3 B.C. (Before Child) Part 2

August 24th-26th 2007 Montserrat Mountains Spain

On the 26th August 2007 the greatest challenge yet (and still to date 3 years later) came in the form of the cache otherwise known as Sant Joan Montserrat. For an idea of what the surrounding area is like look at the link . Mrs Shiltonpig captures the joy and amazement of finding this cache in the photo to the left.

The views here are amazing and well worth a small trip from the hustle and bustle of nearby Barcelona.

So taking a train and then cable car to the top of the mountain you then find an amazing monastery at the top of the mountains....but to be honest the mountains themselves are the real winners here, you are surrounded by what can only be described as giant pumice stones!!

Next up after beating up all the tourists was a steady climb even higher to where the cache was located....it should be noted that at this stage of our hobby with geocaching we were not as adept at understanding our gps as we are now. But the good news is that back then we had our youth and energy, partly because we could have sleep and Mr Shiltonpig not have to carry the heavy load known as Josh on his shoulders!!!  The photo below shows the church of Sant Joan and so we knew we were in the correct vacinity of the cache, surely we would then find the cache in a mere moment of time. One thing team Shiltonpig has found in there time caching

is that if there is an easy of doing things, we don't do it. The gps told us to follow the path and so we did, but then we started heading away from one set of co-ordinates as we hit another set, by now we were about a mile from where the cache was and poor old Mr Shiltonpig was getting scratched and bruised by all the nearby thorns and branches that he had to go through to get the cache. We must have walked up and down this path about a million times....no seriously it really felt like that...but alas we couldn't find this little blighter! We decided to go back to the church and retrace our steps and looked around where we thought a path should go.

The fourth and final time that we did this, we noticed a path that we had previously missed, and when we say path we mean walk up a rocky cliff, not too steep. We started to go up it and checked the gps....this time the co-ordinates were looking more promising! Up above us stood a lone large tree, and we had that feeling that all geocachers get when they see something and just know instinctively that the cache is there. Mrs Shiltonpig was the first to locate it...and resulted in the first photo of this blog being produced. 3 hours, 3 long hours it took us to find this cache....however despite all the pain and tiredness we suffered it had taken us really really off

the beaten track and to a land far far away (Star Wars theme tune plays in the background). Plus 2 and a half years on we still talk about this cache and have good memories of it. There was still time in the afternoon to do another cache in the area and to be honest we found it in a mere 30-45 minutes, childs play in comparison. We could blame our gps for not finding it but there again as my mom always used to say...a bad craftsman always blames his tools! Seriously though if you ever get the chance come visit this area its beautiful....plus there are even more caches in the area now! You will be wetting your pants with excitement to know that if we can dig out some more photos there will be a 3rd installment to this Spanish tale.....until the next time my fellow readers....until the next time!

3 B.C. (Before Child) Part 1

August 24-26th 2007 Part 1

It is hard to imagine at times, hard to remember that once upon a time we were a couple and not a threesome as we are now.

Back in the days before Josh, we would have lie ins, have a tidy house and our bin would not be full of dirty nappies. It was also the days when we were foot loose and fancy free....the days when we could travel.

In August 2007 on the last bank holiday of the summer team Shiltonpig in only their second month caching went to their 2nd country...Spain and specifically Barcelona.

It was boiling....so hot that we cooked an egg on the pavement there and then....first up was a cable car journey up to one of the higher places in Barcelona "Castlell de Montjuic" and of course a cache! This cache will always have a special place to us as it was where we released our first travel bug and 6016 miles and 3 years later it is still going strong! Although its been quiet recently...boo hoo!

The views of Barcelona were spectacular from here and of course you could see the sea which is always nice when you live inland like we do. The cache was on a nice quiet section of pine woodland to the back of the castle....seems to be a popular place for joggers. The cache no longer exists but its a lovely walk in a quiet part of Barcelona....every time I write that word I keep wanting to burst into song and sing that famous song by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe....(watch out in part 2 of our Spain story of our visit to Montserrat).

The next cache on our visit is the story of the photo at the start of this blog and still thankfully exists today. Joan Brossa GC132FV. It is a multi cache, which means that rather than just hunting for the cache you have to collect a series of clues first which then leads you to the cache. This cache meant we were able to be be big kids for the park has a whole load of musical type amusements on which to play on.

As mentioned the 1st photo sees Mrs Shiltonpig jumping from musical note to musical note letting off little squeaks as she goes (to be honest she is well capable of doing that without the musical notes!) The park itself is a pretty area and well maintained and there were no kids around to ruin our fun!

When we eventually found the cache we found a little green toy bug in there and this would eventually be used for our second travel bug which we released this year but sadly has only moved once in the East Midlands.

Of course our trip to Barcelona wasn't all about geocaching....Mr Shiltonpig was able to enjoy his favourite architect the genius that was Antoni Gaudi www.gaudiclub.com years ahead of his time and the other most irritating/rewarding passion on the planet....the art of kicking a pigs bladder around a field, or more commonly known as football.

But while the centre of Barcelona provided some fantastic moments (including the English cinema) the hardest cache known to team Shiltonpig was just a mere 24 hours away....but they didn't know it.....

Keep watching this space (though don't hold your breath) for the next fascinating, amazing, fantastic installment of team Shiltonpigs blog!