Day 9 - Edinburgh

Dr Who and his assistant

Sunday August 1st 2010

Oh my goodness me! The Edinburgh cache setters really must enjoy walking...they easily set the worlds longest multi caches. No really they do....one such cache that we completed today took us over a mile away from the final resting place of the cache....Anyway we are getting ahead of ourselves...we waved goodbye to Perth and drove South for the first time this holiday and came to the amazing city of Edinburgh. Hands down Edinburgh is team Shiltonpigs favourite UK city. There is

Look behind you!

always something interesting going on. Good old Travelodge provided us with a hotel slap bang in the centre of the city with £10 parking for 24 hours...you can hardly go wrong. We walked up the Royal Mile towards the castle which was full swing in the middle of the Edinburgh Tattoo. Mrs Shiltonpig had never heard of the tattoo, so this linky poo is for her. We walked down by the side of the castle and there was our first cache of the day which was a regular size...shows that you can do decent sized caches in the middle of a tourist city and get away with it. Josh was getting hungry and so

Imagine carrying that on your wrist

tried to find somewhere to eat, we tried 2 pizza huts but were shut. Subway it was then while sitting in Princes Street Gardens. This was home to the most amzing floral clock we have ever seen, it even tells the time. The photo doesn't give justive to the hard work that had gone into making this clock. There was some live music in the background which was nice. It was here that we started the multi cache journey that was to teach us about Edinburgh authors. A marker nearby to Robert Louis Stevenson was the start of a journey that took us near Carlton Hill. Mrs Shiltonpig was too tired to

Please mom..can I?

climb up this hill, which is a shame because it holds the most amazing views of Edinburgh. It wasn't long before we ended up in a graveyard again....seriously I think some geocachers need some kind of therapy. This cache took us ages to find as graveyeards tend to have plenty of places to hide a cache....anyway this was to become one of those moments you dread. The rain started to come down and by jolly jeeps did it come down....we ran to the only shelter there was...a bus stop. Josh surprise surprise didn't take long to get frustrated and started crying....rain, screaming children....you get the picture...not an easy combination by any imagination. The rain gradually broke, but we were all so tired from so much walking today that we headed back to the hotel for a sleep. Well I tell a lie...Mr Shiltonpig went and did one more cache in the rain to 2 churches in a small undisturbded part of Edinburgh. One of the great things about the city is the sound of bagpipes....as you walk down the streets...incredibly atmospheric

A scary grave...

Plenty of tourists here...so only 3 caches completed in the centre of Edinburgh. This is partly due to the length of the multi caches here and the fact that your gps will have reception difficulties with the tall buildings (the clouds didn't help either). A link to show you what youre missing if you haven't been here yet. The day evening ended with finding a lovely pizza hut that was actually open....yum yum, though they didn't have the stuffed cheese base pizza....this was a disaster....onwards southward tomorrow.

Happy Happy Mr Shiltonpig

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...

Day 6 - Braco

Braco Village Hall and 2 familar faces

 Thursday 29th July 2010

Quite possibly the most amazing geocaching experience happened today. We had arrived in the small village of Braco (am I the only one to think that Braco sounds like it should be in a Lord of the Rings type novel or film?) for a geocaching event. (More on that later). So we were about a third of the way around a geocaching walk when we were taking a break....all of a sudden "Fishteers" a geocaching family came around the corner who lived in another distant part of the East Midlands who we had never met before and they had actually

Josh demanded I add this photo or he would poo

 read this blog. I think that is probably the biggest ego trip yet for team Shiltonpig...not to get carried away but would be shocked if Hollywood don't decide to make a film out of us and our adventures....perhaps a Nobel Peace prize also beckons? But I suppose rather than gloating and letting my head get so big it explodes I should return to the actually day itself. The first side event of the mega event (more on that another time) was here. There were 3 sections to the day...a drive by section in the country, a walk in the country and then the event itself. You could tell that we had arrived at a major event, when at one of our first

Wow!

 caches of the day we bumped into 3 sets of cachers.. some from South Africa, some from Stockport and some local cachers to the area. And thats how it started and carried on for most of the day....and it was really nice. Geocaching can be a lonely activity at times and its nice to have some company. We saw travel bugs on cars, travel bugs on dogs and even a tattoo of a travel bug and that really is commitment to the cause! If you don't believe us then check out the photo at the bottom! Throughout the course of the day we met loads of cachers and all of them were very friendly except for the first time ever there were 2 young couples

A scary creature just for Little Fish

 who couldn't even be bothered to say hello. Team Shiltonpig blows you a massive raspberry to you. Anyway as mentioned earlier we did quite a few caches with the fishteers...this included one of the caches of the holiday and easily a contender for top 10 of the year. Without spoiling all the details...basically its like a treasure chest challenge on I'm a Celebrity get me out of here. You need to find a key, need to find the cache...and then somehow you need to piece them all together....it is a 5/5 cache and is team Shiltonpigs first. It really would be hard to have done it without another geocaching family with us. Such great fun and a real

I'm a celebrity get me out of here...

 triumph so well done to Scottiedogz for devising it.Link to the cache... We clocked up a fair few amount of cache today which  was really good. Braco is a nice place and well recommended if you are in the area. In addition we found our largest TB yet which is a diary that requires you to put your birthday in it and once its full it wants to go back home. So while the event itself was pretty quiet this was because the action was going on in the woods behind the event. Good fun, good company and a good start to the mega event activities!

Wow....geocaching extreme!

Day 5 - Blair Drummond Safari Park

A wishing well with no money in?

 Wednesday 28th July 2010

Josh woke up and demanded that he had had enough of geocaching and wanted a break. Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig broke down in tears at such heresy, how could we have raised a 2 year old to say such terrible things. Geocaching must be done every single day, and as often as possible!!! Anyway once we calmed down we realised that we could trick Josh into doing some caching with the reward of doing something he wanted for a change. So we dragged him out of bed and drove him to a garage

Future Steve Irwin?

 to get some breakfast. This particular garage had a surprise up its sleeves...the best oatcakes you have ever eaten in your entire life. Yum Yum. We then drove on the A84 to complete a cache by a bird bath by a graveyard.....I would like to point out something that I have mentioned before. Geocachers love graveyards...I am not sure why but they do. This was just one of many caches completed by graveyards this holiday. After this it was a very short drive to the safari. For more information of this park click here...go on you know you want to.  Josh of course was in his element here, not because of the animals but mainly due to

Live long and prosper

 the large amount of toys that they had available. Josh will one day be an extreme geocacher junkie, we have no doubt. Josh isn't interested in the slides and normal play parks designed for his age. He wants to go on all the rides designed for th 13-16 year olds. After prizing him off the rides, the first animal we took him to see was a sea lion. Josh shouted "whale" at the creature, partly because Josh loves whales, in all there forms. He even has a cuddly toy whale in his cot and "Finding Nemo" is his favourite film. I am sure we are not the only parents to get weary of watching films 100s of times. The sea lion show was a great success and probably provided Josh his happiest moment of the day....no not watching the sea lions....just the fact he was able to join everyone clapping. Its the first time any of team Shiltonpig have been to a safari park and we have to say that this place is an excellent day out for the whole family. The whole place has been designed with the family in mind...even a whole section where you can have a BBQ. Just a shame it is so far away from where we

Josh looks happy

 live (about 100,000,000 miles away at the last check). Oh and we can't understand a word half of them are saying due to the accent.
Further to Josh enjoying fish, whales and other sea type things...it is no surprise that when he saw the boat trip, he went mental. Problem was there was a 20-25 minute wait to get on the boat and he just couldn't wait to get on the boat....and when he was on there...guess what he couldn't wait to get off. Kids!!!
Josh has another worrying trend....perhaps its our fault for introducing him to a "sport" which is classed as a little geeky, but he seems to really love (hold

where does he get his love of tractors from?

 your breath) tractors. I am so worried that we may have to take him to a counsellor....we can't have him growing up to be a country bumpkin, eating straw in the corner of his mouth and driving a tractor all day. Personally I blame Mrs Shiltonpigs side of the family! Other highlights included doing a safari drive in our car....Mr Shiltonpig showed his rebellios side when he left his window down when they entered the lion section. The ranger came over to tell him off....but it was too late they had eaten all the biscuts and oatcakes (they must have heard we had been to that garage earlier). Mrs Shiltonpig would like to point out that one of her best bits was the baby

The Original Shilton"pig"

 rhino ( no we are not talking about Josh). Mr Shiltonpig would like to point out that one of his best bits was the pot bellied pig (no we are not talking about Mrs Shiltonpig). Josh would like to point out the best bit was seeing the whale (even though he didn't actually see one and it was a sea loin, but who are we to ruin someones dreams?). Blair Drummond Safari Park would like to point out that the best bit was when we left as they had never met a famly like us before! Until tomorrow my dear reader(s)...until tomorrow

Watch out they have escaped!!!!

Day 4 - Stirling

On top of the world....

 Tuesday 27th July 2010

So you may be bored of us talking about the Lake District and so to listen to reader demand (all 2 of you) we will move on north of the border to a country called Scotland. Scotland is famous for all kinds of things...thistles, whisky and haggis. Oh they have a monster as well in a big lake...but we didn't see that either. While in this humble Shiltonpigs opinion Edinburgh is the best UK city, Stirling would be a candidate for the best town (and yes before you all email me, we know that Stirling is a city, but we will ignore what the Queen did in 2002)

Come on wave back...you know you want to..

Stirling is such a great place and this is the second time we have visited here. First up was the Wallace Monument which is a 19th century huge tower of like a zillion steps high to celebrate William Wallace.If you don't know who he is then I suggest you go and watch Braveheart the film with Mel Gibson. Mel wasn't here today, but there is a cache at the bottom of the hill with fine views of the hills nearby. Of course it would have been rude not to climb to the top of the tower and so with little Josh in our hands (well to be precisely Mrs Shiltonpigs hands as poor old Mr Shiltonpig seemed to suffer with an aversion to heights).

Josh didn't want to pose

 In the afternoon we headed over to the centre of city to find more caches...there are not that many in the centre...Josh and Mrs Shiltonpig had a little kip in the car while Mr Shiltonpig went to find a nearby cache and surprise surprise he bumped into the first geocachers of the holiday....Kernow Cachers. They had come up all the way from Cornwall...wow thats a long drive and then some. Between the 4 of us we tried to find the cache, but were only successful in finding a bees nest instead. Always nice to meet fellow cachers on ours travels. Headed back to the car to collect the tribe and wandered around the old town....one of the stranger caches we have done led

Josh aka Rob Roy

 us to a roundabout which was connected via a series of subways to find a nano on a noticeboard. It was actually nicer than it sounded. Josh seemed to like the caches that were near statues, he was able to climb up them (granted with some assistance). It is worth noting that he more than ever understands geocaching now. He knows that we look for boxes, its his job to open them and he looks through the toys while we sign the log book. He then puts the toys back and puts the box back...and he loves it. Were proud of our little geocacher!! Worth noting that we had a great curry in a pub here....a nice lamb bhuna. Travelodge provided us with a cheapish holiday this year...and so it provided us with a funny story in the hotel in the evening. At about 10.30 at night while Josh was asleep and Mr and Mrs Shiltonpig were enjoying a well deserved glass of wine, Mrs Shiltonpig noticed a drip in the ceiling. The drip became bigger and then another appeared and then another...until finally it was like a constant tap of water coming from the ceiling. It appears that a silly unsupervised 7 year old left alone in the room above us left the hot water tap and flooded the bathroom. Its bad enough that it has been raining everyday so far on this holiday without the fact it is now raining indoors!

The biggest drip of them all