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?

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.

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.

Catching up on an active Easter

Lots of moves in the second half of this week for entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout; Current leader, Blid435's BraveHeart TB has been retrieved from the cache that it was resting in by New Zealand cacher Mel74.

Current 3rd place entry, Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) trackable was placed into this cache by the Canadian cacher that was holding it, adding 21.62 miles to it's distance travelled. It was retrieved the very same day by fellow Canadian gottagonow, who subsequently dipped it into this nearby cache, adding 0.81 of a mile to it's Knockout milage. Gottagonow has retained possession of LaP(Maan), therefore any subsequent dips or placement will not add any official Knockout milage to it's record. LaP(Maan) keeps moving, but appears to be stuck in a sort of "Bermuda diamond" east of Vancouver at the moment. Will Hediya's entry eventually be swallowed up or break out?

Fourth placed entry, cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB, was retrieved from the German cache that it was residing in by cacher tapescript (whom I believe is Swiss, but does much of his caching in Germany). Two days later he dropped tnt into this interesting cache in Germany, sited at the epicentre of a Richter 4.5 earthquake which occured on May 5th 2009. This placement added 8.65 miles to tnt's distance travelled.

Cooper troopers' friendly local rivals, smart451, have had their Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer Travel Bug retrieved from the Swedish cache in which it had passed the last 16 days by Swedish newbies SjöqvistRockers.

16 days is nothing compared to the 73 days that oceanblue07970's Half Hearted Travel Bug spent in a cache in France before being retrieved by experienced French cacher christian35, who the very same day dipped it into this nearby cache, adding 1.14 miles to ½H's distance travelled. Christian35 has since dipped the shiny little trackable into no less than thirteen more caches, none of which add official Knockout milage, and has retained possession.

Finally, as more than one cacher has noted the disappearance of G-X's Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug) TB, I've marked it as whereabouts unknown, hopefully only temporarily!

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings

Comings, goings, and a possible disappearance

New Zealand cacher willbuild just can't resist Blid435's BraveHeart Travel Bug! Having dropped BH off in his own cache last week, he's now retrieved the shiny TB and dropped it into this cache near North Island's Welcome Bay, 26.94 miles away. The milage will not be added to BraveHeart's official Knockout distance travelled due to it being the upteenth cache that willbuild has taken it to.

lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer TB has been retrieved from the German cache that it was penned in by Slovenian cacher perhan.

Finally for today, G-X's Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug) TB has been reported as missing from the Cheshire cache that it is logged into. If another cacher reports it missing too, then I'll mark it with the dreaded whereabouts unknown.

Scroll to bottom of this page for official Knockout rankings

Confused? You Will Be!

Okay, first a little background; when I started The Great Travel Bug Knockout I decided not to allow multiple placings (known as "dips") to count towards an entry's total milage, so as not to give an unfair advantage to a TB that is picked up by a regular long-distance traveller. All three Bugs that have been moved in the last week have therefore had some or all of it's recent milage disallowed.

Firstly, current Knockout leader, Blid435's BraveHeart has had all of it's dips by New Zealand cacher willbuild disallowed apart from the first one. How many dips have been disallowed? Well, let's count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42! After all that diptastic action, willbuild finally placed BH into this picturesque cache which he owns.

Next up is Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari TB, which cacher Anothercell placed into this cache on the busy U.S. Interstate Highway 5. Mysteriously, this log was deleted and KF was then dipped into this cache instead, then this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one, before eventually being logged into Along the 5 again. As the difference between being placed directly into Along the 5 and being dipped into 1-Carrot-But NO BLING! is less than a mile, I've allowed the corrected order to stand.

Finally, G-X's Voodoo Whodo Whatever... TB was placed into an event cache named Dragon Motor Meet. Shortly afterwards the event was re-named Deceangi (The Boss's) Suprise Party and was revealed to be a surprise 50th Birthday party for Geocaching.com's head U.K. cache reviewer Deceangi. VWWYDDDP was retrieved from the event by cachers The GeoBEATS, who dipped it in this Cheshire cache, adding 39.54 miles to it's total distance travelled, before placing it into this cache, also in Cheshire.

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

G-X can stop sticking the pins in..

..his effegy of cacher i'mboringme, who has, after 4½ months placed Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug) Travel Bug into this event cache in Denbighshire, North Wales, adding 17.85 miles to the little voodoo doll's milage.

In other Knockout news, American newbie cacher Anothercell has retrieved current 2nd placed entry, Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari TB from the Californian cache that it was garaged in.

Scroll down to the 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.

Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People ducks out!

Newbie cacher i'mboringme has retrieved geohunter-x's Voodoo Whodo blah blah blah Travel Bug from Albert duck. Interestingly enough, as with Mia's Marauders, this is the first TB found by i'mboringme. Obviously cachers with no taste whatsoever... ;-)

Two TBs move on up

Canadian cacher teebird150 placed Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) Travel Bug into this cache in British Columbia, Canada, in the suburbs of the great city of Vancouver:

(I think that it's over there to the right, past the Kingdome somewhere...)

This move has added 4707.3 miles to LaP(Maan)'s distance travelled, easily enough to move it up into a secure 2nd place overall in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

The other TB to make a move is geohunter-x's Voodoo Whodo yadda yadda which has been placed into this cache in another great city, Liverpool, giving it an opening distance of 76.45 miles, enough to place it in a current 6th place overall.

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.

There's always one...

Yes, as soon as I updated the blog, someone just has to move an entry in The Great Travel Bug Knockout. In this case it's geohunter-x, who has placed his Travel Bug (no, I'm not typing that name out again!) into his own cache near the west Leicestershire village of Donisthorpe. Interestingly, g-x has placed several other trackables into the cache at the same time. Could this be a case of too much choice?