Geocaching is now 50% less hazardous!

Yes, The Sheep has gone, although I may possibly have spotted the woolly character indulging in R&R when I visited Cornwall recently...



                                     Sheepabunga Dude!

Meanwhile, the top 2 entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout continue to make moves (albeit tiny ones), as Australia cacher Fullboar2010 has added 1.82 miles to Team Blid435's BraveHeart TB by placing it into this cache, and Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug has been retrieved from the cache that it was resting in by Canadian cacher woodleg.as.

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

No News is Bad News for Half Hearted

It's (a slightly delayed) Elimination Day at The Great Travel Bug Knockout, and unfortunately for Oceanblue07970's Half Hearted Travel Bug it's a case of No News is Bad News as the shiny little TB has been left stranded in a Belgian cache. I wonder what will become of it...



We may have bidden bye-bye to ½H, but it's still business as usual for the remaining 7 entries, with cooper troopers' the noble traveller closing to within 30 miles of the top 3 after TeamSanSeba dipped it into this Turkish cache, adding 1592.33 miles to it's distance travelled. TeamSanSeba then took tnt all the way back to Germany and placed the silver TARDIS into this popular German TB Hotel. No milage was added on the return journey due to it being the second cache visited by the same cacher. However, Good News for cooper troopers as their trackable was promptly retrieved by local cachers TeamRR207.

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

Another entry sails off into the sunset...

It's time to wave bye-bye to wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug, and there she goes now;




In other Knockout news, cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB has, after being ignored by at least 4 cachers, been picked up by Dutch cachers UPQuest.

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

Bye-bye to George's Fun Bus ...and just where has that sheep been?!

I think that castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB is the first entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout to be eliminated from the competition whilst in the hands of a cacher, but obviously urriellu hasn't had time to place the little camper van in Spain...
...or has he, as this looks familiar...


In other Knockout news, mat smith's Hazards of Geocaching 2 (The Sheep) John's Knockout Racer TB has made a surprise reappearance after more than 7 months on the missing ovines list when Portuguese cacher Wild_Lion found the woolly bug in this cache, 219.62 miles from where it was last reported as being. Assuming that it hasn't visited any other caches in between, that makes HoG2's current distance travelled as 1118.82 miles, giving it a more than 150 mile advantage over wemnog's The Skylark TB, which was safely retrieved from Mega Wales by cacher Shiggaddi, who then placed the little dinghy into this Cornish cache (crossing the Bristol Channel on the way, of course!), adding 86.81 miles to it's distance travelled.

                                     The Skylark at Mega Wales 2011

Mention of Hazards of Geocaching 2 brings to mind it's sister entry, lgxkls' Hazard of Geocaching 1, which has been deposited into this Italian multi-cache, just over the border from Slovenia, scene of it's recent dipping mini-frenzy.

Another entry to visit another country is oceanblue07970's Half Hearted Travel Bug which was placed into this Belgian cache, 602.5 miles from the French cache that cacher SOSATO retrieved it from. It was promptly picked up by local Belgian cachers leffe&duvel.

Finally for today, cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB was placed into this Dutch puzzle cache, adding 57.94 miles to it's distance travelled. It was retrieved by Cache Owner verdi, who placed it into another Dutch puzzle cache, adding another 68.84 miles, and from where it was retrieved the very same day by local cachers slottys.

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

...and look out later this week for very special ½-distance round-up, including the first look at The Winner's Trophy!

Just where does the time go...?

Sorry for the late update folks, but here's what you have been waiting for, the seventh elimination from The Great Travel Bug Knockout, as we say say goodbye and good riddance to G-X's Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug) Travel Bug, and who better to lament it's passing than shirtless, sweaty, paunchy middle-aged forgotten popstar Brian Setzer?



Bye-bye Voodoo Whodo, and remember, look out for those pins!

This elimination means that George's Fun Bus 2 is next in line for the scrapyard, but GFB2 is fighting back as cacher cumbycritter placed it into this cache in Burns country, close to The Tam O'Shanter Experience, adding 44.91 miles to it's distance travelled.

Another entry on the move is Smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer Travel Bug, which added 1.46 miles to it's distance travelled when Swedish cacher oskargeo dropped in into this cache, from where it was promptly recovered by fellow Swede Stigge.

Finally for today, wemnog's The Skylark TB increased it's race distance by 35.82 miles when cacher elliott150 placed it into this Gloucestershire cache. It was retrieved two days later by Coventry-based cacher camogirl-2007.

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

Wave bye-bye to Billy Bear Racer

It's Elimination Day at The Great Travel Bug Knockout and time to wave bye-bye to our energetic friend, Ve8's Billy Bear Racer who hasn't been seen for several months. Ve8 himself chose this clip to remember his ill-fated Travel Bug by;



I hope that everyone joined in a commemorative Billy walk.

In other Knockout news, while French cacher christian35 has been dipping oceanblue07970's Half Hearted TB into the following dozen caches in central France, adding no official Knockout distance travelled whatsoever, wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug has leapfrogged both Half Hearted  and fuzziebear3's Happy Hoppy TB into 8th place in The Great Travel Bug Knockout. The Skylark was retrieved on April 14th from the Nottinghamshire cache that it was resting in by Dorset cachers Mattaharry, who, despite my email enquiries, have not yet logged the little dinghy into their possession. They then subsequently placed it into this cache, adding 171.23 miles to The Skylark's distance travelled. This, of course, assumes that it was not dipped into any other caches along the way; the official milage can be adjusted later if other information is received. The Skylark was then retrieved on April 28th by experienced Oxfordshire-based cacher Queen of Maps.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

Wave Bye-Bye to Bigfoot!

It's Elimination Day at The Great Travel Bug Knockout, and we wave a sad goodbye to Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer TB, which has recently proved to be as elusive as this fellow (or female);



C'mon, you knew that I was going to use the Patterson-Gimlin footage, didn't you?

In other news, smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer has recorded it's first official milage since December, 23.51 miles, after being placed into this intriguingly named cache south of Stockholm in Sweden.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for the official Knockout leaderboard

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.

Is the smile about to be wiped off of Happy Humphrey's face?

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

It's almost Elimination Day again at The Great Travel Bug Knockout and it looks like Happy Humphrey's Scary Halloween Monster Travel Bug, which hasn't been seen for 3 months, will soon be no more than a slightly spooky memory. Still, strange things happen in the world of geocaching trackables, and SHM may yet make a surprise reappearance.

In other Knockout news; Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari TB has made some moves, but I'm not quite sure of the order they were made in. I've contacted the cachers responsible and it seems that, although KF is currently logged in the inventory of American cacher VampireGoldfish, it appears that VampireGoldfish retrieved Knockout Ferrari from The Place to Play In Morro Bay, then placed it into this cache 3.76 miles away. It was retrieved from that cache the following day by cacher think1011 who then later the same day placed it into this cache 0.38 of a mile away, where it was discovered by VampireGoldfish again. Of course, if this proves to be incorrect, I can adjust the distance travelled later.

Somewhat simpler to follow is the latest move by cooper troopers' the noble traveller, which has been placed into this cache in southern Poland, close to the border with The Czech Republic, and 58.62 miles West of the cache that is the present home of lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 TB. This move has added 1241.01 miles to tnt's total distance, sufficient to move it ahead of HoG1 into 4th place overall in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

Finally, as more than one cacher has now logged that Grizzly Pair's Quatchi TB as missing from the cache that it is logged into, I've marked the friendly Bigfoot as whereabouts unknown.

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

Playing catch-up!

I'm back!

I'm sorry for the lack of updates over the last week, but computer bugs have intervened. Nevermind, The Great Travel Bug Knockout is still in full swing, but not for thejellybabies' My Little Eye TB, whose hopes blinked out on February 1st. Bizarrely enough, someone has sinced logged a retrieval on it, but too late!

Other movers and shakers over the last week have been;

Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug, which has been retrieved by Canadian cachers teammelbert;

cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB, which was placed into this cache in a northern suburb of Paris,  adding 164.45 miles to it's distance travelled and moving up one place in the overall Knockout rankings. Only 4 days later tnt was retrieved by French cacher daniel95. Mention of the noble traveller gives me a good excuse to use this picture;

of tnt before being placed in it's starting cache. Always nice to add an extra photo to the blog!

Another Bug to add to it's distance travelled was Wemnog's The Skylark which was placed into this popular TB hotel, adding 110.83 miles to it's distance travelled. Local East Midlands cacher plantsman soon retrieved the little dinghy and moved it along to this well-researched Derbyshire cache, adding a further 17.28 miles, giving The Skylark an official Knockout distance travelled of 242.99 miles.

Finally, what could be described as a negative move rather than a positive one, as Happy Humphrey's Scary Halloween Monster has been marked missing and I've therefore marked the frightening little TB as current whereabouts unknown. This is especially relevant as SHM is in 15th and last place of the surviving entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

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

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;

Rag's hopes in tatters

It's elimination day in The Great Travel Bug Knockout, and it's a case of last-in-first-out as we say;
to Rag Zombie, which travelled a total of 0 miles.

Can a Dalek breathe a sigh of relief? ;-)