Unfinished Business!

The worlds largest Travel Bug

Friday April 16th 2010

Dead birds in trees? trainers with a mind of their own? the largest travel bug ever found? These unconnected events can only mean one thing....another weird blog from team Shiltonpig. We decided to clear up some caches in the Clifton Campville/Haunton area that we didn't finish the last time we were here...little we were prepared for what was to happen... the first cache is by far one of the largest caches we have ever found, and when we opened it, we found the worlds largest travel bug inside....and we took a photo...we decided it was too large (and too noisy) to take with us so we just put the lid back on.

Mrs Shiltonpig drinks vodka

 However we soon realised that we had been mistaken and that the travel bug was actually Josh, and that we might get in trouble with the next people who found the cache, so in the interests of keeping the peace we allowed Josh to come with us. Now you may be forgiven for thinking that Mrs Shiltonpig is drinking some of Joshs juice, but this is in fact the cache that we found.....we kept it out of Joshs eyes...so that we wouldn't have to hear "juice" all the way back and down the field....however part of the next feat we have to do to get to the next cache was walk across the most death defying bridge you have ever seen in your life.

Does anyone read these captions?

 It may not look that scary, but enlarge the photo and you will see the metal bar underneath had buckled and Josh and Mr Shiltonpig, were poo'ing themselves (well in Joshs case anyway) as they walked across. We barely made it across with our lives....and thankfully there were no trolls this time as we walked across. So having barely crawled across, the trails were about to get worse...as we approached a tree from a distance we saw 2 ropes hanging....as we got closer still there were 2 carcasses hanging in the rope....at first we though they must have been caught geocaching, so we approached the next cache site with caution.

Friendly welcome to all local Geocachers

 Now we are guessing that the local farmer kills crows and hangs them to ward off other birds...and that we haven't stumbled across the local devil worshipping cult in the area.....its always the sleepy little villages that have all the crime going on....doesn't anyone watch Midsummer Murders???? Either way it was another scary trial that team Shiltonpig was having to face...but the worst was about to happen...and take 3 guesses which member got struck down....yes thats right...poor old Mr Shiltonpig....he was minding his own business carrying Josh on his shoulders walking through the field...when disaster struck...

Proof the invisble man exists

 the evil sinister mud grabbed hold of Mr Shiltonpigs trainer with its slimy hands and took it off his very feet. Mrs Shiltonpig must have been influenced by the sinister mud as she burst out laughing at him. She reached down to pull the trainer out the mud, but she couldn't do it. The grasps of the evil mud were just too great....it was left to the Mr Muscle aka Mr Shiltonpig to fight with the mud and get his trainer back. He wrestled, he fought, he battled, he struggled and finally the mud gave up the trainer....the mud threatened that it would not be the last time it would try and devour me....team Shiltonpig ran away quickly before it got Josh....

While we didn't bump into the evil mud again we think that it must have used its propaganda at the next cache as the trees, hedges, hawthorns and barbed wire all armed up against us and tore us to bits...and to make matters worse we couldn't find the cache. So battered, bruised and on crutches team Shiltonpig hobbled back to the car...with only one thought on their mind...revenge. We will not be beaten by any cache or mud.....we will be back!!

March winds and April Showers bring forth Mays flowers

Wednesday April 7th in the year of our lord 2010

The jet setters otherwise known as team Shiltonpig had been all over the place in recent days...going even as far as Stoke on Trent. But it was back down to earth today, back to the good old (or should I say new) National Forest. Bretby Park was the name of the game, we have been to Bretby before, but just not to this section. We were after 4 caches....for those of you not wanting to know how many we succeeded in getting skip to the next paragraph. We got 3 caches, simply because stupid Mr Shiltonpig wrote down the wrong cache details down. So we will be back again...

A warm welcome back to the readers who skipped over the last sentence. The first cache took us to the most unstable stile we have ever seen, it was so wobbly it made a jelly look solid. It was so unstable that if it had been a human it would be having intense counselling. The cache however didn't want to be opened, we pleaded with it and we begged it...boy we even got down on our knees and asked for it to open its treasures to us...this seemed to do the trick and our reward was a geocoin all the way from America...Florida to be precise....to be honest we would have preferred if that had kept the coin and sent us their weather instead, but nevermind, you can't be greedy.

Now for any geocachers reading this you may have noticed that we have had a lot of rain recently. So much rain in fact that even the clouds are starting to complain. This of course in turn upsets the ground as it gets all muddy, so muddy that you even have to consider wearing appropriate footwear when you go out. This is rather upsetting for team Shiltonpig as high heels are the normal preferred option and thats just Mr Shiltonpig. The cache at the top of this very muddy hill was in Mr Shiltonpigs favourite container...a rock, the 4th we have found of these in total. Hooray to us...the rock even had its own moss on it...to blend in. Very clever indeed..

The final cache took us to Bretby Hall, it is a place that gives all son in laws in the country hope....it is a retirement home....pretty neat one at that. An interesting fact for all you Egyptian fans out there is that the chief financial backer of the guy that discovered King Tut owned Bretby Hall at one point....well I never I hear you say....thank you for that bit of information. These days Bretby is just a good place to put a cache...and we found the one nearby...took us ages and ages to find it. Josh had started puberty by the time we found it....not to worry folks, thats the 3 caches that we found today.

It is worth ending todays blog on the wildlife that we encountered today. Granted it may not be a giant lizard discovered like in the Philippines but was enough for us. A bunny rabbit came very close to us, and a pheasant just walked on by about 40-50 centimetres away from us. So I am sure that the BBC will not be rushing out to Bretby to be amazed by what we found, but for this small team of tree huggers we were thoroughly pleased (well Mrs Shiltonpig was after she recovered from the hill). So we will leave you on the last thing that happened to us at the cache site today.....Josh trumped. And on that note...we wave goodbye....till the next time!!

Mud Central aka "Briz Valley"

February 27th 2010

So with 3 caches already in the bag from this mornings session, it was a well fed team that went back out in the afternoon. Just 2 caches in the afternoon would mean we have a new monthly record....5 more and we would have a new annual record!

We set off to a new housing estate on the outskirts of Burton on Trent. The first one that Mrs Shiltonpig is currently working on to the left was fairly straight forward for us to find and was strange to find one in this type of location.....

Next up was the first a couple that we would care to forget...sadly the first we will mention was on a bridge and we couldn't find it, it didn't help that it was muddy and when I say muddy it was muddier than mud itself...oh and the nearby dog poo didn't help.

We walked to a nearby pond, the self taken photo of Mr Shiltonpig sums how he felt about this next one...he had to squelch and squelch over the muddiest of fields to reach the cache, then he couldn't get near the co-ordinates and so he had to squelch around some more...finally though he was able to find it. Sadly Mrs Shiltonpig couldn't get to this one because of our wee Josh.

However one of the things we would like you to think about is whether or not the picture on the left represents a pond or not....Of course for those of you by now that are keeping track, we have found 2 caches and that means a new Team Shiltonpig monthly record! Yay to us....

Next up was a cache that we didn't take a photo of, it was a cache and dash type of cache....didn't have any redeeming features and to be honest, can't imagine that it will stay in our memories very long...unlike the ones from this morning.

That meant we only had one to do this afternoon and took us to what the cache owner calls it "the lolly stick". Sadly by the time we got there the lolly had all gone and Mr Shiltonpig was left to pose by it with a cache that curiously looked like something you might take to the hopsital with you full of urine. Nevertheless the cache was found and made 4 this afternoon and 7 in total today....very pleased we are with ourselves too. While the caches this afternoon themselves were not the greatest we have ever done, they did provide a challenge at times, and we still have to go back and finish one off.

We are now on the countdown to our 100th cache find....with only 7 more caches to go until we hit that big number. Not sure what adventures we will get up to before then...but onwards and upwards...

Righto, off to make a cuppa....wonder whose turn it is?