Cadiz

We are off steaming down the coast towards Spain but things have changed a little. We now have to fill in two Moroccan entry forms for presentation tomorrow before we can get off as well as having passed the temperature test.

We docked in Cadiz and we had decided to stay within this peninsula rather than get the train to Madrid. There seemed like a lot to see here plus there were a few geocaches too.

We spent most of the morning wandering around the delightful city without a care in the world. I somehow managed to get my wife involved in sorting out the EC at the cathedral. The world of crustaceans in limestone has opened up a brand new chapter of her life.😂

It was very hot so we decided to go back to the ship for lunch and I got a pass to wander around the city on my own in the afternoon. Rather than bore you with a list of caches in Spanish, I’ll just say that I had a great walk around the coast facing perimeter picking up trad caches. Some were very easy and some very cunning including some that provided ideas for caches of my own.

I had two DNFs but it wasn’t for the want of looking. One of the easier caches was LA GARITA which is shown in the photo. A quick look in the embrasure enabled me to spot the cache. The last cache of the day found me back at the gates of the port and just in time for afternoon tea.  

1 Earthcache 9 Traditional

We were on our way to Morocco but suddenly the Covid 19 pandemic burst onto the scene. It’s Thursday night and suddenly we are blocked from docking in Casablanca. Ok we’ll go to Gibraltar a day early but then the Gibraltarian authorities won’t let us in. We are due to dock in Malaga on Sunday so we have a few days of circling the mouth of the Med to contemplate.

On Saturday, we are allowed to dock in Malaga on the strict understanding that no-one gets on or off until the coaches come to pick us up on Sunday night. Once on the coach, we set off for the airport and we counted three people and a dog and nothing open until we got to the airport. We later learnt that the Spanish had blocked 29 cruise ships from entering Malaga.🙁

The airport was in absolute chaos. The Spanish government had decided to send home 50% of the air traffic control forgetting that there was still 100% of the aircraft flying or attempting to fly around.

The people were being packed into the terminal but no planes were taking off. The only information that we were being given was to keep two metres apart. All I’ll say about the rest of the journey was that one or two incidents broke out because of the mishandling of the situation by the Spanish authorities. 🤬🤬🤬

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