clue was to count how many bars were on a metal gate....we liked this one as we could count the answer on our hands and toes!!! Finally we were on our way to the final location and this meant walking through a field of vegetables..

Mrs Shiltonpig meets the "Beet"les

 Not sure entirely why but the vegetables were lying on top of the soil with big bites marks on them (probably Josh)...last time we checked I am sure that vegetables were supposed to grow under the soil. A short walk later and the cache was found....and we were satisfied with a very enjoyable cache. There are plenty more walks in this area as well....so I'm sure we will be back at some point to finish them off. So back home where Josh continued his trail of destruction he looked at a jar of gherkins and though they were tadpoles....he does make us smile.....