Day 8 - Perth (Different part this time though)

Like a millstone around your neck

 Saturday July 31st 2010

There was plenty of time away from the Mega event to go and do some caches in the centre of the city as well as head back up to the woodlands in the afternoon. We had got up at the crack of dawn partly due to the fact Josh still hasn't learned that there are hours after 6 am. A short drive to the centre meant that we were tackling caches before 9am. As mentioned many times in this blog one of the best caches we did was in a graveyard....the

Great Gravestones

gravestones in this part of the world are simply sublime. The detail on them is extraordinary and well worth a look. It was here will Mr Shiltonpig was dismally finding the cache that we bumped into "Bertocus Dan" who like us had woken early to do some caching while avoiding the herds that would descend later. He was from Bradford. We had the same idea after we found the cache...go get some breakfast and fortunately there was a Wetherspoons around the corner so we all enjoyed a breakfast. It is worth pointing out that some of the caches we did in the centre were actually on Day 7, but it just seemed more sense to put them all in this post. We were in the centre near St Johns Kirk we bumped into some geocachers from Milton Keynes, we spent an hour doing some of the caches near the riverfront and this is when we came up against a cache known as "only in Perth". We bumped into some geocachers from Norway (who incidentally had been leaving reindeer poo in all the caches locally

Mr Shiltonpig the Kiss ass as usual

...) this now meant that with 3 of us, 4 from Milton Keynes and 3 from Norway were all looking for a cache. None of us found it at all. Had we done some more research we would have found that this cache had been around for several weeks and not 1 person had found it. This was simply because it was so hard to find. It was THE cache of the mega event, nearly everyone we bumped into was talking about it. It seemed that at some point though someone actually found it....goodness knows where it was as we looked everywhere. Josh would have found it if he had been older. Anyway back to Day 8.

Perth Hairdressing?

The other cache that Mr Shiltonpig liked today was "The biggest curler in Perth" the cache description waffled on about hairdressers and when you got there as you see in the photo on the right it was a floral curler from the sport curling. Loads of cachers were there and I was waiting in a queue to sign it. Most surreal, normally the caches we find we are miles away from anybody. While team Shiltonpig were unsure what to make of Perth, the river front is great and we did a few caches on the other side including one on an island on a river. It was here that we bumped into some geocachers from Worcestershire. We caught them signing a cache that I had been unaware of, turns out it was a multi cache and so we technically cheated on finding it....but we are not letting you know which one!! Tut tut team Shiltonpig you are a disgrace to the sport.....(collective heads hanging in shame). After the mega event we then headed to the woodland park again, although parked in a different location. Mrs

A nice little pond in the middle of nowhere

Shiltonpig would like to point out how friendly everyone is up here, the locals always seemed to have some time to be able to talk to you. Probably the best cache of the afternoon took us to see an ordnance survey benchmark which also happened to have amazing views of the Perth countryside. And so our adventures in Perth had come to an end....we didn't know this at the time but it was the last time we would bump into any geocachers while on holiday. But we had more adventures still to come....the holiday was far from over.

Mega Event 2010 - Perth

800th Anniversary of Perth

 Saturday 31st July 2010

So after months of planning and days of travelling we were finally here...we were at the Mega Event in Perth. Our first Mega event having missed Harrogate and Weston super mud in previous years. I can only describe going to one as very surreal....lots of positives and negatives. We have been to a few conventions over the years (Ideal Home Show, travel shows and yes we will admit even a Sci Fi one...but we didn't dress up in Star Trek uniforms or anything) and so if we are honest

Jeremy Irish somewhere in a badly taken photo

 with our readers found the format very strange. The hall was massive and easily contained the hundreds and hundreds of geocachers that attended. However within about 20 minutes after the opening ceremony the hall was much emptier and the fact that there were only 7 or 8 stalls (including 2 promoting next years mega and the 2012 one) it seemed a little overkill in our humble opinion. There were only a couple of trade stands (one reasonably priced and one that wasn't), and they didn't seem to be that stocked up on what would have actually sold on the day. Hardly any t-shirts and not one stand sold those travel car bugs thingy ma jigs we

Josh attackes Signal the Frog

 have been after a while. Plus one of them didn't accept credit/debit cards. Personally I think there is massive growth area here that isn't being tapped into.....I doubt that it will change any time soon. You will probably feel as if we didn't enjoy the mega event by the fact of what we have just wrote, but you would be wrong. There were many good things that happened, for example as soon as we arrived there was a massive shout "Shiltonpig" someone cried. It was "Cannonedwards" the first ever cachers we bumped into about 3 years ago, we had both started geocaching at the same time. They have over 2000 finds now....we have a Josh...I would say we are about even lol. That was nice. It was also amazing how in just a few days we had seen so many geocachers and bumped into them again the event. This was nice....we will be the first to admit we don't know loads and loads of UK cachers and so you can feel a little overwhelmed...a friendly face always makes you feel better. It is worth noting too that the event opened to the sound of bagpipes and the mayor of

Well organised Mega Event

 Perth opened it up. His speech did go on for quite a long time but it was heartfelt and thats all that mattered. We also had a guest in the form of Jeremy Irish, the founder of Groundspeak, his insights were worth listening to. Apparently he doesn't like his celebrity status....team Shiltonpig do however and will happily sign autographs for our millions of readers! It was very well organised and despite our first couple of paragraphs it is fair to say that we want to say a big big thank you to the organisers of the Mega Scotland as so much work had gone into many of the side events and main events. For me the overall experience has been very positive, we have met many cachers from different walks of life and listened to some stories. A local cacher on the local forum told me that you need to go to as many side events as you can in order to appreciate the whole experience and they were right. Sadly we missed the mega event in the dark...but hey ho. There is no question that as we write we look forward to the mega wales event in exactly 365 days time....and who knows we may see you there yet!http://www.megawales.co.uk/

Mr Shiltonpig thinks he is cool with trendy wristband

Day 7 - Perth (100 posts on our blog!!!!!)

Is their driving really that bad??

 Friday 30th July 2010

So let me get this straight so far on our geocaching adventures this year we have been to Melbourne, Botany Bay and now Perth and yet sadly we have yet to put one foot on the land of Australia. Today we arrived in Perth, one day before the Mega event kicks off (a mega event is when at least 500 geocachers attend an event). Today team Shiltonpig aimed to go to 1 side event, but somehow ended up going to 2! The first was a teddy bears picnic. Josh likes his Winnie the Pooh bear and has been with him in his cot for many a month now. So it seemed

The new member of team Shiltonpig

 right that team Shiltonpig had an extra member for the day. We arrived several hours early and decided to complete some of the caches in the area beforehand. We ended up bumping into Caledale Duo, a couple of cachers from the Orkney Islands and we completed a multi cache together. Its always funny to swap stories and find ideas for good places to cache. By the time the event was ready to go ahead the weather had turned sour. The event was held at Quarry Mill Country Park and the entrance holds a charity shop and cafe, I am sure that the local staff were overwhelmed with how many visitors they had that day! There were some clues

Spot anything out of the ordinary?

 that you had to collect around the park before finding what a teddy bear had left behind. Sadly team Shiltonpigs gps failed for the second (and thankfully last) time and so we were unable to do anymore. The rain came down a bit heavier so we moved on to another part of Perth. This time we went to Kinnoull Woodland Park. This part of Perth is brill an amazing woodland park that is a lot bigger than you first think. What makes it stand out for a lot of woodlands across the UK are 3 things...first up is the excellent wooden carving dotted around the whole place. A nice touch which leads to some great caching treats especially for families. Second

Cool.....

 are the views which really have to be seen to be believed and third is wildlife for example we came the closest yet to some bird of prey (red kites?) than we ever have before. When I say closest I mean nearly attacked lol. We were walking around finding blue fungus and wooden hedgehogs when we stumbled across a second event which was designed for dogs. Loads of doggie travel bugs in tow at this one...one local who we got talking to couldn't believe how many geocachers there were and again the local shop was overwhelmed...business was up that day! One of the things we liked about this event was you had to  find and collect wooden bits which when collected

Josh wanted to take it home...

 together made a wooden badger. A very different and clever idea for a caching event. Finally there was a sitting still competition for dogs, we entered Josh for a laugh and he came last...while we have our doubts about the winner which features in the photo at the bottom. For the second day running we found a large amount of caches (well for us anyway) which always has a good feel to it. We went home still with loads and loads of caches to do in the Perth area in eager anticipation of the Mega event which was now just a few hours away!!

The winner...