"In your hands, the birth of a new day... " (Limahl)

9 June 2008

Tortie the Cat Update (1)


Great news about Tortie the Cat, my first ever Travelbug and erstwhile geocaching mascot. After a long spel in Delaware, (s)he wass scooped down to North Carolina. From there, the travelbug whizzed eastwards to an island on the Outer Banks of the state - and to an apparently v. difficult and old cache as well. The cache was placed in 2002 and has 4/5 and 4.5/5 for difficulty and terrain respectively. 18 geocachers are watching the cache! Tortie has now gone 4295 miles undefeated since 2006.

Tortie the Cat Update (2)



Location of Zeke's Island, In the context of the Outer Banks on the North Carolina Coastline. Tortie is here!

Tortie the Cat Update (3)


Pic of Zeke's Island, where Tortie is located

Travelbug relaunch: "Spirit of '97"



In May 1997, I launched a fairly unassuming minature black pick-up truck as a travelbug. It's name at the time was "London Calling", and I aimed its initial aim was to crawl round the London Underground system.

Having reached London, the bug was inadvertently taken to Germany in January this year. I renamed the bug "Liechtenstein Bitte!" with the intention of reaching the small state which I have a fascination.

The following pictures (below) show how the bug finally reached Liechtenstein, in the safe hands of a German cacher named Thomas Foltin. The TB travelled through Italy and Switzerland on its way to Liechtenstein.

As a result of its successful exploits to date, I have subsequently renamed the travelbug as "Spirit of '97", in honour of a succesful hitch-hiking trek I made as a student from Glasgow to Annecy in the French Alps.

Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Liechtenstein Panorama


Taking it in...

Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Liechtenstein (1)



Made it!
Danke, Thomas!

Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Liechtenstein (2)


Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Swiss Alps (2)


Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Liechtenstein (3)


Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Swiss Alps (1)


Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Lake Garda


Spirit of '97 Travelbug: Northern Italy