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!

Resistance is Futile!

Monday 15th March

Believe it or not the photo that you see to the next of you is the location of the cache that we found today....this cache is by far the hardest of the caches we have ever looked for as it has taken us 3 attempts to find it...

The clue for this cache relates to finding a certain tree and then looking for a fallen tree. Problem being is that the gps bounces all around due to the tree cover, next trying to find the spoiler tree is impossible and there are hundreds (and for once I'm not being sarcastic) of fallen trees everywhere! Hence the reason we couldn't find it....using the local geocaching website we were able to get some more clues, which included

being told that the cache was hidden under a large flat stone....it turned out to be a kind of pinky orange type stone under an Everest proportion monutain sized bunch of leaves! But not to worry the fact is that we finally found it and so once and for all we could turn around in a Jean Luc Picard accent and say to the cache "Resistance is futile!"

Of course like all good geocaches the area also required some exploration, we went around Willesley Wood. In 1943 coal mining ended in the area and like a lot of the National Forest it was reclaimed for woodland. One of the beauties of this particular part of the world at this time is the fact snowdrops cover the woodland in parts and as soppy as this is to say, it really is beautiful....like a land of little fairies lives nearby....(no I haven't been drinking!!)

The walk takes you past loads of bullrushes (Mr Shiltonpigs favourite) and then you head to Willesley lake which is a private lake full of man eating fish....well ok perhaps not man eating but big enough to eat Josh..we kid you not!

http://www.fisheries.co.uk/willesley/index.htm

The lake has apparently been here for 200 years after it was founded by the Hastings family and is now a pleasant walk although part of it means you have to dodge golf balls from the nearby golfers.

It was at this stage in the walk that the obligatory chocolate and juice came into play, with Josh eating a 3rd of the chocolate bar? How come someone so small still gets to eat so much? All of a sudden the winds started picking up and the cloud became darker than black itself. Quickly team Shiltonpig made a run for the car....when I say run I mean jog.....and when I say jog I mean walk....and when I say walk I mean leisurely meander back.

We all agree that this is the nicest walk in the vacinity that we have done so far....the National Forest is not well known outside the local area and that is a shame, as we are beginning to feel a connection to the land....we are not saying that we want to go out and hug a tree or anything, but it is nicer than its given credit for.

On the way back we came across this sign...seems that local geocachers have been getting so mad at not being able to find the caches in the area that they have taken to shooting.....

So this ends another afternoon of caching, on the hardest cache we have come across yet....but walking always seems to make the world seem better...not sure why but it does....you can go out the angriest people in the world and yet come home feeling as if you love every person on the planet.....

Challenge to the readers...next time you go for a walk, just how many species of tree can you name correctly?