There I was slacking off...

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

...when I realised that it's Elimination Day tomorrow at The Great Travel Bug Knockout, so I'd best get the blog up-to-date!

The big question is: Is the sheep a sitting duck? Mat Smith's Hazards Of Geocaching 2 (The Sheep) Travel Bug went missing months ago, but it's distance travelled of 899.2 miles has kept it out of danger. However, castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 TB, which survived by the skin of it's teeth (the chrome of it's bumper?) last month, has been retrieved from the Scottish cache that it was resting in by Spanish cacher urriellu. If urriellu dips GFB2 into a cache back home before the deadline of noon tomorrow it will surely add sufficient milage to pass wemnog's The Skylark TB, which was picked up by cacher a1nnie, who then placed it into this Mega Event, adding 184.57 miles to it's distance travelled, but if it's quickly collected and placed by another cacher... Yes, it's all "ifs" at the moment. More worrying for wemnog must be that Travel Bugs sometimes disappear at busy events...

In other news, Canadian cachers Volkswag took Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) TB to this cache, then this one, and finally this one where they passed it on to fellow Canadians MaliBooBoo.

Another entry to indulge in some pointless dipping is lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer, which was retrieved by Slovenian cacher lynx.attentus, who dipped the little bovine into this cache, adding 1.84 miles to it's distance travelled, and then proceeded to dip it into this cache, this one, this one and this one, and has retained possession of the Travel Bug.

Finally, oceanlue07970's Half Hearted TB has been picked up from the French cache that it was resting in by Belgian cacher SOSATO, who has logged an intention to take the shiny little bug back to Tintin's homeland with him.

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Unhappy Hoppy

No doubt you're all dying from the suspense, but now it can be revealed: the entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout eliminated on July 1st was fuzziebear3's Happy Hoppy Travel Bug, and somehow I just can't help but think that whoever found the little amphibian resting in it's box experienced something like this...

Ah, a redo of the classic One Froggy Evening, possibly the greatest Merry Melody of them all? Oh, and am I the only one who loved that scene in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs..?

Although we bid farewell to the little green fellow, life goes on for other entries in The Knockout, with cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB adding 257.78 miles to it's distance travelled by being placed into this interesting puzzle/multi cache near Arnhem in the east of The Netherlands.

Another entry to add some milage to it's total is Smart451's Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer TB, which logged another 38.79 miles after being placed into this Swedish cache.

Slovenian cachers Kassiopeia82 dipped lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer into this cache, then dropped it into this one.

Finally, wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug continues it's voyage around the caches of Greater London, having been retrieved by cacher Oofy.

Although we're now down to the final ten surviving entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout things are looking healthy with entries currently available for retrieval from caches in 7 different countries on 3 continents; the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovenia in Europe, plus Canada in North America and New Zealand in Australasia. Go get 'em cachers!

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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.

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Cancel that visit to the Slovenian china shop...

...there's a bull on the loose, as cacher perhan has dropped lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer in this cache in the medieval town of Višnja Gora, adding 203.59 miles to it's distance travelled.

In other Knockout news, French cacher christian35 has reminded us that he is still holding oceanblue07970's HalfHearted TB by dipping it into this cache, 6.71 miles away from the last cache that he dipped the shiny broken-hearted Bug into.

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