Sad news about Billy Twigger
One of the hazards associated with putting a web site to sleep, rather than closing it down, is that you can lose touch with current developments, and it was with some sadness my periodic review revealed that Ewan Rice (Billy Twigger to geocachers that knew him) had passed away around noon on Sunday, May 31, 2009.
Tragically, Ewan had a serious fall from from a cliff while placing a new cache on Bute, at the end of August 2006. Fortunately, since he had been immobilised as a consequence of the fall, he was missed by his family when he failed to return home, and was found after a short search. The coastguard assisted, and Ewan was rescued and taken to hospital by air ambulance, where it was found he had broken his neck and also suffered brain damage. He was very poorly, and the initial prognosis was not good.
Over the following weeks and months, although confined to a wheelchair, Ewan appeared to be making progress despite one or two serious setbacks. By 2007, he had been able to visit places such as Kelvingrove, and his family had sold their homes in order to move into a bungalow, and have it modified for wheelchair use. 2008 saw less apparent progress, due to infections, and some related operations, but by the end of the year, Ewan had been able to move out of hospital in into the bungalow.
Sadly, this move was barely to last for a few weeks, and he had to return to hospital, after which his condition deteriorated significantly, and after a period of palliative care, Ewan passed away.
I can sympathise with Ewan’s family. Although the circumstances were quite different, I went through a similar process not too many years prior to this, and there is some irony in the fact that one of the diversions that had helped take my mind off things for a little while was a visit to Bute, and hunting down a few of Billy Twigger’s caches. Although I never managed to meet Ewan, the early cache hunting (Ewan had been one of the first to place caches in Scotland, and the first on Bute) meant we had actually exchanged a few emails regarding the caches, and some other subjects.
I thought I’d dig out the posts I’d made as the story progressed, as they also refer to his caches, which have now been adopted by other geocachers (I’d be giving hand too, but don’t live on the island), and will hopefully survive and be maintained in his memory.
News of improvement – Twiggs, November 3, 2006
Billy Twigger’s recovery, November 23, 2006
Billy Twigger’s recovery, January 24, 2007
Progress for Billy Twigger, June 26, 2007
BT progress continues, August 21, 2007
Geocaches secured, and a good day out, October 7, 2007
Billy Twigger update, April 19, 2008
Geocaching community forums
The following related forum threads were active at various times, and give more detail and remembrances:
Very sad news about Billy Twigger (GeoX forum) August 2006 to December 2006.
Billy Twigger’s recovery (Groundspeak forum) November 2006 to May 2009.
Sad news (Geox forum) Started: May 04, 2009 – contains photographs and service details.
An early find of The Plan geocache, as originally placed by Billy Twigger
I have to admit that it’s some time since I last hunted a cache, and The Plan was first found quite some time ago, but I won’t forget that day at the far end of the island, and the wind. Although the above pic doesn’t show any evidence, that’s only because it was taken behind the shelter afforded by the big rocks down there. In reality, there was gale blowing off the sea over the top of the rocks that would have taken your head off, and the only thing keeping the plastic bag from the cache from disappearing into the distance was the GPSr sitting on top of it.
I can only echo the thoughts of many others who have followed the Bute series of caches, and thank Ewan for encouraging us to make the effort to get to places we probably wouldn’t otherwise have bothered with, and missed.
Be careful out there!
The conclusion to this story is one that should remind us all to take care if our interests and hobbies take us off the beaten track. I’ve always been something of an urban explorer, and although I tend to scoff at people who insist on quoting Health & Safety regulations and advice unnecessarily, this is still not a subject to be taken lightly.
Because I always go alone, I am probably more careful than most. If I did have an accident, no-one would know or come looking for me, so I simply can’t afford to be careless, even if it might look as if I am to an observer. Although I do wonder, when I think of some of the places I’ve found myself hanging from in order to catch an interesting photograph.
This was highlighted again just this week, with a BBC News story of a fossil hunter who was actually seen falling to his death on the Isle of Skye:
A man whose body was found at the foot of a cliff on the Isle of Skye after a passenger on a pleasure boat saw somebody falling has been named.
Police said Axel Weisskopf, 59, was from Darmstadt in Germany. It was believed he was hunting for fossils.
He was seen falling as the boat was approaching Portree last Thursday.
Mr Weisskopf’s body was later found at Tom’s Cave at the foot of Ben Tianavaig. Police said a report would be submitted to the procurator fiscal.
Skye is highly regarded among palaeontologists and amateur fossil hunters for its prehistoric animal remains.
Dinosaur footprints and the earliest turtles known to live in water have been discovered on the island.
-
Images of Bute
More Photos
