We are visiting Malta for four nights and staying in an apartment in Fort Cambridge, Sliema. As usual, I am going to take every opportunity to go caching although it is accepted that I will “go for a wander” every morning somewhere.🤔 My target is to collect six cache icons while I am here for a challenge cache back in England. These would be traditional, mystery, event, earthcache, multi and a virtual. The last two will be tricky but I hope I am successful. I had solved a few puzzle caches at home in preparation for the trip. Here’s how the caching part of the visit went. I got up at first light on the first morning and walked down to the Sliema to Valletta Ferry. I quickly found Sailaway, a trad, my first Maltese cache on the way. After a 5 minute journey across the harbour on the passenger ferry, I was off walking through unknown streets following my GPSr. In a couple of hours tramping Around, I found Malta Map Spot #1 Valletta puzzle, the multi Lower Barrakka Gardens and Seige Bell Monument, the trads Bridge Over No Water, New Horizon and Royal Flsh and another puzzle, Crazy Cacher In Space. The last cache of the day was an Earthcache, The Grand Harbour. I walked down and then up to the Barrakka Gardens to overlook the Grand Harbour. I had read a lot about the siege of Malta. I watched the “Malta Story” film just before the trip so I was very keen to visit the monument. When I got here I took some time looking over the Great Harbour imagining the severely damaged oil tanker arriving strapped to the destroyer in the moment that broke the wartime siege. I surveyed the harbour looking for the answers to the COs questions. I did ask a Maltese chap if he could help with some of the answers but he couldn’t so I was on my own. 🤔 I did my research and sent the answers off to the CO hoping that they would meet their requirements. I now had to make my way though the city to get back to the ferry. The next morning, I was up early again but I was just going to cache around Sliema so no need for the ferry. I had a couple of DNFs but I reckon that they were MIAs but who’s to say? I found the trads, Independence Gardens #1 and Sliema HQ. The latter was the headquarters of the Scouts of Malta Association. There was a bust of Baden-Powell outside but it had been vandalised.🙁 I had arranged an event near the Sliema ferry so worked my way down there via the mystery Sliema Cache. Unfortunately no-one showed up although a couple of Spanish cachers had showed some interest. As soon as the event period elapsed, I was off down the promenade to Gzira Island to have a go at the field puzzle of The Funky Monkey’s Pipe, a 4/1.5 trad. This didn’t cause much of a problem and it was off “home” for breakfast. 😀 I was up early again on our third day and I caught the 0730 ferry over to Valetta. My main target was the 1.5/3 trad Elmo, the Athlete. It had been recommended by Marcel TribblesNL, a Dutch cacher who I talk to on twitter as an absolute must do.😀 I worked my way up through the streets to the start of the footpath. The route out to GZ was a real obstacle course - up and down rock and concrete steps, across narrow bridges, all it needed was a bit of via ferratta.😀 Once I got out to GZ, I gingerly made my way over to the remains of the harbour searchlights (see the photograph) and quickly found the well hidden cache. I then made my way back along the rocky obstacle course to the road. With the highlight out of the way, I walked up and down the streets collecting the mystery caches, Malteser Puzzle #1 and Mystic Mystery, and then the trads, SQUOK Club, 21-IX-1964 and the West Mediterranean Cruise Caches - VALETTA. The last one was missing but as it’s the first port of call for any cacher disembarking from a cruise, I replaced it. This proved to be my last one of the day and I had to get myself from one side of the peninsula to the other to get back to Sliema. By the fourth day of our visit. I had found five cache icons but didn’t have much hope of getting a sixth. However the family decided that they wanted to go on a boat trip up to Gozo and Comino. What a result, there was a virtual cache on Gozo. 😀😀 We got off the boat at the harbour in Gozo. The family went on some island tour which would end in a tourist oriented shopping village🙁 and I set off walking towards the nearest cache.😀 After I had found the nearby trad with the harbour view, I walked up the steep hill to Nadur and “found” the virtual at the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul.😀😀 There was a bus stop outside the Basilica with a bus going back to the harbour very soon so I thought that it was prudent to catch it. I got off the bus near the harbour and picked up the Phototime trad. I then set off back to catch up with the family. We took the short journey to Comino and there were two trad caches that I should be get in the time available to me. Whilst the family went swimming in the Blue Lagoon, I walked along the dusty tracks to Gozoview, found the cache and returned to the landing stage at the Blue Lagoon. It was very busy here as there were many tourist boats here. The Welcome To The Island Of Comino trad was very easy to find. However, I am not sure that a shrine, it certainly looks like a shrine, is not the best place for a cache. I met a lady cacher here who I now know to be Henna15 from Germany.👋 So that was that, my final cache on the three islands of Malta and I had achieved my target of six different icons during the visit. We had an early flight in the morning so I knew that I wouldn’t have any time for another cache.☹️ NB. We arrived at the airport earlier than expected and I had time for just one more.😀 The trad, Gudja #2 - Welcome/Goodbye Malta (TB Hotel MIA) proved to be my final cache. Goodbye Malta. 1 Earthcache 1 Event 1 Virtual 1 Multi 5 Mystery 16 Traditional #7927

Foulness Island is a top secret weapons testing facility near Southend-on-Sea. Access is severely limited although there are two villages on the island and many active farms. The school, church, the pub and the post office are now redundant. Every year, from April through to September, on the first Sunday of the month for four hours, restricted parts of the island are open to the general public subject to security conditions. It seemed like a decent idea to hold a event on the island. It might get a bit of interest.🤔 The event came about from a message from Scarecrow Rog on the Essex Facebook group last year about the open days on Foulness Island. I thought that he was going to organise something but when that didn’t materialise, I started to make plans for this year’s open season. If you attended the event, I know that you won’t beleive me but when I visited Foulness Island to check the place out in June, I got there just before noon and there were two cars in that carpark.🤔 So what happened today? Was it the fact that a large U3A group were checking in or that it was probably the final open day this year? I thought that I had got there in good time for our event so I was amazed to see a line of people queuing out of the gates trying to get through security. Although I didn’t get up to the Heritage Centre until 1250, I did a lot of chatting to fellow cachers whilst in the queue. It was certainly buzzing at the Heritage Centre. Luckily there was still a large selection of cake left for everyone although the sandwiches had run out. The cake was so good that I had to try two slices. I was really pleased that there was such a good turn out from the caching fraternity. It was pleasing to see that we had cachers come down from Suffolk (hello Frenchboy) and London (well Romford and by train, too, hello neilandjen). I understand that two cachers also turned up at the gates in a taxi and the security people arranged transport for them onto the island. The weather that I especially ordered turned up and I’m glad everyone I spoke to had enjoyed the event. For once I remembered to bring a log book and even remembered to take some photos. How am I going to top this one?😀😀 1 Event #7902

It‘s Sunday and I’m back in Kent for another early morning circular walk. I’m going to tackle the Longfield Hill Loop. This series of 28 caches is around the said village, 5 and a half miles long over field footpaths and some roads. 🤔 I certainly won’t be able to complete the entire series in the time that I have available but I’ll give it a go. It took me a while to find the suggested parking place. In fact I went right past and had to go right down to a farm with the butchers shop before I could turn. On the way back I found a decent parking place by some metal gates to seemingly nowhere just a couple of hundred yards down the lane from #1. With the time at 0623, I’d sorted the first one and I’m off to the next one, not in the series. Longfield View has a low D/T, totally inappropriate, in my opinion. It took some time to bushwhack through the undergrowth to find the fiendishly hidden cache. Still another cacher followed my cachers trail for a quick find later that day.🤔 The series was shaping up nicely with a lot of clever ideas and cunning placements for the caches. I failed at the multi at #5 - Getting Noticed? but I made a cardinal error on this one. I worked my way up to #9, another multi but had another failure here. Numbers 10 and 15 were fairly straightforward and then I came spectacularly unstuck. I couldn’t find the trad #16 - Spencer despite a long search and the multi #17 - Spuds, gave me loads of grief as my calculated coords put me in the middle of a ploughed field.☹️ So I gave up as time was getting on. Coming away from #16, I managed to get lost.☹️ In the end, I could see where the road was and headed down that way to what I thought was a gap in the hedge. Unfortunately there was no way through to the road and had to walk right up to the farm with the butcher’s shop that I had seen about 0620 this morning. I had to make up some time so set off at Scout’s pace back to the car. On the way up Hartley Bottom Road, I picked up #18 - A First Class Cache, Orange Hill and #29 - Finally One For The Road, all trads. So the morning hadn’t been as successful as I had hoped but numerically, I done well.😀 Hopefully, my luck will improve and give me a clear run through the tunnel. 17 Traditional #7901

I’ve had a rough couple of weeks and this has affected my Geocaching plans badly. It’s got to the stage where I ideally need to find 46 caches today to keep up with a monthly challenge. I looked in my lists and I had prepared a Needham Market day up in Suffolk which took in the Gipping Trail (25) and the Creeting Circular (16) so that would give me 41. All I had to do is work in a few CMs and VSs and I should be alright. I started off really early in Sproughton picking off the CM and the moved on to the CM in Bramford. Next up was the mystery VS in Great Blakenham which amazingly has been set by Jazzyjessups from Kent. Leaving here, I parked up by the church in Great Blakenham to start on the Gipping Trail. Unfortunately the CM that was here has been archived.🙁 The Gipping Trail follows part of the route of the former River Gipping Navigation up to Needham Market. This is a distance of about four miles. The Navigation was opened in 1793 to form a canal link between the docks in Ipswich to Stowmarket. It ceased operation in 1929. Once I had found the start of the footpath 🤔 I walked up to the start of the Trail but DNFed the Morgul Collis. This magnetic trad was on a bridge over the river. I gave it ten minutes but I was really aware of the time factor and my main task for the day. The weather was cool but bright and I had a splendid walk along the river. I heard a Kingfisher but unfortunately never spotted it. The series is unashamedly based on the sadly archived CBN series, a power trail from Heybridge Basin to Chelmsford so I knew that I wasn’t going to have any real problems. As it turned out #23 was a sod.🙁 I got stung by nettles trying to retreive the 2.5/2 cache. I completed the series in one hour and 32 minutes arriving in Needham Market at 1032. As a way of relaxation, I had a go at the Gipping Valley - Needham Lakes earthcache. This one was based on glacial activity in the area in prehistoric times. I had a pleasant walk around the lake gathering all the information needed to claim the cache. From here I walked up the High Street picking up four CMs on the way. At the last one, the Old Methodist, I had a close encounter.👽 In a building nearby, there was some work being done probably asbestos removal. There was a chap standing near the cache dressed in protective clothing watching me hunt for the cache and asked me what I was doing. He was Polish or from another Eastern European country but spoke good English through his mask. I explained what Geocaching was and he was the one who spotted the cache. I showed him the log signing procedure and putting the info up on the app. I couldn’t resist asking him for a photo and you can draw your own conclusions what this must all have looked like to the casual passerby.🤔 I had just enough time to find the nearby Hawks Mill trad before I caught the bus back to Great Blakenham. These free Senior bus passes are a great idea.😀 Back at the car, I set off back into Needham Market and out towards the Creeting villages. I couldn’t find the VS Creeting St Mary but later learned that this one was missing in action. I drove around the lanes to get to the trad at the local CM and was surprised to find two mystery CMs attached to this one. I was given the coords to the Lost Churches of St Olave’s and All Saints. I found these two as well which was a totally unexpected bonus as I had missed them in the preparation for the day. I drove up to the CM at Creeting St Peter and had my lunch here. After I had sated my hunger, I set off from here on a walk around the village to find the 16 caches of the Creeting Circular. This cache series consisted of trads, letterboxes, multis and a Mystery. There was also a mystery added as a bonus to the CM as well. After finding the CM bonus, I started on the circular. The temperature was rising and after completing the circular, except for the MIA #9, in an hour and fifty minutes, I was cream crackered.☹️ I had to rest for a while on the nearby bench and summon up the strength to walk the mile back to the church for the motor. 😅 I started on the way back home but remembered that there was another cache at the entrance to the drive up to the church. With Close To Creeting- Entrance in the bag, I finally set off for home. I needed 46 caches to meet my target but remarkably acheived a total of 56, I’ll make that do.😀 1 Earthcache 1 Multi 3 Letterbox 5 Mystery 46 Traditional #7884

I needed a cache today and this newly published trad was the nearest unfound cache near me. I usually give Wickford a swerve due to the traffic holdups getting in and out of town coming from Basildon but today I had to brave it. Swan Road is normally teeming with pedestrian and vehicular traffic but today was quieter than I had expected, I even parked up just down the road from the search area. I walked back to GZ and the hint was very helpful but on first inspection, I wondered where the CO had hidden the cache. Then I spotted it.😀 This was a very cunningly placed cache. 1 Traditional #7828

I needed to get out for a couple of hours to clear my head so came over to South Woodham Ferrers to check out the latest batch of caches published over there. There were six new trads over here and all 1.5/1.5s so nothing too difficult. It was mainly cache and dash although some were longer walks from the car than others. 6 Traditional #7827

My geocaching plans for today changed out of all recognition. As a result of an MOT on the wife’s motor yesterday, four new tyres were needed today and I had the job of sorting it. So instead of a day out caching in North Essex, maybe straying into Suffolk, I have a short window today to find a cache. This one had been on my list since it was published but had been saving it for such an occasion as today. I’d noted Mathsnut’s comment about parking down here so I parked up in a cul-de-sac up the road near Deans School and walked down to ground zero. I am pleased to report a quick find this afternoon. 1 Traditional #7821

Another early doors journey into Kent this morning. As usual, I want to be across the Queen Elizabeth bridge before six just to save one DART charge.🤔 The main target this morning was the Cooling Crawl series. As the crow flies, this is only about six miles away from me but unfortunately the Thames is in the way.🙁 I had been looking forward to visiting this part of the world especially with its Charles Dickens connections. I started off at the Milton-Next-Gravesend CM multi that I’d dipped out on last week and I quickly resolved my previous failure.😀 I then drove down the Kentish lanes parking up in the lay-by just outside Cooling Church. The weather was dry but a little bit cool, however it was early. 😀 I had a splendid walk and found all but one of the fourteen cache series, only missing out on #2. I didn’t have enough time to check out the CM and the VS here, however, I had a look around the churchyard especially the paupers graves. On the way out of the village, I collected another one of the TuGS C&D series just to round off the day.🤫 1 Multi 16 Traditional #7820

It was just as I was settling down to spend a Saturday evening in front of the television that I remembered that it was International Geocaching Day 2018 and I hadn’t found a cacheyet. 🙁 A quick check of my rainy day caches and up popped this one. I knew that I could whiz down the A13, find the cache and be back home again in forty minutes so this had to be a winner. It took me a few minutes to locate the well placed cache. Once I had the cache in hand, I quickly signed the log sheet and put everything back as I found it. Many thanks for setting this one up for us, Nathan.👍🏻 1 Traditional #7803

But You Done Broke Down. Now I’ve only known this as a blues sung by the “Empress of the Blues” - the late, great Bessie Smith. However with a little bit of research, I find that it was written by David Harney and was the first ragtime song to be recorded in 1895. I, of course, am referring to my now traded in, Ford Ka, EF09BMY. It had broken down a couple of times recently and an expensive pattern was emerging.🙁 I would have liked its replacement to be a SWB Land Rover pick-up or a decent van with space for ladders and other geocaching TOTT but it‘s a Ford Fiesta. Can’t complain though.😀 1 Traditional #7802