Out of a clear blue sky(lark)

5...4...3...2...1...

Wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug, logged in the inventory of enigmatic cacher tigger1104 for the last two months has been retrieved by cacher Danyel-UK from a cache in Essex. Assuming that it was placed into this cache directly from the previous one, I have added 8.38 miles to it's distance travelled, which can be amended if interim caches are found to have been visited.

More worryingly, a cacher has reported Ve8's Billy Bear Racer as being absent from the cache it is logged into. If one more cacher reports it missing, I'll mark it as wherabouts unknown.

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Are thejellybabies eying up Elimination?!

5...4...3...2...1...

Despite GDSteam's promise to keep thejellybabies' My Little Eye in The Great Travel Bug Knockout, they are still holding the beady little TB, and haven't logged onto Geocaching.com since November 11th last year. I wonder if My Little Eye saw that one coming?

In other news, just the minor matter of a new Knockout leader! Yes, kiwiowl has made good on his intention of taking Blid435's BraveHeart TB to New Zealand, where he dipped it into a cache that he owns, adding a magnificent 11471.01 miles to BH's distance travelled, easily moving the shiny little bug into 1st place overall. Kiwiowl has retained possession of BraveHeart, but any subsequent milage added will not count towards The Great Travel Bug Knockout, due to the 1st dip only rule.

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Will George's Fun Bus 2 take off from *AIRPORT RUN-A-WAY*?

True to his word, South Yorkshire cacher VideoX has placed castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 Travel Bug into his TB Hotel Cache at Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport, adding 14.3 miles to it's distance travelled, enabling it to leapfrog Blid435's BraveHeart TB into 13th place overall in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

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Two more retrievals

Le Mans based cacher amadeusmozart has collected oceanblue07970's Half Hearted Travel Bug from the French cache that it has been resting in for the last 8 weeks, whilst here in the U.K. castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB has been picked up after an even longer stay in a South Yorkshire cache by Doncaster cacher VideoX, who is intending to move it on to his TB hotel cache near Sunny Donnie's Robin Hood Airport.

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A Brave move?

After comfortably resting in Plumbley Walk 3 for the last 2½ months, Blid435's BraveHeart Travel Bug has been retrieved by cacher kiwiowl, who is planning to take it home to Napier, New Zealand with him. A possible new leader of The Great Travel Bug Knockout?

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Bigfoot Quatchi take a step forward

Cacher al60uk has placed Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer Travel Bug into this cache in the West Midlands, adding 30.34 miles to it's distance travelled, enabling Quatchi to move up to a current 12th place in The Great Travel Bug Knockout, just one place behind Ve8's Billy Bear Racer TB, which cacher Bigspen has now dropped into this Derbyshire cache. This cache is close to a now-failed theme park. As this is the 11th cache that Bigspen took BBR to, the 48.1 miles to this cache from Wonderful Wistaston 4 have not been added to the TB's official distance travelled.

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A beastly little hop for Happy Hoppy

Cacher twopuppylove has placed fuzziebear3's Happy Hoppy Travel Bug into this cache south-west of the intriguingly named Chagrin Falls, adding a beastly 6.66 miles to it's distance hopped.

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It's dip-dip-dip and loads of dips more for Billy Bear Racer

Cacher Bigspen took Ve8's Billy Bear Racer Travel Bug to this cache in Cheshire, adding 51.75 miles to BBR's distance travelled.

He then took Billy to this cache, this cache, this cache and this one.

Then a couple of days later he took Billy to this cache, this cache, this cache, this cache and this one, none of which, due to Rule no.3, count for the purposes of The Great Travel Bug Knockout. Bigspen has kept hold of BBR, so there may be more dips to come!

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Hoppy is now even happier

Fuzziebear3's Happy Hoppy Travel Bug has been retrieved by local Ohio cacher twopuppylove after spending just five days in a cache.

Possibly more significantly, Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer TB has been retrieved by West Midlands based cacher al60uk after spending no less than 65 days in a cache. Possibly more significant because Quatchi was in last place and needs to double it's current distance travelled just to move up one place in The Great Travel Bug Knockout!

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Hoppy is a little Happier

Fuzziebear3's Happy Hoppy Travel Bug is feeling a little happier today, having been retrieved from it's previous home on December 4th and yesterday dropped into this cache, back in it's home state of Ohio. The cacher doing the retrieving and placing was veteran cacher Chris K in Geauga, who has added a handy 184.2 miles to HH's distance travelled.

Interestingly, this cache is another one set by the management of the park in which the cache is located, it being placed as an incentive for cachers to visit the park.

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An even tinier step for Love and Peace (Maan)

Each move by Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug may be smaller than the previous one, but at least it's keeping moving, which is more than can be said for most entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout! The latest of move of 3.27 miles is a result of Canadian cacher fisher007 placing LaP(Maan) into this cache, which purports to be a large, but every finder claims is a small. Possibly placed by a man..?

Thank you to other caching websites that link to this blog, including EmCache, the forum for geocaching in The East Midlands and cacher Jacaru's personal blog.

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Love and Peace (Maan) takes more baby steps

Canadian cachers Team Flip retrieved Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug from the cache that it was resting in on December 30th and yesterday placed it in this cache 6.85 miles away, from where it was immediately retrieved by cacher fisher007, proud resident of the City of Chilliwack, British Columbia.

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Watch out for the bullrings!

The first placement of the new year for an entrant in The Great Travel Bug Knockout is for lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer, which was retrieved from a cache in Essex on Boxing Day by newbie cachers Jobabs and today placed into this cache, halfway up a mountain in Valencia, Spain. Normally this wouldn't be a worry to any Travel Bug, but Valencia is on record as the only Spanish province that has declared that bullfighting will never be banned in!

This move has added 845.67 miles to HoG1's distance travelled, moving it up to 4th place overall.

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Happy New Year Knockout Racers!

Although it's not such a Happy New Year for one sad Dalek, although I understand that he has already found a new job more suited to his non-warrior skills;