My brother Simon

Back in 2010 my life changed irreversibly and my whole world shattered around me. My brother, my best friend and greatest inspiration, had died suddenly and unexpectedly in a kayaking accident.

There’s a saying I’ve heard, the good die young, and this couldn’t be more true of my older brother. He was kind and caring. He spent his free time volunteering for many charities including Greenpeace. This led to his name being added to their book of Remembrance. His charitable work was extensive and included setting up technology to support the education of underprivileged children.

Simon was an incredible photographer. He saw the world in a different way to other people, which is how I think he managed to capture such amazing images.

He loved travel and climbed Machu Pichhu and cycled across Chile, both times raising funds for charity. Simon also loved hiking, mountain biking, walking and Geocaching, which is why we set up the Travel Bug in his memory.

What is Geocaching?

If you’ve not heard of Geocaching or don’t know what it is, then you are known in the Geocaching community as a muggle! That’s what we used to call people who weren’t in the know many years ago. These days most people know about Geocaching and you can even use the app on your phone rather than using a GPS.

I love Geocaching because it helps me discover the world and explore new places. There’s hikes and walks I’ve done that I would never have known about if it wasn’t for Geocaching.

However, if you happen to be a muggle, or if you’ve heard about Geocaching but don’t know how to get started, here’s a quick summary. Geocaching is like a treasure hunt and an outdoor adventure combined. Anyone can enjoy Geocaching, families, retirees, you name it, there’s so many different options from easy walks to more challenging hikes. Kids love it as it’s so much fun hunting for the Geocache.

A Geocache is a hidden container. There are now millions of Geocaches hidden around the world waiting for people to find and discover using a GPS or the Geocache app.

To get started you need to create a free account on Geocaching.com or download the free Geocaching app. You can then start searching for Geocaches in your location and it’s highly likely there will be one close by.

Once you find a Geocache you can open it up and sign the logbook. Sometimes you will find trade items in the container such as key rings, pens and small toys. It’s fun for kids to take something with them to swap with anything they may find in a container. Trading adds to the fun of the Geocache hunt and you never know what treasures you might find!

What is a Travel Bug?

For anyone who has not heard of a Travel Bug, it is a trackable tag that you can attach to an item. Each travel bug has a unique tracking number. You activate these by registering on Geocaching.com and then visiting the Travel Bug Activation Wizard.

Once you’ve activated the tracking number and created a webpage on Geocaching.com for your Travel Bug, you can then place the Travel Bug in a Geocache and the journey begins.

The geocaching community will help your Travel Bug on it’s journey by picking it up and placing in new Geocache locations. To find out more about Travel Bugs and how they work, read my blog post HOW TO SET UP A GEOCACHE TRAVEL BUG

Our Travel Bug in memory of Simon

Life isn’t just about balancing commitments, it’s about balancing emotions and your wellbeing too. I was in a dark place when Simon died, my grief felt all consuming. I couldn’t believe the light that was my brother had been put out. All that he would have achieved was no more.

Grief is a process and has different stages. That’s a whole other blog post that I will write one day. There are overwhelming feelings of emotions and I found acceptance difficult to reach. However, there were things that helped me cope with the grief and there are positive things you can do to help the healing process. This is how the Luke Skywalker Travel Bug started.

The Travel Bug helped me focus on something positive. A way to remember the light that was my brother and honour all his achievements, and his zest for life, adventure and new experiences. By sending his Travel Bug on it’s journey people from around the world were learning about my brother, all that he was, his acts of kindness, his talent for photography and how much he achieved in his short life.

Starting a Travel Bug to commemorate Simon’s life, meant that Simon’s memory lived on.

Luke Skywalker’s adventure begins

Growing up both me and my brother were massive Star Wars fans. We watched the original trilogy over and over again back in the eighties and had all the figures. That’s why Simon’s Luke Skywalker Hoth Battle figure was the perfect item to attach his Travel Bug to.

My brother died in April 2010. It will be 10 years this year since he has been gone. On my birthday in July 2010 we placed his travel bug in the Geocache we created for him (sadly no longer in existence) along with some key rings I got printed with one of the last pictures he ever took.

Simon never missed my birthday and he had travelled down from Chester the previous year to be with me. I felt his loss greatly, so to start his Travel Bug journey on my birthday felt like the right thing to do. Myself, my mum, my dad and my now husband, Mark, took a bottle of champagne to toast his journey and ate birthday cake under the beautiful oak tree where the Geocache was hidden.

The geocache where Simon’s Travel Bug started his adventure was in a beautiful field looking up at the South Downs and the Jack and Jill Windmills right next to the natural burial ground where my brother was laid to rest.

We asked the Geocaching community for the Travel Bug to be treated with due reverence and that we would love to see it travel far and wide. The Geocache community didn’t disappoint.

Writing this I have tears in my eyes to think that in almost 10 years the Travel Bug is still going and that the Geocache community has not only treated Simon’s Travel Bug with so much respect, they have taken it to amazing places around the world and left us some heart felt messages of support along the way.

Where has Simon’s Travel Bug been?

It started it’s journey in the South Downs National Park, a place Simon loved and often went mountain biking. Since then we have watched it travel to unbelievable places.

The first country the travel bug visited was Belgium with the message “I willl be taking a trip on Saturday to a place where many of those who have been lost are remembered every day.”

From there the Travel Bug went to Budapest in Hungary, Piemonte in Italy where it was left in a Geocache by a beautiful little church known as ‘Yellow Church’, then to Germany and then to Cyprus – just 10 minutes from our family holiday home!

Cyprus Geocache

Although the Travel Bug had since moved on we were still very keen to try and find it and so we set off searching on the 28th April, the anniversary of Simon’s death.

This hidden geocache took us awhile to find and gave us a good laugh too. I can just imagine Simon chuckling away as me, mum, dad and my new finance (Mark proposed that holiday) searched high and low for this Geocache hidden on the secret beach in Cyprus…

We couldn’t find it and reluctantly gave up. That evening in a restaurant we racked our brains as to where it could be hidden. Looking at the comments logged on the Geocache we saw a clue. It made Mark realise we had in fact found it – he had even had it in his hands at one point when searching. ‘What a load of old ball cocks!’ Realisation suddenly dawned on us. Where we had been looking for a small film case or Tupperware, which is what is normally used as a Geocache, the people who had created this cache had been very clever and used a ball cock. We had just assumed it was a bit of rubbish washed up on the beach and dismissed it. It had to be where the cache was hidden though. We went back the next day and low and behold we found the Geocache!

Luke Skywalker continues his journey

We had been so close to where the Travel Bug had been hidden for awhile. It was amazing to visit a Geocache where it had been located. Although we had missed the Travel Bug in Cyprus we were so happy that his journey continued.

Next Luke Skywalker went back to Germany and then on to the Netherlands. From there it spent some time travelling Ireland. Then amazingly it got picked up and taken across the Atlantic to the USA!

Luke Skywalker in USA

Simon’s Travel Bug has been in the USA since 2013. It has visited some incredible places including:

• Illinois
• Wisconsin
• Minnesota
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Ohio
• West Virginia
• Maryland
• Wyoming
• Iowa
• Utah
• Michigan
• Florida
• Arizona
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Georgia
• Michigan

And finally, where it currently resides, Alabama. The person who kindly picked it up took a picture of Luke Skywalker.

We are amazed that almost 10 years on, Luke Skywalker is still attached to the Travel Bug and that his adventure continues.

Help us get Luke Skywalker to Florida!

In May 2020 we have a trip of a lifetime booked to Orlando in Florida, where we will be taking our son to Disney. We are going with Mark’s sister and her family and we are all particularly excited to visit Star Wars, Galaxy’s Edge. What will make it so special is if we can get Simon’s Travel Bug to Orlando in Florida so we can take it with us to Disney before placing it in a new Geocache.

The chances of this happening are unlikely but not impossible. If you know anyone that can help get Luke Skywalker to us let me know. Here’s to believing in magical moments. RIP my beautiful brother.

You can view Simon’s Travel Bug log here:

https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=2791392

#lukesgeocachedashtodisney