Whatever happened to...

On my way to Cornwall last weekend for a family holiday I stopped at a random cache in Gloucestershire (okay, not so random as I'd planned to stop there as it is just off of the M5 and I was passing, but you know what I mean) and I found this fellow...

Yes, somewhat battered (and blinded!) but still going, it's my own long-eliminated entry, The Exterminator!

What was especially surprising about this is that the little DALEK was logged into a cache in North-West Scotland! Since being the second elimination from The Great Travel Bug Knockout, with only 3.78 miles on the clock, the evil pepperpot has visited The Balearics, Germany, Austria, and toured much of Scotland.

Not all of the now-eliminated entries have been so lucky, Rag Zombie and My Little Eye made some modest moves before disappearing, while Scary Halloween Monster, Quatchi, Billy Bear Racer, Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People and Happy Hoppy all vanished without trace before being eliminated from The Knockout.

What will happen to the next elimination?

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

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.

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

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.

All of the Top 5 now being held by cachers

The current leader of The Great Travel Bug Knockout, Blid435's Braveheart Travel Bug, has been retrieved from the cache that it was resting in by New Zealand-based cacher cabhassett, and the current third-placed entry, Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) TB, has been picked up by Canadian cacher RPayment, which now means that all of the current top 5 are in the possession of cachers.

Another entry that appears to be in someone's hands, but unfortunately not those of a cacher, is Grizzly Pair's Quatchi TB, which has been reported as missing from the Derbyshire cache that it is logged into. If a second cacher reports it as missing I will mark it as whereabouts unknown.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

A rare sighting of the elusive Bigfoot

Although Cuckoo's Nook is currently disabled, little-known caching team ginger_bobs retrieved Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer Travel Bug prior to the cache going missing and have placed it into this cache back in Derbyshire, near Bretby, adding 21¼ miles to it's distance travelled.

The Cache Owner of Quatchi's new temporary home is also the owner of an entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout; Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug), which reminds me that he has recently changed his caching name from geohunter-x to G-X, so I've updated the leaderboard to match.

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

Love and Peace (Maan) edges a little closer

Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug has been placed into it's 9th cache (it's 6th since arriving in Canada), adding 28.64 miles to it's distance travelled. The cache that it is now resting in is this one, within the grounds of the studio of sculptor Kevin Stone, who specialises in large stainless steel works.

Disappointing news for Grizzly Pair, as the cache that their Quatchi TB was logged into has probably been muggled. If this is confirmed, I'll mark Quatchi as whereabouts unknown.

At this rate, it's possible that there won't be any Bugs left in circulation by the end of the 17 months; however one that definitely still is in The Great Travel Bug Knockout is lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1- Karon's Knockout Racer, as proven by this photograph taken by the most recent finder of the cache that it is in;

There it is, just to the left of the cigarette lighter!!!

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

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.

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

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!

Scroll to bottom of this page for current Knockout placings.

(Little) Big move for Big Foot Quatchi

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

Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer Travel Bug has been placed into this cache near East Midlands Airport by roger-uk, giving it an opening distance travelled of 5.41 miles, sufficient to move it up to 14th place overall in The Great Travel Bug Knockout. With the current weather conditions in the UK, this move could be vital to secure the continued existence of the shy Canadian cryptid.

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

Who's On The Bubble?

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

It's the countdown to the first elimination on December 1st, and currently On The Bubble are Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer, Hazards of Geocaching 2 (The Sheep) John's Knockout racer and Rag Zombie, none of whom have yet recorded an opening distance, which means that

Rule 7. In the event of two or more TBs ending a month with equal milage, a Golden Move rule will come into play, meaning that the next one to move goes through.

will come into play. Exciting, eh? ;-)

Latest ins and outs of The Great Travel Bug Knockout

Two retrievals to report; Midland geocachers stuwntez have confirmed that they retrieved castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB, and Grizzly Pair's Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer has been picked up by occasional cacher roger-uk.

Good news for Ve8, as JustAlan has deposited Billy Bear Racer into this cache alongside a building with a fascinating history. This gives BBR a first move distance of 17.2 miles, identical to Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan).

I've also added a current rankings list to the foot of this page for easy reference, although the small picture links to the entries own pages at right should remain in correct order.

Blid435 does it Joe Cocker style but Humphrey is Happiest!

The Cache Owners of jack-s-dales-1st cache, two fat pigs, are good friends and regular PAFsters of Blid435 and have retrieved his BraveHeart Travel Bug to move along.

Meanwhile, Baira has placed Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) TB into this cache and Happy Humphrey's  Scary Halloween Monster into this one, both in the central English city of Nottingham. This gives Love and Peace (Maan) a distance of 17.2 miles travelled and Scary Halloween Monster a distance of 17.28 miles covered, that extra 0.08 of a mile sufficient to give SHM the current lead in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

Finally for today, Grizzly Pair have placed their Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer TB into this cache on the outskirts of the Derbyshire town of Long Eaton, not far from the M1, one of the UK's major motorways.