2013-05-10 35 14

Location

On a harvested field in Il-Fgura (Malta)

Participants

Plans

Do a midnight geohash in a virgin graticule.

Expedition

Rincewind told me at Thursday evening that geohash coordinates for Friday are within the island boundaries of Malta. At that, it was a new graticule for us, and a virgin one, as well. We realized how lucky we are. So we didn't think for long and decided to do a midnight geohash, since we wouldn't have the time the next day. Rincewind provided geohash equipment and Yakamoz put something for a picknick.

We had to go by bus for an hour. A bus tour in Malta is an adventure, itself. Our tour to the geohash point was crazy due to a typical Maltesian bus driver. We arrived at the geohash point one hour early. We nestled on the geohash field, unpacked our picknick stuff, drank a Maltesian sparkling wine and ate Maltesian strawberries which were ripe and very tasty. The strawberries would render Rincewind a good service later.

Time flew. At midnight we went the remaining six meters to the geohash point and took some photos. We were very happy that it was all good and wanted to go back to Paceville and our guesthouse. Suddenly, Rincewind found out that he lost his glasses. He had taken them off somewhere on the field. Our search operation started at once. Equipped with two cameras we took photos from the dark field or searched with the focus light and hoped to find his lost glasses. After one hour we gave up- the straw on this field made it very hard to find anything.

We went ca. two km in the direction to Valetta. Somewhere along the way Yakamoz was too tired and didn't want to walk on anymore. Rincewind acted herocially and with quite some difficulty, organized a taxi. About three o'clock we were at the guesthouse, again. In the morning after a short sleep Rincewind decided to go to the field again and look for his glasses. Yakamoz went to her English classes.

Thanks to the leftovers of the strawberries Rincewind could identify our picknick place and find his glasses. So he could come on time to meet the Maltesian President who visited the St. Catherine high school and our English language school in the same building on this day. In the afternoon we flew back to Germany and had an other geohash expedition in the evening (see here)... :)

So, we actually managed to de-virginize both Malta graticules in just one week! Looking at the water-land ratio alone, how much coincidence is that?