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?

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;

Sunset of The Daleks?

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

Things are looking dire for The Exterminator! who has less than 15 hours to avoid becoming the second elimination from The Great Travel Bug Knockout, whereupon he'll no doubt be recalled to...

Planet Skaro

...and have Davros ceremonially remove his sink plunger and break it over his knee (although that's more likely to break the old fella's knee!).

In other news, two separate cachers have reported Mat Smith's Hazards of Geocaching 2 (The Sheep) John's Knockout racer Travel Bug to be missing from the Portuguese cache that it is logged into. Still, with almost 900 miles under the woolly trackable's belt, there's plenty of time for it to turn up before it faces the prospect of elimination.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current Knockout placings

Will The Exterminator! be saved by the weather?

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

The first elimination from The Great Travel Bug Knockout will take place at noon (GMT) tomorrow (or as near to as I can make it!). With my own BPJC: M1 Junction 29: The Cache of the Living Dead buried under a foot of snow, making a move for Rag Zombie highly unlikely, it looks like my The Exterminator! Travel Bug may be saved by the snow; although to paraphrase Commander Sam Shore, "Anything can happen in the next 18½ hours!!"

And here's a picture of oceanblue07970's Half Hearted, for no other reason than it's nice to put a picture up on this blog now and then...

A busy caching Sunday equals a blogging Manic Monday

Lots of retrievals and placements to report;

Canadian cacher teebird150 has retrieved Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug from Kensington Town Hall Ghost and is planning to take it back to The Frozen North with him.

Cachers Kez+Maz have placed castlegrice's George's Fun Bus 2 into this cache near the South Yorkshire village of Treeton, adding 13.92 miles to it's distance travelled. This means that GFB2 has visited 3 caches, each in a different English county. Oh, and here's a photo of George's Fun Bus 2 with it's racing numbers applied:

Cachers .Star.Wards. have placed my own The Exterminator! TB into this Hartlepool cache near to the village of Dalton Piercy, giving it an opening distance of 3.78 miles in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

This opening milage has been beaten by the Dalek's arch-enemy, cooper troopers' the noble traveller, which cacher ALLDREAD has placed into this cache in Britain's oldest National Park, The Peak District, giving tnt an opening distance travelled of 9.75 miles.



Not yet recording any milage, but at least it has been picked up by a cacher, is geohunter-x's Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Do People (Racer Bug) which has been retrieved by newbie's Mia's Marauders, the very first Travel Bug that they have collected.

Finally for this update, wemnog placed his The Skylark TB into this West Bridgford cache, from where it was quickly retrieved by Cache Owner Lotus-Max, who rapidly moved it on to this cache in Chelmsford, Essex, giving it an opening distance travelled of 106.5 miles.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for current standings.

Bugs on the run

Three Travel Bugs entered in The Great Travel Bug Knockout have been retrieved from the caches that they were residing in;

Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari has been picked up by Californian cacher peigimccann. An amazing retrieval, when you consider that the Event Cache that Knockout Ferrari was logged into isn't being held until this coming Friday!

Next is Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan), which, after being ignored by experienced cacher Pierre7749 (obviously a man who dislikes hippies!), has been snaffled up by newbie cacher Jamie.Smith.

Thirdly (and most importantly of course) my own The Exterminator! Travel Bug has been retrieved from Wolviston Services TB, GC Hotel (A19,A689) by Cache Owners .Star.Wards. during a maintenance visit.

First placement

My own The Exterminator! has become the first entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout to be logged into a cache when I placed it in this TB Hotel between Middlesbrough and Hartlepool in the UK at 7:20 BST this morning (still Summer Time, surely not?!).

How long will The Exterminator! have to wait to be picked up and, more importantly, dropped off somewhere?

Now, which entry will be second to be logged into a cache?