Thursday 31 March 2011

Still no sign of The Wild Man of the Woods...

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

It's the final countdown for Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer! Will the elusive Travel Bug be found in time to add sufficient milage to it's distance to exceed Billy Bear Racer's distance? For that matter, will Billy Bear Racer turn up in a cache or a cacher's hands? All will be revealed by noon tomorrow...

In other news from The Great Travel Bug Knockout, 4 of the current top 6 have either been dropped off or picked up:

Racer leader, Blid435's BraveHeart TB, has been retrieved from the cache that it was resting in by newbie cachers FlipDags. This is the first trackable that FlipDags have ever picked up. Will they know what to do with it?

Third placed TB, Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan), has been placed into this event cache, to be held tomorrow, adding 5.23 miles to it's distance travelled.

Fourth placed entry cooper troopers' the noble traveller, has also been moved a short distance, 1.21 miles, and I'm sure that any distance added will please cooper troopers, but will they be happy that their Travel Bug has moved from a cache that is visited almost every day to one that is visited almost every week!?

Finally, current sixth placed Bug, smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer was retrieved from the event cache that it was placed into by experienced Swedish cacher omaster.

Scoll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings & distances travelled.

Sunday 27 March 2011

Is Quatchi about to become extinct?

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

It's countdown time again at The Great Travel Bug Knockout, and Grizzly Pair's Quatchi Knockout Racer TB appears to be a sitting duck, having disappeared into a thief's personal menagerie months ago. Of course, one can never quite tell when or where a Bigfoot will appear!

In other Knockout news, Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug is on the move again, having been picked up by Canadian cachers laphamclan, whilst Swedish cachers Pettssons have finally placed Smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer into a cache, this one, for literally, a well-deserved cup of coffee, well-deserved because prior to stopping at this event cache, SC10KR visited no less than seventeen caches in and around the area of Södertälje, click the links to see which ones!

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

Friday 25 March 2011

Love and Peace (Maan) passes the 5000 mile mark

Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug has been retrieved from the Canadian cache that it was resting in by Canadian cachers Burwash Family, who quickly placed LaP(Maan) into this cache, part of an Winnie-the-Pooh themed series, adding 13.78 miles to it's distance travelled, sufficient to pass the 5000 mile mark. Oh, and although Love and Peace is still going around in circles, it's now going clockwise, rather than anticlockwise, which may or may not help it to break out of British Columbia!

A second entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout to be retrieved (albeit not yet placed) is cooper troopers' the noble traveller, which has been picked up by experienced German cacher wodan74.

Scroll to bottom of this page for official Knockout placings

Monday 21 March 2011

3rd, 4th and 5th place entries respond to Knockout Ferrari's move

While Blid435's BraveHeart TB kicks it's heels in New Zealand, not only has Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari gained 78.76 miles, but now Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) has caught up by 20.28 miles after being placed into this intriguing cache outside a drive-in cinema. Just one thought, if everyone has to tune their car radios into the soundtrack, does everyone end up with a flat battery at the end of the film?

Next up is cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB, which has gained a whopping 525.58 miles by being placed into this cache in the south-western corner of Germany, close to borders with both France and Switzerland. The cache is dedicated to poet Johann Peter Hebel.

Finally, current fifth-placed Travel Bug in The Great Travel Bug Knockout, lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer has been dipped into this microcache, part of a series that spells out the word Újpest, the district of Budapest, Hungary that the cache is hidden in. This has added 176.05 miles to HoG1's distance travelled.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Stuck in Lodi?

I've almost missed a move by the current 2nd place holder in The Great Travel Bug Knockout, Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari, which has gained 78.76 miles after it was retrieved on Wednesday by veteran American cacher (with more than 11,000 finds!) retiredprof, who the very next day placed the shiny sportscar into this appropriate cache, near El Dorado St in a southern suburb of the Californian city of Lodi, which reminds me of this song;



Hopefully Knockout Ferrari won't be "stuck in Lodi" for long!

Scroll to bottom of this page for current Knockout placings

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Hazard on the road

Lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer Travel Bug has been retrieved from the Polish cache that it was penned it by Budapest-based cacher tomreti, who is planning to take it home to Hungary with him.

In other Knockout news, Swedish cachers Pettssons are continuing to dip Smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer TB into caches, this one and this one being the two most recent. As these are the 7th and 8th caches that SC10KR has visited whilst in the hands of Pettssons, none of the milage added counts towards it's official distance recorded in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

Scroll to bottom of this page for official Knockout placings

Monday 14 March 2011

Love and Peace hooked by fishmaster!

Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug has been retrieved by cacher rjfishmaster. When checking rjf's profile I noticed that he lists his location as Surrey, so is a return trip to the U.K. on the cards? No, he actually is based in Surrey, British Columbia!

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

Saturday 12 March 2011

The Skylark finds safe harbour

Yes, it's another case of as-soon-as-I-update-the-blog...

In this case, it's Merlin Fish who is the unintentional fly in my ointment, having placed Wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug into this cache in south-eastern Nottinghamshire between the villages of Gunthorpe and Caythorpe, adding 15.6 miles to it's distance travelled.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings.

Is the noble traveller about to Czech out another country?

In my last blogpost I pondered which of the current top 5 TBs in The Great Travel Bug Knockout would be first to move along. The answer may be forthcoming shortly as Czech cacher Bobo2222 has retrieved cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB from the Polish cache that it was resting in. Will he place it in a cache in The Czech Republic, adding a 5th different country to it's journey?

In other news, Swedish cachers Pettssons have dipped Smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer in this cache, and this cache, and then this one, and this one, then this multi, and most recently in this interesting challenge cache; these placements have added 86.37 miles to SC10KR's actual distance travelled, which, due to the only-the-first-dip-counts rule, equates to nothing, nada, nil, zippo, zero and diddly squat in official Knockout distance. Sorry Smart451!

Scroll to the bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Where is Billy Bear Racer?

Ve8's Billy Bear Racer Travel Bug has become a Bad News Bear after it has been confirmed that he is no longer present in the cache that he is logged into, so I've had to list him with the dreaded whereabouts unknown designation.

In happier news, Wemnog's The Skylark (with bells on!) TB has been collected by East Midlands-based cacher Merlin Fish, and Canadian cacher sunpeaks has placed Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) bug into this Canadian cache, adding 12.63 miles to it's distance travelled. The cache is in the interesting community of Maillardville, a town that was populated with transplanted Québécois, becoming the first officially French Canadian community in the province of British Columbia. This means that currently all of the Top 5 entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout are resting in caches (in locations as far apart as Australasia, North America and central Europe) waiting to be picked up and moved along. Who will be moved first?

Scroll down to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

Monday 7 March 2011

Hello Sailor!

Cachers woodlands7 placed Wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug into this cache in Nottinghamshire, in a park built on the site of the former Hucknall New Colliery in Huthwaite, adding 11.04 miles to it's distance sailed in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

Interestingly, miles are not the only thing to have been added to The Skylark, as this morning I visited the cache that it has been placed into and took this photograph;


Notice the two silver balls? They're bells and, as confirmed by TB owner Wemnog, have been added to The Skylark whilst it has been travelling around as a participant in The Knockout. How curious is that...?

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

Thursday 3 March 2011

Top two contenders battle it out

Current second place holder, Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari Travel Bug has been placed (by the Cache Owner, shakenbake47) into this cache in the former Gold Rush city of Marysville, California, adding 234.08 miles to it's distance travelled in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

However, Knockout Ferrari's milage addition has been partially neuralised by the leader of The Knockout, Blid435's BraveHeart TB being placed into this cache in the Auckland suburb of Mission Bay, adding a respectable 143.72 miles to it's distance travelled.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

It's okay, you can come out from behind the sofa now...

...Happy Humphrey's Scary Halloween Monster TB has been exorcised from The Great Travel Bug Knockout. Actually SHM has been missing for a while; could these lads be responsible?;



Now that's what I call really scary!


In other Knockout news, Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari Travel Bug keeps racing along; cacher composter1 placed the little sportscar in this cache on historic U.S. Route 101, adding 32¼ miles to it's distance travelled. It was retrieved the very same day by Californian cacher, shakenbake47.

Scroll to bottom of this page for official Knockout placings.