Will fuzziebear3's TB have to hop it?

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

Castlegrice can kick back and chill out; Their entrant in The Great Travel Bug Knockout has moved off of the elimination bubble thanks to Scottish cacher Claraloon, who yesterday retrieved George's Fun Bus 2 from the cache that it was resting in, and this morning placed it into this one, adding a vital 80.49 miles to it's distance travelled. This has moved GFB2 ahead of fuzziebear3's Happy Hoppy TB, which I suspect went missing from the cache that it is logged into many months ago...

Meanwhile, Wemnog's The Skylark TB continues to steadily rack up the distance, having added another 10.1 miles after being dropped into this cache, one of the controversial Timberland-sponsored TRAIL OF HEROES series.

In other Knockout news, Oceanblue07970's Half Hearted Travel Bug has finally been left in a cache, rather than just dipped, by French cacher christian35. This interesting looking one, to be precise.

As one cacher finally lets go of an entry in The Knockout, it seems another takes up the dipper's baton, as Slovenian cachers Kassiopeia82 have taken lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer to this cache, and have retained possession of the cud-chewing little trackable.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current Knockout placings

Almost time for the 7th Day Of Elimination!

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

With only two days until the 7th entry is eliminated from The Great Travel Bug Knockout, the situation is looking bleak for G-X's Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug) TB, which has been missing since last month.

Not too many moves to report in the last couple of weeks; current 3rd place holder, Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug was placed into this cache, adding 14.16 miles to it's distance travelled, and from where it was retrieved by Canadian cacher DisneyGirl. DG has indicated that she may move it to an Alaskan cache soon, hopefully breaking LaP(Maan) out of the circular holding pattern that it seems to be stuck in in British Columbia.

Smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer Travel Bug was placed into this popular Swedish cache, adding 8.61 miles, and was soon picked up by local cacher oskargeo.

After an extended stay of over three months in a Scottish cache, castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB has been collected by cacher cumbycritter.

Finally, wemnog's The Skylark Bug, which was in the hands of cacher hedgehogmad has been retrieved from this cache by cacher elliott150, with no evidence of how it got there (not the first time that this has happened to The Skylark!). Assuming that the little sailing boat was placed into this cache immediately from it's previous home (although it should be noted that LSL#09 is a premium member only cache and hedgehogmad is not a premium member of Geocaching.com), I have added 3.11 miles to TS's official Knockout distance covered.

As always, scroll to the bottom of this page for the current official Knockout placings.

A tale of distance allowed ...and distance disallowed!

Cacher Nottinghamman has placed wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug into this interesting Derbyshire cache, overlooking Sir Richard Arkwright's historic Masson Mills, adding 6.72 miles to it's distance sailed. It may be moored here for some time as this is quite a tricky cache to find; I logged a DNF myself on it a few weeks ago and a cacher has already logged a DNF since The Skylark was dropped into it.

The Skylark is barely a quarter of a mile ahead of castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB in the current Great Travel Bug Knockout placings, after the little VW was retrieved from the Glasgow cache that it was (briefly) resting in by Scottish cachers Sweeney Toddlers. The puntastic Toddlers then dipped GFB2 into this cache, adding 7.8 miles to it's distance travelled, and then this one, adding nothing, and then this one, again adding nothing. The reason that the last two dips adding nothing to GFB2's distance is because only the first placement by a cacher counts towards a Travel Bug's total distance.

Speaking of disallowed milage, current Knockout leader, Blid435's Braveheart TB has been placed into this cache, near to the ghost town of Opepe, but as with George's Fun Bus 2's most recent moves, no distance travelled will be added to Braveheart's official Knockout distance.

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

Is George's Fun Bus 2 a museum piece?

Cacher Mr Truffles has placed castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 Travel Bug into this interesting cache, just outside Glasgow's new Riverside Museum, a.k.a. The Glasgow Museum of Transport, described by one architecture critic as resembling "a steel tsunami". This placement has added 210.03 miles to GFB2's distance travelled, enabling the little bus to leapfrog up into 11th place overall in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

In other news, cacher Nottinghamman has retrieved Wemnog's The Skylark TB from the Derbyshire cache that it was (briefly) resting in.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current Knockout placings.

Lift-Off for George's Fun Bus 2

Doncaster's Travel Bug Hotel - *AIRPORT RUN-A-WAY* has indeed proven to be a departure lounge for castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 Travel Bug which has been retrieved by experienced Rotherham based cacher (both as finder and placer) Mr Truffles.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for official current placings in The Great Travel Bug Knockout

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.

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

George's Fun Bus doesn't hang around

Castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 has been retrieved, after a very short stay, from Chester-mans no 1 by cachers Kez+Maz. This is the second entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout that K+M have retrieved, having earlier moved thejellybabies' My Little Eye Travel Bug along.

The first two retrievals (or possibly three?)

Nottingham cacher Baira has retrieved both Happy Humphrey's Scary Hallowween Monster and Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bugs from Skeg to Ness #99.

It's also possible that castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB has been retrieved from Skeg to Ness #105, as a finder yesterday logged taking a TB, but hasn't actually logged GFB2 out of the cache. I've emailed the cacher in question to inquire whether he spotted castlegrice's trackable in the cache and I am awaiting reply.

Oddly enough, I've just realised that I bagged FTF on both Skeg to Ness #99 and Skeg to Ness #105. Small geocaching world, eh?

Placements: Safe and Risky!

No sooner has Hediya entered The Great Travel Bug Knockout than she has placed her Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug into this cache in the Nottinghamshire section of the controversial, but generally excellent and much-visited, multi-Cache Owner Skeg to Ness mega-series. At the same time Happy Humphrey took the opportunity to place his Scary Halloween Monster TB into the same cache. Could this be a mistake or masterstroke? Two TBs in the same cache could attract more finders, but maybe the finders will choose one TB over the other...

Intriguingly enough, castlegrice have also chosen to place their George's Fun Bus 2 Travel Bug into another cache in the Skeg to Ness series, only 6 caches further along! Will all three entries be retrieved by the same cacher?

So much for the safe options, cooper troopers have taken the risky move of placing their the noble traveller TB into an unpublished cache off of the B5057 near Darley Dale. If the cache is quickly published then there will be guaranteed visitors, but if the cache is not promptly listed at geocaching.com, then it could sit in limbo for some time... a risky gamble, but it could pay-off.

EDIT: 1/1/10; As the cache has now been published, I've edited out the link to the map and added a link to Darley Dale. STP