Lincolnshire Villages - Cache and Dash

Two rascals peeping through

Friday May 14th 2010

Thank goodness for Travelodge...in a world where the price of everything is going up, they seem to be the only thing where the price is going down. This is good news for team Shiltonpig as they embark on another crazy weekend away...this time to the city of Lincoln. Today after a very quick drive to Lincoln, we arrive ready for some serious caching. There were 2 main series that we attempted today...the first was a very small section of the UKs largest cache series....200 caches across 193 miles from Skegness to Ness. Wow that would be some

Can you spot team Shiltonpig?

serious eat into some petrol, but not to worrry for us, we were only to do 5. We however were going to tackle a series called "Lincolnshire Villages", these are best done as a drive series, taking you around some of the most bendy roads you will ever come across when not on a F1 circuit. Try doing 60 mph on one of these roads and you will soon find yourself calling the AA. Its very flat around here, and lots and lots of rural countryside and farms for miles around. Some of the caches we spotted without even leaving the car (don't worry we did sign the logbook). Some however were clever little hides meaning we had to look and look all around.

Scrambled,poached or fried?

One of the great things we found near the first couple of caches was a birds nest full of 12 eggs, whats strange is that we have been unable to identify what they are....we will keep looking. In addition we saw 2 Hares leaping around a nearby field. Something which is pretty rare, these days for us people that live in what is known as urban developments. We have never really done this type of caching before, as we usually are getting our arms and hands scratched in thorns out walking the fields, and was nice to try something different. Josh was having a mixed day today, he has a few little snuffles but by the end of the day was getting a little bit of

Don't drink and drive!

cabin fever. The usual happened halfway through the caches, Josh needed the toilet and so did a few others in the team. But hey you don't read this blog to here about our toilet habits? (or do you????) We won't tell you what happened...we will leave it up to our readers very vivid imagination. 20 caches later and we finsihed off the series....we had collected 10 numbers along the way and we were soon on our way to the bonus cache. A very cleverly hidden bonus cache which had taken us to almost every village in Lincolnshire....all we needed was a farmer chewing hay in a field and it would have finished

Team Shilton"pig"

off the day. However we had one final surprise as we came across a field with pigs in....and they had rings in their noses...what next pigs in space? Josh loves pigs and will happily snort till the cows come home....and when they come home he will moo as well. We enjoyed the day...very unusual not to have to walk for a change. However we finished the day finding the most amount of caches in a day we have ever done.....plus we crossed over the 400 mark as well. So there was only one way we could celebrate...off to the pub for some gammon...sorry pigs!!

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!

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

When a castle isn't a castle....

Saturday April 10th 2010

Some days no matter where you take your photos you end up with good photos...Elvaston Castle and Country Park is such a place. Of course the temptation to pick up 2 caches along the way is a mere bonus....this castle...which isn't really a castle has romance at the heart of its tale....in fact if love hadn't entered this castle it would not look like it does today....imagine for a moment its the mid 19th century....people wear bowler hats, oliver twist is still in his nappies...and football isn't around (what a terrible time it must have been). Two people fell madly in love with 1 another.

One happened to be an Earl who was 50 years old, he married a woman aged 33, and this for some reason was hugely frowned upon. This led them to live in the castle and for the large part led secluded lives...the Earl decided to make the castle a haven and paradise, and rather than wait for saplings to grow, he bought full grown trees to be uprooted and replanted in the gardens....something unheard of at that time. The whole place was built in gothic fashion, hence the types of follies seen all over the place as the one Mrs Shiltonpig and Josh are modelling in the photo. While its sad to think that these two people had to live in private because of gossip, people in 21st century now have a legacy to enjoy.

We love hedges...hedges we hear you ask? yes hedges...especially the ones here...they come in all shapes and sizes and the one Mr Shiltonpig is modelling comes in the size of a crown....Mrs Shiltonpig thinks that the crown is still too small for Mr Shiltonpigs head! The cache in question was one of those multi caches, that sends you all around the park looking for how many tyres are in the kiddies play area or how many slices of salami do you have in your sandwich. It was sunny, it was hot and we didn't care where the clues sent us as we were having a good time....but this is where we have to get serious

It has come to team Shiltonpigs attention that some people are coming to the park and upseting the hedges....they are calling the hedges names such as "your too small to be a tree" or "leaf us alone" or "ooh what could I do to you with a pair of clippers". Please folks, hedges have feelings, they are very sensitive and need looking after, its not nice to be nasty to them....so team Shiltonpig fully endorse the local council initiative to "Respect the Hedges". Yes be nice to hedges! Next up the clues led us to some gates...even these gates have a story to tell. Believe it or not the gates that Mr Shiltonpig is doing a poor impression of being in a prison cell were actually once in the amazing palace of Versailles.

It seems that the gates have seen better days though as now they are rusty and need a good coat of paint. It seems the Earl picked up the gates on ye olde ebaye for a mere 10 shillings....a bargain by any standards. Finally though we had our last clue and we had to walk about a mile to where the cache was located...it was contained in an ice cream container...this was a clever subliminal message by the cache owner (were convince they have shares in an ice cream company)...so of course we then set off for an ice cream...they didn't sell Mr Whippys? whats that all about? but we did have a flake so that kind of made up for it.

This is an excellent place for a cache....an excellent place to take the family and was a wonderful day. Elvaston Castle has it all...romance, intrigue and most important of all toilets, With our 250th cache in the bag...it was time for a quick kip by the river and then off home to confuse all our neighbours by being the first in the street to have a BBQ and a beer...great stuff. Some days its good to be alive!

Shiltonpig meets Dave

Thursday April 8th 2010

Wild Orchids....red mushrooms....frogs sunbathing...and nano "evil caches"....all in the same place? That can only mean one thing...team Shiltonpig are at the Gravel Pits nature reserve in Derbyshire. Now granted when you picture "gravel pits" in your head you can hardly imagine a picturesque spot....instead you imagine 2 fat sweaty road workers digging in a hole somewhere. But team Shiltonpig have a new favourite spot in the National Forest...and its here. For a start the sun was shining, the birds were singing and Josh was whinging.

We did encounter in the lay by that we pulled up in some ...how can we say it...extra curricular activity....but we just ignore them and walked to the cache that was in front of them. Can't think of anywhere we have been that looks like the wetlands in this photo...and to see frogs a plenty in the wild...was great. Oh and our tadpoles are all alive and well....which is good. Josh is really starting to understand this whole caching thing....when we found one nano, he grabbed it and handed it to Mr Shiltonpig...think we have the 2028 geocaching world champion in our midst.

Hopefully not too long from now we can send him off into all the places we don't want to put our hands...nettles, hawthorn bushes, brambles....we may give him gloves...but there again depends how many times he has been nice to us....(again social welfare does not need to be called....we really do love our Josh, were just teasing...and if a future older Josh is reading this, we humbly apologise for being so mean!). So if you have yet to visit this wonderful area, stop reading this blog...get on your shoes, turn on the ignition or your pedal power and go right now...even if its 3 am in the morning....you won't be disappointed...and if you are don't blame us, blame Josh....

In 1987 (a year that seems to feature far too much on this blog, in Mr Shiltonpigs opinion) a film came out called "Mannequin"...you may remember the cheese on bread song....(cheese on bread song). So whats this got to do with caching...well firstly Mr Shiltonpig is hoping you wont notice the big spot on his forehead in this photo...and secondly its to do with Dave. Dave believe it or not is the largest cache we have ever found....as Dave is a mannequin...granted without a head...or arms...or legs....some might say hes 'armless...(groan, tomatoes chucked in my direction). So would you like to know more about Dave? no? well tough I'm telling you anyway.

Dave had a tough life as a mannequin...he was a males but often mistaken for a female, this lead to mannequin problems. But it was to get worse....in the original location Dave was placed, someone tried to steal him and worse still someone tried to drown him (thankfully he didn't have a head so this proved impossible)...thankfully his loving owners sent out a mountain rescue to him....and after many hours of intensive therapy and care he was now sent out to bring joy to geocachers everywhere. Mrs Shiltonpig and Josh are two happy geocachers treating Dave properly...just look at their happiness! Though we are not quite sure why Josh is squinting...must be another stage he is going through. So next time you walk past BHS or M&S, spare a thought for those poor mannequins, and perhaps when nobody is looking you could nick one and release them out into the wild to be geocaches...(team Shiltonpig will not be held responsible for you going to jail for 25 years in a cell for stealing, we do not endorse such naughty behaviour).

Putting the "Hilton" in Shiltonpig

Thursday April 8th 2010

When you think of the word Hilton....I am sure that you either think of the hotels or that woman who seems to like to be on TV and in magazines a lot. However believe it or not there is a village called Hilton in Derbyshire. Hilton has in recent times become a geocachers paradise with caches popping up everywhere, in fact there are so many of them, you have to push them out of the way as you walk down the street. So let me share with you some interesting things about Hilton.....well supposedly Mary Queen of Scots visited here once on her way to nearby Tutbury....this might be true as there is a pub dating from 1495 opposite where this photo was taken from. I think our favourite quote from wikipedia about Hilton is as follows...."Although ancient, it has undergone a great deal of development."...well go figure huh! However Hilton was the scene of an attempt to break our record of number of finds in a day.

We actually started the day in Eggington not Hilton....Eggington has an amzing history...and for once I am not being sarcastic...just click on one of my amazing links. How can one village have so much history? The caching started with a cache that was next to a tree that was literally falling to bits. Mr Shiltonpig accidentally pulled off a third of the tree thinking there was a cache behind it....oops. Now there have been rumours for many weeks now that a yellow warm orb does exist behind the clouds...and team Shiltonpig can confirm it was out in force today...at one point Mr Shiltonpig even takes his coat off (shock horror!).

So sitting in the sun with daffodils nearby, and birds landing on him, deers appearing to the side of him, Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig start singing this song. Then Josh came with his stick and started chasing them all off lol We then started on the caches in Hilton which by and large were fairly easy, except one. One near the centre looked as if it was behind a pile of rocks, so poor old Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig start chucking all the rocks onto the nearby path and some old aged pensioners who were too slow to miss them...and the cache wasn't there. As we were about to give up Mrs Shiltonpig spotted some fake leaves and the cache was there...Mr Shiltonpig is modelling in one of the photos above.

As regular readers will know Mr Shiltonpig is a bit of a tree hugger, oak trees in particular....and near the brook is the ultimate caching tree...it has like a billion holes, a hollow inside the tree and is suitable for climbing...plus its trunk has grown sideways allowing Josh and Daddy to share a bonding moment together...(hankies at the ready, at such a tender moment). It also has the quickest find we have ever done, we parked the car for some lunch, Josh ate more than his fair share we might add. We switched on the gps, got out the car, gps said we were 10 feet away, Mrs Shiltonpig instantly saw it...it was great...5 second cache...wish all were like that.

We picked up a Travel Bug today that wants as its mission to go from Tescos to Tescos?? whats that all about? at least they could have chosen Morrisons lol We finished off for the morning in Marston on Dove....and what is this villages claim to fame? It has the oldest bell in the whole of Derbyshire...built in 1366 and at about 1pm today we heard it...plus the cache in question wasn't found by the last person who tried...and we found it...team Shiltonpig do the gloating dance...gloat gloat. Josh was about to wipe the smug look off our faces...he had filled his nappy (just how much can one lad wee in one day we ask?) and we had forgotten the nappies...now wheres a Tescos when you want one?

Spawn and Cache!

Tuesday 30th March 2010

In the famous words of Sir Jimmy Saville "now then, now then"...what you see in the photo to the left is not in fact Mr Shiltonpigs brains but a new exclusive for this blog....who needs BBC Springwatch when you have spawn watch brought to you in the comfort of your own living room. Yes thats right folks team Shiltonpig has been on the trail for some frogspawn for some time now and some very kind geocachers gave us some today...and so our froggy journey begins today. We know that readership of this blog will now double with this news (which means 2 people now read it) and tune in to see Joshs reaction to the tadpoles and frogs.

So while Josh was otherwise engaged (important business meeting with some Directors he tells us) it left the 2 remaining members of team Shiltonpig chance to grab a couple of caches....whats strange is that it took us 2 years and 8 months to get to 100 caches and only a further month to do the next 100...its been a great month of caching. The two that took us to another milestone were 2 on the Ashby road near Tamworth. The one that Mrs Shiltonpig is holding up is a novelty container in the mould of a penguin (its the one on the left)...it used to hold pink and white marshmellows.....shame they have all gone....mmmm...marshmellows.

Lastly team Shiltonpig would like to moan about travel bugs...we have gone 35 caches without finding any, and then we pick this cache up and find 2....including one amazing womble travel bug (best novelty song ever?) . This cache needed some Wombles as the amount of rubbish would have give the local tip a run for its money. And thats all we had time for today....just a small couple of caches, but the itch is well and truly scratched today....some breaking news just in, I repeat some breaking news...one of the tadpoles has moved! In fact the tadpole had pretty much completed one of Jane Fondas workouts by the time it had finished. Day off tomorrow from caching, but we will be back for Easter!

A"moo"sing Canal Capers

Saturday March 27th 2010

Of course, some times the jokes come that easily...this was the case with this photo...the cow is the one on the right! Boom boom! Yes another novelty cache on our afternoon outing today. So with lunch in our bellies...another Mr Shiltonpig special sandwich, we felt we had the energy to tackle some caches on another section of the canal we were on the other day. This was this canal linky poo . It was a much quieter part of the canal that housed a stack of caches...so sit back, relax and let us guide you through the pick of the caches in this area.

We parked the car near some donkeys and Josh literally ran to see though....though they were blinfolded, not sure why? (so if you know why drop us a note). Of course Josh pipes up and says "These pair of donkeys are just like my parents". Tut tut Josh you really shouldn't say things like that...sniff sniff. The first cache of the afternoon, was a do not find...and what was worse was when we got home someone had found the cache that very afternoon...in the words of the immortal Homer Simpson..D'oh! One of the good things about canal caching is that it limits the amount of caches that you can find because obviously they can't be in the canal.

One of the highlights of the afternoon came in the form of Josh needing a nappy changed, we took a photo for you to see! Fooled you, this is in fact another poo cache, our second this month. Do people in the East Midlands have a thing for poo or something? Anyway we like these caches, they always make you smile when you see them. Plus you know that they will never be stolen, as who is going to pick up a poo or steal a fake one? The following cache was the one we told you about at the start the cache covered in a plastic cow. We are losing count of the novelty caches we have found this year. We then came up to the village of Stenson, and its locally famous lock....amazingly called the Stenson lock. It is claimed that this is the deepest lock on the canal, we will take their word for it rather than walking all 93.5 miles and checking ourselves. Also of note is the Stenson Bubble...no no we are not talking about the local pub we are mentioning about a small stream that runs to the side of the lock. Its not surprising how popular this place is, it has a marina, 2 pubs and the lock of course.

We were fortunate to see a barge navigate the lock, and to be honest it is hard not to admire the engineering achievement from people in the 18th century. We weren't the only ones to witness it either I counted 40 people (they came out the woodwork, hedges...but mostly the pub) who just stood and watched a barge appear from the lock below them. Impressive. We carried on as we hadn't finished caching, and we were justly rewarded with the best cache of the day...a huge stonking massive cache pretty much the size of Josh...always good to see caches this big...its up there with the largest we have found so far.

But after 4 and a half hours caching, several nettle stings, and tons of thorn scratches (and avoiding the troll..see earlier blog entry for today) we got to the last cache of the day. And a new daily record for team Shiltonpig...yay to us. For all kinds of reasons today has been one of the best days caching this month and the joy that Mr Shiltonpig is showing is one that was going around the around the whole team. So back we trotted to the Stenford Bubble for a well deserved treat...2 cans of Pepsi Max. We thought we would push the boat out a bit....If you are ever in the neighbourhood you could far worse than the caches from Arleston to Stenson on the canal. Righto off home for a roast dinner now...and we will leave you in the immortal words of Josh "num num".

"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!

23rd January 2010

January 23rd 2010....

Shiltonpig decided to go for a new record and sure enough today was already looking like a good day. It had rained all week and somehow today it was dry...cold but dry. Team Shiltonpig parked up at Conkers and sure enough within 2 minutes the first cache of the day was found. A small micro with a rather strange yellow sticker on it, it was wet inside. Josh aka "Shiltonpiggy" was far too busy making duck noises as you can see on the picture to the left. However "Waterside Wander Number 1" was in the bag and away we went to the next one.

The ducks gave us one more deviation before Josh finally decided he would join us. The next cache was next to a disused canal near Ashby, more of a reminder of the heritage this area once had. Of course Mr Shiltonpig soon found the next cache, even though it wasn't his turn much to the annoyance of Mrs Shiltonpig. Caches come in all shapes and sizes, the hider of the series of caches that we were doing today must have had a lot of vitamin C, as all the caches were vitamin supplement tubes otherwise known as micro caches. Plenty of "muggles" or non geocachers around today along with some of the most wildest dogs known in this part of Leicestershire.

One of the most disappointing things about geocaching is turning up to the location and not being able to find the cache. Sadly our next stop on this canal series meant we were hunting through bricks and old beer cars but sadly no cache. Not to worry, as we carried on our journey we passed Moira Furnace, for further information click on http://www.moirafurnace.com/

Of course there was an opportunity to gain another cache along the way, the third in total so far. Mrs Shiltonpig found this one and this cheered her up, we found it alongside what must be mechanical remains of the furnace. It was around this time that the familar sound of the ice cream van has heard in the background, more on that later.

Off to another bridge in the area and after we had crossed it, we found the cache hiding under one of the steps, the log inside was soaking wet and was very hard to write on, but we managed. Josh was amused by the ducks in the area and we played peekaboo with him, and took a few photos of him from the top of the bridge.

Next up onto our 5th cache was near some electric pylons, perhaps not the best loaction for a cache. The clue said that it was the tallest of the Xmas trees, from our point of view all the trees looked big. Mr Shiltonpig picked the right one and sure enough in what can only be described as a very peculiar rubber pouch was another micro cache. But then the dreaded sound of the ice cream van struck again!! And we were a good mile away from getting close.

A good walk across the National Forest ensued next and Josh finally fell asleep. The next cache was unusual, it was tied up next to some dreadful coloured plastic plants. The crazy thing is that at first glance you couldn't tell the difference between the plastic and the real vegetation, even though due to winter the grass was yellowish lol. But as we had just found the cache and celebrated the most we had ever found in one day (6) along came the familar noise and up showed the ice cream van...two Mr Whippies with flake and raspberry sauce if you please....yum yum yum.

The rather smug with itself team Shiltonpig was now in a state of geocache hunger and they could smell more success around the corner, so on they went further and further down the path. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours....and guess what another bridge was up the way...would it be the site of another cache. The answer of course is yes! Mrs Shiltonpig was asked to help in this one, but the first place she looked, she didn't use her geo force (Star Wars meets Geocaching) and Mr Shiltonpig looked in the same place and hidden behind the grass another vitamin C tube was there.

The view from the bridge was typical of this area of the world. But the best cache was just waiting for us ahead today, otherwise known as Moira Madness. It lead us all around this small wood, and I am sure we made a meal out of it, but thats the problem when you have a pushchair. We spent ages getting the gps signal and then in the end we had to use the clue. Firstly the clue was very long to uncode and then it said to look for 3 logs next to a Holly tree....incredible, every tree in this wood was basically a Holly tree and for some reason there were loads of logs lying everywhere.


Mrs Shiltonpig had got stuck behind pushing Josh when all of a sudden Mr Shiltonpig fell over in the mud covering his jeans and coat. Joy of joys! We looked and we looked and geocache fever struck us as we kept looking. It was starting to get frantic as the worry that yet another cache couldnt' be found started to creep over us, however at the last minute we found it. It was a large size and loads and loads of trinkets were inside and also the muggles geo coin was found, which we took. Our second travel bug "Shiltonpigs Nature Bug" was placed inside and off that travel bug starts. Our 8th cache found in a day and a new team Shiltonpig record. Yay to us! Weary, hungry (especially Josh) and muddy we headed back to the car!