New Year 2011 was special for loads of reasons: it ushered in a year packed with happy plans and the fireworks that marked its beginning were truly spectacular. London's display was awesome and lasted, probably 15 minutes. And those weren't the only fireworks. Wishfully thinking that the world was a safer place, the UK Government announced its rather hasty Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) on 20^th October 2010. By the time we got home from Australia (see Chapter 15), the RAF's Harrier and F3 forces had gone and other, massive cuts were coming. Click here for the full 2010 Spending Review document and for the Strategic Security and Defence Review. Many thought this was rushed and ill-conceived and, just maybe, would be put to the test any time now...

I may have some of the data here slightly out, but as an illustration, this is how the RAF has shrunk during my lifetime - before the next round of cuts following this SDSR:

Royal Air Force Regular Manning, 1955-2005

I would say simply this: Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Anyway, this was to be a year of huge contrasts: utter devastation, violence and revolution on one hand and, on the other, wonder, exploration in England, Malta and Prague, delight and some very happy events for Carol and me. Here's how we saw 2011.

Paul Courtnage and Carol Courtnage try out one of Raymond Blanc's brasseries.
Courtney and Carol dine out. Click for larger image.

CYCLONE YASI

On 26^th January 2011 the Meteorological Center in Fiji identified tropical disturbance 09F located about 330km south-southwest of Tuvalu. The disturbance was re-classified as a tropical depression on 27^th January, further upgraded to a tropical storm on 30^th January and then to a tropical cyclone.

While we were in Queensland, Australia, in 2010, we recorded sea temperatures as high as 29°C in early December. Fuelled by these unusually high sea temperatures, Cyclone Yasi crossed the Queensland coast at about midnight on Wednesday 2^nd February 2011, having reached category 5. Yasi brought sustained winds of 215 km/h, gusts to nearly 300 km/h, flooding rain (up to 180mm), a 3m storm surge and a high tide 7m above average that combined to cause massive damage to areas in the storm's path.

Cyclone Yasi left a trail of destruction in its wake. The worst hit towns were Tully, Mission Beach and Cardwell, where hundreds of houses were destroyed and at least 180,000 homes were without electricity. The cities of Cairns and Townsville were relatively unscathed by the winds, but suffered severe flooding. Miraculously there was only one reported death.

Revolution in the Middle East - The Arab Spring                                    

Many countries in the Middle East had lived under authoritarian rule for decades. Many of their leaders were seen as corrupt and brutal and the mechanisms of their states (police and other internal security organizations) had wide-ranging powers to suppress dissidence. Individuals that were seen to threaten or undermine the regimes were arrested, imprisoned and, in some cases, tortured or killed, in order to discourage others. Any public protest would be met by a swift and powerful response. But, on the whole, the Arab peoples had tended to live with their lot.

That was until 17^th December 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young, Tunisian man, set fire to himself in protest against government officials who had confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from his cart. This prompted hundreds of Tunisians to take to the streets in protest of the country's dreadful unemployment, the corruption of the ruling elite and the suppression of political freedom. Nightly riots ensued for weeks during which the police opened fire on demonstrators. This brutality exacerbated their anger and ignited further protests, which soon spread to the capital, Tunis. On 12^th January President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali promised to tackle Tunisia's dreadful unemployment, soaring food prices, to allow freedom of the press, improve democracy and announced that he would not stand for office again in the 2014 elections. But it was too late and the unrest continued. Mr Ben Ali finally announced on 14^th January he was stepping down 'temporarily'. He then fled with his family to Saudi Arabia. He had been in power since 1987.

Then civil unrest was reported in Tunisia's neighbour, Algeria. On 25^th January 2011 protests erupted in major cities in Egypt - mainly Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. The size of the protests grew rapidly to over a million people, demanding the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, an end to corruption and police repression and the democratic reform of Egypt's political system. Mubarak tried to suppress the people, but protests and rioting continued and the Army effectively refused to use force against the Egyptian people. After 18 days of protests, on 11^th February, Vice President Omar Suleiman (head of Egypt’s secret police) announced that Mubarak was stepping down and handing power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces; this became known as the White Revolution. Hosni Mubarak had been president of Egypt since 1981 (following the assassination of President Anwar El Sadat) and was known to have embezzled a personal fortune estimated to be $5 billion.

Hosni Mubarak fell from power because of his refusal to allow the people of Egypt sufficient democratic rights, the brutal methods used by the secret police and his corruption in amassing a huge personal fortune while the majority of the population lived in extreme poverty. Hosni Mubarak spent many months in hospital in Sharm el Sheikh and was eventually transferred back to Cairo where he went on trial on 3^rd August 2011 for ordering the killing of demonstrators. His lawyers said that he was too ill to stand trial, but that seems to be a standard tactic these days and didn't hold much water.

Libya, or more correctly The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, had been tightly controlled for over 40 years by leader and chief psychopath Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution, no less) since he seized power from King Idris in 1969. On 15^th February 2011 hundreds of protestors clashed with police and government supporters in Benghazi, 1,000 km east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. This was a rare show of civil unrest in Libya, brought about by high unemployment, income inequality and restrictions on political freedom (a familiar story). Libya's authorities were criticized for their poor record on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious freedom, human rights and ethnic discrimination. Within 4 or 5 days, the opposition effectively controlled Benghazi and protests had spread to Tripoli where Gaddafi's security and armed forces responded swiftly and violently, killing hundreds. Gaddafi's forces retained control of the capital, but further cracks appeared in Gaddafi's regime when two Libyan Air Force colonels defected to Malta after landing their Mirage F1 aircraft at Luqa Airport.

Whatever was to happen next in Libya, it was certainly not going to be another relatively (and surprisingly) bloodless resignation of an Arab head of state. Gaddafi would not let go so easily.

Meanwhile, on 14^th February, there was a rally in the streets of Tehran in which thousands of protesters gathered to demanded fair elections, freedom of speech and an end to the persecution of dissidents. Police reportedly used tear gas to disperse the crowd and at least one person was shot dead. Dozens were wounded and hundreds were arrested.

Protests in Iran are met by vicious action by the Police and the Basij who suppressed this civil disobedience with batons, pepper spray, tear gas and live ammunition. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was always unpopular, but would never give in to public pressure. Whereas the uprisings in the Arab countries, especially Egypt, were met with little response from the armed forces, the Iranian authorities responded rapidly and violently to quell dissent. This, too, was not a regime that would fall easily.

Surprisingly, Bahrain was the next to have protests. Bahrain had always been a relatively liberal country that had enjoyed increasing freedom of expression and reasonably good human rights. The problem here was that the country's Muslim population is divided into Sunni and Shia Muslims; these two groups share deeply fundamental Islamic beliefs, but with significant political differences. The country had been ruled by the Khalifah family (Sunni) since 1783 with the king as the supreme authority. Members of the ruling, Sunni family held all the main political and military posts, but the majority of the population was Shia and this led to long-running tensions between the two. And so this civil unrest looked slightly different to Egypt and Tunisia. The Royal Family attempted to quell the uprising by sending armed troops into the protesters' camp and used tear gas and batons against them. Protestors died and this led to thousands taking to the streets to mourn them and, so, the protests became more intense.

You're getting the picture, revolution was spreading. The revolutionary mood also spread to Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East. And Morocco's main opposition group warned King Mohammed VI that his autocracy would be swept away unless there was total economic reform. Demonstrators in Algeria demanded the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Thousands of Jordanians took to the streets demanding better employment prospects and cuts in foods and fuel costs. On 18^th March the most serious unrest to take place in Syria for decades erupted on the streets of cities across the country. Again the authorities' response brought reports of deaths and injuries, quickly condemned by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The Arab world was in revolt and the West watched with great interest. So did Israel as Mubarak was their only Arab ally in the region, playing a huge role in maintaining the fragile peace in the region.

The situation

There is clearly a lot more to unfold and some questions to be answered, not the least, when a regime is overthrown, what takes its place? Getting rid of one oppressive regime doesn't always open the door to something better. According to 18^th century German dramatist and revolutionary, Georg Büchner, 'Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children' [← NOTE 1]. I think I would have said 'Revolutions devour their own parents'. Either way, the West and Israel were both hoping that power would pass to moderates, but there were plenty of Islamists and would-be dictators waiting in the wings.

We'll leave the Middle East for now, but will return to it a little later as the story continues.

New Zealand Earthquake 2011                                                            

At this point I wanted to get on with the story, but important news kept coming in from around the world. At lunchtime (12:51 pm local time) on 21^st February 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand's second city, was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the magnitude scale. The earthquake was centred 10km southeast of the centre of Christchurch. It was the region's second major earthquake in five months - it suffered a 7.1 magnitude quake on 8^th September 2010 - indeed I would say this was part of a series of aftershocks resulting from the September quake. Although weaker than the quake in September, this event's epicentre was closer to the city and much shallower, making it far more devastating. Initial reports were of 65 killed and over 200 missing, but the final death toll was expected to be nearly 200. Analysts estimated that the earthquake could cost insurers NZ$16 billion. This was not to be that last of the aftershocks - there was another on 13^th June the same year.

So why does this happen in New Zealand? Time for a short, scientific deviation - this is about Plate Tectonics, stuff we all should know. If you want to skip this explanation click here.

Plate Tectonics                                                                                

I'm going to keep this brief and simple, so if you're an expert geologist, planetologist or the like, I enjoin you not to get too annoyed if I take a few short cuts. This is, after all, for interest, not a Geography degree. So, plate tectonics [← NOTE 2]. Remember you can read explanations by hovering over purple text.

The Earth's lithosphere, is a mosaic of many irregular shaped plates called tectonic plates - about 9 large and 20 or so smaller. The tectonic plates are composed of rock 4 to 40 miles thick; oceanic crust is thinner, but more dense than continental crust. Most tectonic plates comprise both continental and oceanic crust, although the enormous Pacific Plate is almost entirely oceanic, and the tiny Turkish-Aegean Plate is entirely land. Of the nine major plates, six are named after the continents embedded in them: the North American, South American, Eurasian, African, Indo-Australian, and Antarctic. The other three are oceanic plates: the Pacific, Nazca, and Cocos. The relative size of the smaller tectonic plates reflects neither their significance nor their influence on the surface activity of the planet.

The Earth's Main Tectonic Plates

The tectonic plates effectively float on a layer of much hotter, softer, rock known as the asthenosphere. Convection currents are created in this viscous layer by radioactive hot spots deep within the planet. Where these currents reach the surface of the asthenosphere, they tend to move the tectonic plates relative to each other. They move at about the speed that your fingernails grow and this is known as continental drift.

The join where two tectonic plates meet is called a fault or, more correctly, a plate boundary and it is here that the effects of plate movement are most apparent. Scientists describe three types of plate boundaries: Transform, Convergent and Divergent boundaries and these are distinguished by the relative movement of the two tectonic plates involved.

Plate Tectonics: Transform Plate Boundaries

So, a transform boundary is where the two plates move in opposite directions, parallel to the boundary. The best known example of this is the San Andreas Fault and I include an illustration on the left to show the relative plate movement of the Pacific Plate (to the left) and the North American Plate (to the right). Plates do not slide smoothly past each other, instead they tend to stick together. The forces trying to propel the plates build up stresses in the plate that accumulate until they become so massive that they overcome the friction and the plates suddenly move relative to each other in a huge, juddering motion. This is an earthquake. Typically, a quake does not occur along the whole plate boundary, but tends to be relatively localized and the part of the boundary that does this is known as the epicentre - this can be at any depth or location along the boundary.

Most transform faults occur on the ocean floor; in fact, as you can see from the map above, most plate boundaries are oceanic.

Plate Tectonics: Divergent Plate Boundaries

At divergent boundaries, also called 'constructive boundaries', new crust is created as two plates move apart and fresh mantle emerges to fill the growing gap. Oceans are created and grow wider where plates diverge. When a divergent boundary occurs on land a rift will be created and over time the land will separate into distinct land masses and water will fill the space between them - the Red Sea is a good example of this type of boundary and the Atlantic illustrates this process in a much more advanced form. This process is also called sea floor spreading.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is where new oceanic crust is created as the Eurasian Plate moves eastwards away from the North American plate, moving west. The east and west halves of the North Atlantic are two giant conveyor belts moving new crust from the centre of the ocean towards Europe and America.

In reality, divergent plate boundaries don't tend to form straight, clearly defined fault lines; rather they are jagged, 'offset' features characterized by a mixture of divergent and transform boundaries, fissures and ridges. But, essentially, our simple model describes what is happening at these boundaries.

Plate Tectonics: Convergent Plate Boundaries

Convergent plate boundaries are where two tectonic plates moving towards each other collide. At these boundaries crust is often recycled back into the interior of the Earth if one of the tectonic plates is forced under the other; these are known as Subduction Zones and are the creators of mountains and volcanoes. Convergent plate boundaries are also called destructive boundaries and there are 3 possible combinations: Oceanic-Continental Convergence; Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence; and Continental-Continental Convergence, depending on which types of plate are colliding.

When an oceanic plate is forced against a less dense continental plate, the oceanic plate subducts beneath the lighter continental plate, which is lifted up to build mountains. Even though the oceanic tectonic plate as a whole sinks smoothly and continuously into the subduction trench that is formed, the deepest part of the subducting plate breaks into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces become locked in place for long periods of time and stresses build up as in the transform boundaries. Eventually the stress overcomes the blockage and the subducting plate moves suddenly, generating a massive earthquake. Such earthquakes are often accompanied by uplift of the land by as much as a few meters.

When two oceanic tectonic plates converge, one is usually subducted under the other and in the process a deep oceanic trench is formed. The Marianas Trench, for example, is a deep trench created as the result of the Philippine Plate subducting under the Pacific Plate.

Oceanic-oceanic plate convergence also results in the formation of undersea volcanoes, which, over millions build up until the volcano rises above sea level to form an island volcano, typically strung out in chains called island arcs.

When two continents collide, it is possible that neither is subducted because the continental rocks are relatively buoyant on the asthenosphere, being much less dense than the underlying material. Instead, the crust tends to buckle and be pushed upward in massive mountain-building movements.

The collision of the Australian-Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate to the north of India caused the Eurasian Plate to buckle and override the Australian-Indian Plate pushing up enormous folds of rock, forming the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. Most of this mountain-building activity has occurred during the last 10 million years.

So, we can see that mountain building, volcanoes and earthquakes are associated with tectonic plate movement and in particular with the plate boundaries. This is borne out by the map below, which shows seismic activity (earthquakes and volcanoes) around the World.

Map showing the locations of the world's seismic activity, principally associated with tectonic plate boundaries.
Note the locations of New Zealand and Japan

We can clearly see that these events are concentrated at the boundaries of the tectonic plates. It happens that the boundaries around the edge of the Pacific Plate are particularly active, as we can see above, and this has become known as 'The Ring of Fire'. New Zealand sits right on it - in fact New Zealand is being created by it. Click here for NASA's Tectonic Map.

Seismic activity is not just destructive. If it were not for the continuous uplift of land, mountain building, caused by the movement of tectonic plates, the earth would have been eroded into a smooth ball covered by shallow seas millions of years ago.

The Magnitude Scale                                                                          

Just briefly, before we move on, this is a good point to mention the magnitude scale. Actually there are a number of related scales, but we don't need to concern ourselves with that here. For our purposes let's decide that it is a means of describing how much energy is released in an earthquake. It is a (base 10) logarithmic scale so an increase of 1 on the magnitude scale equates to a ten-fold increase in the shaking amplitude (how far the ground is moving) and 32 times increase in the amount of energy the earthquake releases. Thus a magnitude 6 earthquake is 1,000 times more powerful than one measured at magnitude 4 (32 x 32) and causes 100 times the ground movement. Here's a rough guide to what each magnitude means (this table shows just how active our planet is):

The magnitude scale was developed by Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg. It is often referred to as the Richter Scale, but Richter never used this term as he was far too modest; indeed he was concerned that the name gave no credit to his colleague, Gutenberg.

Tsunami                                                                                          

One last thing to mention, tsunami. A tsunami is a massive wave triggered by major underwater seismic activity: earthquake, volcanic eruption or a landslide. A large movement of the seabed is the most common trigger. The wave in open water may be hundreds of km long, but only a few metres high (small amplitude, very long wavelength) and can travel at hundreds of km per hour. There is a lot of water and energy in this wave, but in this state it may pass under a ship unnoticed. It is only as a tsunami approaches shallow water, most commonly close to land, that the drag of the sea floor slows the leading edge, causing the wave to pile up into the huge wall of water with massive destructive power - this is called wave shoaling.

The word tsunami means 'harbour wave' in Japanese. These phenomena are often, incorrectly, referred to as tidal waves - they have nothing whatever to do with tides.

JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE & THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

After the New Zealand earthquake, worse was to come. Much worse. At 14:46 (Tokyo time: GMT+9) on 11^th March 2011 there was a massive, magnitude 9, earthquake off the north east coast of Japan approximately 400km from Tokyo. As we have seen, Japan sits on or near the boundary between the Eurasian and the Philippine tectonic plate boundaries, on the 'Ring of Fire'. The quake caused a huge tsunami that swept inland near the city of Sendai in northeastern Japan. Harrowing footage of the devastation in the coastal city of Sendai was shown around the world on television news showing the astonishing scale of the devastation, and the destructive power of water in urbanized areas. In places the tsunami reached 10 km inland and entire towns were destroyed. Tsunami warnings were issued for much of the Pacific coast, but its worst effects were in Japan where the tsunami was up to 10 metres high, sweeping away homes, crops, vehicles and triggering fires. Power was cut to four million homes in and around Tokyo and tens of thousands of people in the north of the country were killed or missing. An estimated half a million people were made homeless.

Japanese earthquake animated map. Well worth watching - give it a minute to get to the start of the big events of 11^th March and then see just how much activity there was. This is impressive.

Fukushima Nuclear Plant                                                                     

The earthquake caused the automatic shut-down of 15 of Japan's nuclear power stations; seismic sensors detected the earthquake and control rods were automatically inserted into the reactors. It appeared that none of the reactors was damaged by the quake, despite its magnitude. However, the effect of the tsunami was a different matter.

Scramming the reactors caused a sudden loss of power across Japan's national power grid, cutting the electricity supply to the 40 year old Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, were three reactors (1, 2 and 3) were operating. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 were shut down and defueled for routine maintenance; the fuel rods were stored in spent fuel ponds on site.

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant showing the layout of reactors

The reactors at Fukushima are called Boiling Water Reactors (BWR). A BWR uses heat from the nuclear reaction in its core to boil water, creating steam to turn a turbine that drives a generator. The steam is then cooled and condensed back to water and returned to the core - a continuous cycle that generates electricity and keeps the reactor core cool. The reactor is designed to operate at about 285°C and the nuclear fuel is uranium oxide, ceramic pellets (cylinders about 1 cm tall, 1 cm in diameter) with a very high melting point of about 2,800°C. The fuel pellets are contained in zircaloy fuel rods - zircaloy is an alloy of zirconium with a failure temperature of 1,200°C; above this temperature it will melt and cause the (auto-catalytic) oxidation of water, which converts water into vast quantities of hydrogen and oxygen. The fuel rods are grouped into bundles, of which several hundred compose the reactor core.

The uranium fuel generates heat by neutron-induced nuclear fission - a nuclear chain reaction. In very simple terms, uranium atoms split into lighter atoms, producing heat and releasing neutrons. When one of these neutrons hits another uranium atom, that atom will split, generating more heat and more neutrons and so on. During normal, full-power operation, the number of neutrons in the core remains constant or 'stable' and the reactor is said to be in a critical state. The rate of reaction (and, therefore, the amount of heat generated) is controlled by inserting boron control rods into the core; these absorb neutrons and slow the reaction. The reaction rate can be controlled between about 7% and 100% - even with the control rods fully retracted the nuclear fuel in a reactor can only reach 100% of the reactor's maximum design thermal output and cannot cause a nuclear explosion (as in an atom bomb). It can, however overheat if not continuously cooled, as we shall see shortly.

Radioactive material is contained, prevented from escaping, by a number of barriers. The solid fuel pellet is the first barrier that contains many of the radioactive fission products of the reaction. The zircaloy fuel rod casing is the second barrier and this isolates the radioactive fuel from the rest of the reactor. The core is contained in a pressure vessel, constructed of thick steel that can operate at a pressure of up to 7 MPa, designed to withstand the high pressures that may occur during an accident. The pressure vessel is the third barrier to the release of radioactive material.

The pressure vessel, pipes, and pumps that contain the coolant water are housed in a hermetically sealed, reinforced concrete containment structure - the primary containment - the fourth barrier to the release of radioactive material. The primary containment is designed to contain, indefinitely, a complete core meltdown. A further, thick concrete structure surrounds the primary containment and is referred to as the secondary containment. The main and secondary containment structures are housed in the reactor building, which is not designed to be a barrier.

External power is needed to run the cooling water pumps, even when the reactor is shut down as radioactive decay of the nuclear fuel continues and this creates large amounts of heat - about 7% of that produced when the reactor is running at full output, as I mentioned. If temperatures inside the reactor rise above 1,200°C the zirconium in the fuel rod casings create hydrogen from water and the fuel rods themselves start to melt, releasing the radioactive material inside and allowing the fuel to heat up uncontrollably. So, without the circulation of cooling water, the fuel rods overheat and the reactor core can melt down. In the event of a power failure, diesel generators automatically kick in to power the pumps; these generators at Fukushima operated normally after the earthquake on 11^th March. As we saw earlier, around an hour after the earthquake a massive tsunami struck the Fukushima plant. This destroyed the diesel fuel tanks, positioned above ground on the seaward side of the site. The diesel generators (which may also have been damaged by the wave) stopped running.

At this point, backup batteries automatically took up the load and kept the pumps running. However, these were only designed to provide power until the permanent supply could be restored, which in this case it was not. After about eight hours, the batteries ran out and the cooling water circulation pumps stopped running and the cores of reactors 1, 2 and 3 started to heat up. As temperatures rose, the water in the reactor containment vessels boiled to steam, increasing the pressure inside. In reactors 1 and 3, the zirconium casing of the fuel rods, catalysed the breakdown of water in the reactor to produce hydrogen gas. To relieve the pressure inside the primary containments, workers at the site released some of the steam and gas, but this became trapped inside the secondary containment where the hydrogen ignited and exploded. All three of the running reactors suffered meltdown and explosions and were critically damaged.

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, March 2011. Top safety tip: If you see
smoke like this coming from a nuclear plant, run away bravely!!!

Although shutdown before the earthquake, the spent fuel rods from reactor four were stored in a containment pool – a 15 metre deep tank of water that shields workers from radiation and helps to keep the rods cool. The cooling systems for this pool were also out of action, so water in this pool heated up and started to boil dry, releasing intense radiation. Two fires, one thought to have been caused by a hydrogen explosion that damaged the roof, also broke out.

Seawater and boric acid (which slows the radioactive decay of the uranium fuel) were pumped into reactors 1, 2 and 3 using fire hoses. Military helicopters poured tonnes of seawater onto reactor three to try to control rising temperatures in the spent fuel pool, which could no longer be fully filled due to damage. If the spent fuel rods were allowed to overheat they could explode, releasing the highly radioactive plutonium that they contain. Therefore, controlling the spent fuel became the most critical part of the operation. Water cannon and fire hoses were also used to try to top up water in the spent fuel pond at reactor four.

Engineers at the plant eventually (after several days) managed to connect a power cable to the plant and, following checks, further leaks and a number of delays, the normal cooling systems were able to be restarted, but not before reports of tap water in Tokyo and leaf vegetables further north being contaminated with radioactive iodine [← NOTE 3].

By late March, the authorities were still battling to control the reactors and massive radiation leaks were being detected. Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, stated that he was ready for a long battle to bring Fukushima nuclear plant under control. On 1^st April he admitted that he couldn't say that the plant had been sufficiently stabilized or when that might be achieved.

Perhaps the saddest aspects of the Fukushima nuclear incident were, first, that it totally overshadowed the dreadful plight of the hundreds of thousands of people who's lives were lost or devastated directly by the earthquake and tsunami (I have been guilty of this here) and, second, the damage done to the reputation of the nuclear industry because of yet another set of questionable design issues of a nuclear plant - including in this case its location right on a highly active plate boundary. I think nuclear power was undergoing something of a renaissance and governments around the world, the UK amongst them, were quietly pushing forward their plans for the next generation of plant. Public opinion is fickle and easily swayed by incidents such as this. Perhaps the silver lining might be even more stringent safety requirements for future build. We shall see.

Back in Libya, Gaddafi set his considerable military might against the rebels who clung onto possession of Benghazi. On 17^th March 2011, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973, authorizing the international community to take 'all necessary measures' to protect civilian areas from assault by Libyan forces, while 'excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory'. Gaddafi immediately announced a total cease fire, but (oddly) his army kept on massacring Libyan rebels. Within a couple of days, air strikes were under way, mainly French, British and American jets. After western aircraft had flown some 300 sorties and fired more than 162 Tomahawk cruise missiles, the no-fly zone was quickly established. On 23^rd March AOC 1 Group, Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell (with whom I worked at RAF High Wycombe a few years back), said the allies could now operate 'with near impunity' in the skies over Libya, that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's air force 'no longer exists as a fighting force' and that our forces were now applying unrelenting pressure on the Libyan military.

RAF Typhoons (hastily redesignated FGR4 with their clearance to drop Paveway II laser-guided bombs) and Tornado GR4s (their future appearing reasonably safe as the Typhoons look unlikely to be able to carry Paveway IV anytime soon) operated out of Gioia del Colle in southern Italy on NATO's Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR, striking targets belonging to Gaddafi's regime. Nice to see the Typhoon finally doing something to start to justify the billions we spent on it! Only 15 years too late - the original in-service date was December 1998. I'm thinking it's time to offer you a bit of detail about Typhoon and have happened across an interesting analysis on ausairpower.net by Dr Carlo Kopp. It's a very good analysis, although a bit detailed and technical for this page; so I've pdf'd it and made it available here. I shall just say a few words about Eurofighter Typhoon.

EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON

We heard in early 2011 that RAF will buy 160 Typhoons (out of the 250 we should have had), but will only ever have an in-service fleet of 107. The last of the 160 airframes will be delivered in 2015, but, by 2019 all the Tranche 1 jets will be retired. We'll actually pay for 232 jets, because that was our original agreed 'workshare'. The development and production costs of Eurofighter to the UK will be £23bn with planned upgrades (the original cost was supposed to be £13.2bn) . This makes each jet cost £215m although the official unit price is £45m, because it's better to ignore the huge development costs.

Operators also have severe problems with spare parts and support, hardly surprising when one considers that Eurofighter's manufacturing is distributed across four nations and, maybe, 400 contractors. And as for capability, it was supposed to be a multi-role (actually swing-role) fighter, but it is only just starting to limp into the ground attack world and even that has only become possible because of extra money made available to the programme to avoid embarrassment in Libya. In fact, operations in Libya were probably a real gift for Typhoon. The Wikipedia article on Typhoon gives a good idea of how disastrous the whole project was.

And I would just reiterate the timescales involved in this project. Typhoon began way back in 1972 as Air Staff Target 403. The first Eurofighter prototype didn't fly until 22 years later in March 1994. The first production aircraft flew after another 9 years in 2003. Typhoon's first operational use was on QRA in 2007 and its first operational deployment was to Libya in 2011 (see below), only 39 years after the Air Staff Target.

Back to Libya. Actually, what happened around Libya was that western governments used UNSCR1973 to attack Gaddafi's forces and to support the rebels. All talk shifted to getting rid of Gaddafi, but he had everything to lose and so Libya descended into a state of virtual civil war. The rebels advanced westwards through the coastal cities in late March, but were pushed back again by the Army. Gaddafi stated that he was perplexed by the fact that a couple of years ago he had the British Prime Minister (Tony Blair) publicly shaking his hand and signing trade deals and now all the western leaders seemed to be after his blood. I must admit, he had a point there.

Continued pressure by NATO forces put strain on the Libyan Government and senior officials started to abandon Gaddafi; Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa led the way by defecting to the UK. Meanwhile, The USA decided that it couldn't afford to get involved in another conflict and effectively pulled out of combat operations, leaving it to the rest of NATO to sort it out - in truth mainly France and the UK (in that order). But by mid-April the whole thing had become bogged down and a state of stalemate descended on Libya. Gaddafi was still going nowhere.

Anyway, over the next few weeks, NATO slowly ramped up its commitment to this new campaign, shifting their bombing from the direct protection of civilians (for example attacking tanks that were attacking civilians) to the destruction of Gaddafi's military installations and government buildings. Mission creep? Well, let's see. By early June the UK and France had deployed attack helicopters to strike at Gaddafi's military positions, check points and the like. It could still be argued that these strikes were 'protecting civilians' - the mandate given to NATO by the UN, but this was possibly stretching the point. However, on 4^th June British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, declared that the only way to a settlement was if Gaddafi were to go. That sounds a lot like regime change rather than protecting civilians. Hague insisted this was not the case, but it does bring to mind the policy in Iraq in 2003 where the mission mysteriously moved from hunting down WMD to removing Saddam Hussein. Of course, I am not saying that this new tack is right or wrong, but I do point out the shift in the mission.

We now fast forward temporarily. After months of fighting and a series of gains and losses by the rebel forces, they finally entered Tripoli on the night of 21^st August 2011. There was very little resistance despite Gaddafi's claims that he had 65,000 troops ready to defend him and his capital to the last man. The rebels claimed that two of Gaddafi's sons had been taken into custody, including his eldest, Saif al-Islam who was expected to succeed Gaddafi; this soon proved to be false as Saif popped up in the hotel were BBC journalists were staying and gave a defiant interview.

Gaddafi was holed up in his fortified compound; he was effectively cut off. But celebrations were premature and many of the rebel forces retreated that night as they believed it was too dangerous to stay overnight. It wasn't until the following day that they entered Gaddafi's compound only to find no resistance and no Gaddafi.

THE RAF MUSEUM, HENDON

All this military hardware busy around the world, brought to mind the excellent RAF Museum at Hendon. So we broke out one of the cameras and took ourselves off there. We were delighted to find some great new exhibits: a Eurofighter Typhoon F2, an F4 Phantom FGR2 (XV424) that I last flew in 1983 and a Tornado F3 (ZE887) that I last flew on 18^th October 1994 with Harry Kemsley - more on Harry to come.

RUTLAND OSPREYS

Project Ocean Vision and the Rutland Ospreys

And, of course we went to Rutland Water. The Rutland Ospreys were due back and we could not have timed our first visit of the year better. Our favourite male (R5/04) arrived at the Manton Bay nest, as we did, on 27^th March. His mate arrived a couple of days later so we were just waiting for eggs and chicks. On 20^th March, O3/97 returned to his old nest site - called Site B (on private land near the reserve). This was his eleventh year. We won't talk much about Site B - important to keep its location secret.

The Rutland Osprey Project is run by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Anglian Water and with additional funding support from the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust. The Rutland Osprey Project is now in its seventeenth year. Thanks to their work, Rutland Water is home to the first Ospreys to breed in England for 150 years. 2010 was the most successful breeding year to date and the 2011 season has already got off to a good start. We shall have a lot more to report on this when we are able to join the Rutland Osprey Project next year. We decided that this is a great thing for Project Ocean Vision to get involved in so we'll keep you updated as we go along.

Of course, you don't need to travel far to see wonderful nature in action. Click on the play button below or use this link to see what I mean - bluetits nesting in our back garden, 2011. This little chap fledged the very next day and has done very well.

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And we went to stay with our great friends, Terence and Brian in Dorset. Boating and drinking wine, really. Great fun. Here are some pictures.

2^ND LT LAURENCE GRANT

The next high of the year - a truly excellent one - was Laurence's graduation from The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, when he received his commission from Her Majesty the Queen as a Second Lieutenant. Carol and I went down to Sandhurst early on the morning of 15^th April for the Commissioning Service in the Sandhurst Chapel and this was followed by the Sovereign's Parade.

The Sovereign's Representative was The Sultan of Brunei and the parade was so impressive - over 200 men and women on parade and an hour and a half of precise ceremonial excellence. Of the 90 cadets passing out that day, Laurence had come 3^rd overall - what an achievement!

Sandhurst is clearly a tough school. But it wasn't always that way. The Royal Military Academy was established in 1741, although until around 1870, cavalry and infantry officers bought their commissions and promotions, with no requirement for a formal military education. The course has evolved over the decades and in September 1992 a single the Commissioning Course replaced the three, separate officer training courses; men and women, graduates and non-graduates, British and overseas cadets are all now taught on the same course. It is now a much more intensive and demanding course that certainly meets the needs of a modern Army much better than when commissions were bought.

Laurence Grant, Carol Courtnage and Paul Courtnage, Sovereign's Parade, Sandhurst

Carol Courtnage and Laurence Grant, Sandhurst Passing-out

After Sandhurst, 2^nd Lieutenant Laurence Grant joined his new regiment, The Queen's Royal Lancers, based at Catterick in Yorkshire. Interestingly, Catterick is the largest British Army garrison in the world. Laurence was detached to Bovington for his tank course in May.

Prince William met Catherine Middleton in 2001 when they were both at the University of St Andrews. They became engaged on 20^th October 2010. Their wedding on 29^th April was one of the highlights of 2011, so much so that I couldn't fail to include it, albeit briefly, here. What a wonderful, happy and beautiful event. The Royal Wedding was watched by an estimated 2.4 billion people around the world, 25.1 million in the UK alone.

The wedding service was conducted by The Dean of Westminster, Dr John Hall, solemnized by The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the address was given by the Bishop of London. Prince William's brother, Harry was best man and Kate's sister Phillipa was maid of honour. A million people packed into Whitehall and The Mall to cheer the happy couple. And happy they certainly were!

Do you know, I think this was just what the country needed, in more ways than one. Times had been hard and there had been plenty of bad news, so some happy news seemed to give everyone such a lift. The Royal Family had been taking a lot of bashing in recent months (or maybe years) and it this was just the thing they needed to get the public behind them. And, wow, wasn't there an outpouring of support. Fantastic!

Princes Harry and William, Kate and Michael Middleton

HRH Prince William and HRH Princess Catherine

Coat of Arms of HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Coat of Arms of HRH Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

On 1^st May 2011 U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Usama bin Laden had been killed and his body buried at sea in a U.S. military operation. Washington reported that a team of 24 U.S. Navy SEALs working with the CIA had stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. Bin Laden, three other men, and a woman were killed in Operation Neptune Spear near Abbottabad, Pakistan. The United States had been looking for him for nearly ten years (since 9/11), but previously had believed that he was hiding in Afghanistan or on the border, such as it is, between Afghanistan and Pakistan. A lot of people were very pleased, to say the least, and who could deny that bin Laden was an evil man, leading an evil organization. It was very likely that the success of this operation had more than a little to do with information obtained from the interrogation of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

One has to give at least to some thought to the rights and wrongs of what was, after all, a state-sponsored killing. This was clearly not an assassination as this was prohibited by Executive Order 12333, signed by President Regan in 1981 - 'No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination'. So it obviously wasn't that.

So what of the legitimacy of the killing? On the one hand the Americans got rid of a much hated mass murderer and few believed he deserved better. On the other sits the uncomfortable question about the due process of law. In our laws, everyone, no matter what they have done, is supposed to be punished only after the legal process has been deployed. It could, of course be argued that America was at war with Al Qa'ida and that bin Laden was killed as an enemy combatant in that war. It was stated that they would have taken him prisoner had there been any sign of surrender and if there was no perceived danger in so doing. I would never argue with the decision of the troops - too many people spend too much time second-guessing the (necessarily) split-second decisions of brave military personnel. We must accept that the SEALs carried out their orders and took the right decisions in the circumstances. So well done on a brave and successful mission.

But I wonder what will happen next. Well, first, the Pakistani Military had to start an investigation to try to explain how bin Laden had been able to hide in plain view in a compound that was only 1 km from their military academy. As for Al Qa'ida, were they going to take this one on the chin or would this simply trigger retaliatory operations against the Americans? One thing was for sure, the decapitation of Al Qa'ida was unlikely to make its vast membership think, 'Hmm, OK. They killed bin Laden so we won't do this any more.' On the contrary, Al Qa'ida confirmed the death of bin Laden on 6^th May 2011 and left posts on a number of websites vowing to avenge the killing.

Although bin Laden had made no public comment about the Arab uprising we looked at earlier, a video was released about two weeks after his death in which he congratulated the revolutionaries - an attempt to re-establish Al Qa'ida's diminishing relevance in the Arab world, I would guess. It also emerged that al Qa'ida had appointed Saif al-Adel as temporary leader, although Ayman al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and now deputy leader of Al Qa'ida, remained the most likely successor. One evil man replaces another.

We shall have to wait and see what comes next.

ALEX BURTON AND ADRIAN MURDOCK MARRY

EXPEDITION OCEAN VISION 5                         

MALTA 2011 - EXPEDITION DIARY

Day 0: Thursday 31 June 2011

Expedition Ocean Vision 5 took the Team to Malta for a mixture of underwater filming, shooting footage and stills of the amazing and varied architecture and making a short video about the tourism and diving industries on the islands. As independent travellers we flew with Air Malta and making all our accommodation, diving and vehicle rental arrangements with a local company, Paradise Diving, run by Noel Micallef and Alison Micallef Brennan and located at the northern most tip of Malta.

We elected to pre-position at Heathrow Airport, staying in the Heathrow Sheraton rather than have a rush and unpredictable traffic on the morning of our flight. This is our preferred option these days. Like our previous encounter with Sky Executive Cars when leaving for Expedition Ocean Vision 4 in November 2010, they were late. However, we'd left ourselves a bit of flex and were at the hotel in time for supper and drinks - a good job we weren't flying this evening or we would have been late.

Day 1: Friday 1 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Fly to Malta.

Air Malta, Flight KM101, depart LHR Terminal 4 10:50, arrive Luqa 15:05.

We checked in around 8:00 - all very easy for a change. Even security was fine. We had purchased the Air Malta sports baggage allowance for €20 (each way) for up to 32 kilos, which is pretty good and comes on top of their 20 kilos per person allowance.

Currency exchange, breakfast and shopping occupied the dead time before boarding. Again it was all remarkably easy, but our departure was delayed by a 'shortage of baggage handlers' - those that were there weren't exactly exerting themselves, I have to say.

Despite the very reasonable cost of our tickets, the flight was comfortable and pleasant. Arrival at Malta International Airport (formerly RAF Luqa, until 1979) was easy; it's a good little airport (operational since March 1992) and even has numbered arrival and departure gates, although these are really just doors that all lead out onto the same ramp where passengers walk to or from their aircraft..

Joe Borg (apartment owner and car rental) met us in his ageing, but perfectly serviceable Mercedes. Forty minutes later we arrived at Sunflower Flats in Mellieha, a quiet, pleasant 'village' in northern Malta with a population of some 7,000 or so. Our flat was bright, clean, nicely furnished and very much larger than we had expected. We sorted out all our kit and ventured out search of somewhere to eat and drink.

Il-Mithna: We soon found Il-Mithna, a delightful restaurant housed in a 16^th century windmill, built by the Knights of St John. We met Sandro Vella, patron and head chef, who is charming, professional and attentive. In fact all of their staff were quite excellent. Il-Mithna has a varied and interesting menu of both local and international cuisine and it is all superb. You can have a good meal, with a little starter and a good bottle of local red wine (we particularly likes the Palatino Merlot) for around €30-45 for two. So good that it rather became our regular dining spot.

Carol Courtnage at Il-Mithna

Day 2: Saturday 2 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Down Day. Accommodation at Sunflower Apartments, Mellieha.

We found our local shop and stocked up on essentials (wine, cheese, corn flakes and salami), before setting of for Mellieha Beach. Now, today is a very significant day in Malta's history. For decades the islands have been served by a fleet of old, orange buses; a hundred different makes and models. They weren't always orange - before 1995 each village used to have its own distinctive colour - but they were always a huge part of the Maltese heritage and tradition. On average, the old buses were 35 years olds, some as old as 60, handed down from father to son.

The old Maltese buses were cheap to use and fairly reliable, although hot in summer. Forty-three cents would get you a long way and one would usually be along every 20 minutes or so - I don't think there was actually a working timetable, as such. Drivers owned their own buses and started work early in the morning and they would often work late into the evening, although they were known to stop the bus, tell everyone to get off and simply go home when they'd had enough They were a bit of a law unto themselves.

Today was the last day of this wonderful, characterful service. Tomorrow it was to be replaced by turquoise, Arriva buses - all rather sad. So we had to go and ride, film and photograph their final day in service. We're told that the Maltese Government were offering drivers/owners a lot of money (€100,000) for the old buses - presumably a form of compensation for taking away their livelihood. Some, not all, drivers were offered jobs with Arriva, but there seemed to be a bit of bad feeling and (understandable) sadness around. On the other hand, Malta has one of the highest car densities in the world and the old buses weren't exactly eco-friendly, so I guess the Maltese Government had to do something.

We enjoyed our day out and had another superb supper at Il-Mithna. We finished off our kit assembly and sorting, ready to check in with Paradise Dive Club tomorrow morning. We decided to delay the start of our actual diving, originally scheduled for tomorrow, by 24 hours to ensure we were fit and ready.

Day 3: Sunday 3 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

We had our dive gear collected this morning to get it down to Paradise Diving so that we could catch a new Arriva bus and go to check in with the dive centre. We had a bit of a wait for a bus and got talking about Malta and the buses to some locals - mixed feelings here.

When a bus finally arrived, it transpired that all the buses were free this day. Not an introductory offer of goodwill, the ticket machines weren't working. Our driver didn't seem to know his route or how to drive a bus with working brakes (or, perhaps, how to drive a bus) and there were three supervisors wearing day-glo Arriva jackets watching his every move - presumably he was a foreign driver and they needed to ensure that he drove according to Maltese convention and never touched his indicators.

Still, the buses were clean and smart and air conditioned and comfortable. All of that was more than could be said for Paradise Diving. The bus drivers were polite and welcoming, which is more than can be said for Paradise Diving. Arriva appeared to be taking care that (apart from some early teething problems) things were running safely, which is more than can be said... You get the idea.

So to finish with the buses for now, if I were starting up a new bus service and only had time to get three things organized ahead of time, I would want to know that I had: (1) buses that work, (2) people to drive them and (3) ticket machines that work so that my shiny new system could make some money. It seemed Arriva didn't agree with me.

Now to Paradise Dive Centre. Cirkewwa is at the northwest tip of the island of Malta. On the western side is Paradise Bay and the Paradise Bay Hotel, overlooking the azure blue Mediterranean Sea. On the northern side is the Gozo Ferry Terminal. I had sort of gained the impression that the dive centre was on the Paradise Bay side, but instead found ourselves sitting there staring at the docks, its cranes and containers. The centre is balanced on a small beach of sand, grit and shingle with sun loungers and cheap, inadequate beach umbrellas. Set into the wall behind the beach we find a small café and some grey, steel doors that reveal themselves as the entrance to Paradise Diving. There is a concrete terrace covered by large blue and white awnings that offer welcome shade, but no refuge from the gritty sand, which quickly covers everything. They need a broom.

I can't say we were exactly welcomed with opened arms, but we did our business there, arranged to start diving the following day and shaded ourselves from the sun. Click here to see Google Earth's view of Cirkewwa - the red dot marks Paradise Diving.

We left feeling a little 'uninspired', but with our usual optimism felt that tomorrow would be better.

Day 4: Monday 4 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Diving with Paradise Dive Club

We rose early to make sure all the video gear was ready to go straight in the water. We felt this was important as our pickup from Sunflower Apartments was at 08:15 and the first dive at 09:00. What with getting to the dive centre, prepping dive kit, our arrival brief, dive brief and getting into their boat, we thought time might be tight. Well, time would have been time if reality had lived up to expectations. It didn't. Arriving there at 08:30 or so, we found Paradise Diving closed. It then opened, but there were no instructors - or 'guides' as we prefer - to be seen. We rather needed these people to show us where the sites we wanted were. But they wandered in at about 09:30. Still, plenty of time to be briefed on how the operation works, their safety procedures and the like. No, none of those, even when we asked. So we waited. We found where tanks and weights were kept, helped ourselves and set up our kit.

We were allocated someone to show us where our first dive site was. The full extent of the information he had to offer was a review of the standard PADI hand signals.

Carol has a lot of metalwork in her spine and right knee, which doesn't cause any problems at all, but we decided years ago not to risk putting unnecessary strain on either and so Carol kits up at the water entry point (dive deck, boat side, jetty or in the water, depending on the situation) to avoid carrying or wearing all that weight when it's not necessary. This meant that we had her kit to move down to and back from the boat, in addition to all the video camera gear, so we asked for some help. This was denied, so Courtney had to make two trips to and from the boat each dive - more on this as we go along.

Paradise Diving use their two speed boats to dive from; these double as passenger boats taking day trippers to and from Comino and the Blue Lagoon and are not ideal dive boats. They have occasional use of a larger speed boat, owned by one of the boatmen, that is much better suited to diving.

Our first dive took us to The Arch, which is a short ride north near Comino. Carol got kitted up in the boat, but then found it very difficult to get up onto the side of the boat to do a backward roll into the water. Our 'guide' offered some fairly obvious advice on how to do it, but when this didn't work his response was 'Well, I don't know how you're going to do it', at which point he jumped into the water leaving us to struggle on ourselves.

We saw a lot of sea grass and some sea weed and an arch. Not the most inspiring dive we've ever seen.

Our second dive started with an even shorter brief that informed us that the standard hand signals hadn't changed, which was a relief to find out. Once again, there was absolutely no help with lugging kit - dive centre staff actually sat and watched Courtney struggling past them with Carol's dive kit and the video gear, making two trips to and from the boat, without even offering to help to get it in or out of the boat. More sea grass and seaweed with the added bonus of some patches of sand. After 20 minutes in 17°C water below the 20m thermocline (25° above it), we were really cold. We don't mind getting a bit cold if there's something worth seeing and filming, but there wasn't much here.

End of dive day one: somewhat underwhelmed.

Day 5: Tuesday 5 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Diving the Tugboat MV Rozi

This morning we arrived at the dive centre on time and it was shut. After 15 minutes or so the owner opened up and a while later his staff started to arrive. Today they were taking us to the wreck of the Rozi.

The MV Rozi is a 40 metre harbour tug built in Bristol in 1958 by Charles Hill & Sons and launched as the Rossmore. In 1969 she was sold to the Rea Towing Co. and renamed Rossgarth. In 1972 she was sold to Mifsud Brothers (Malta Ship Towage Ltd) and sailed from Liverpool to Malta. In 1981 she was sold to Tug Malta and renamed Rozi. Tugboat MV Rozi operated in Grand Harbour, Valletta, until 1992 when she was sold to Captain Morgan Cruises to be scuttled near the Cirkewwa Ferry Terminal as an attraction for tourists in their glass-bottomed boat, a service that no longer operates, and is now a very popular dive site.

The MV Rozi sits on upright on the bottom at 36 metres, her deck is around 32 metres and the top of the superstructure is at about 25 metres. Her bow faces west. The engines and propeller were removed before she was scuttled, but otherwise the MV Rozi is intact and nicely encrusted. The location of the MV Rozi is marked by a large yellow buoy (on a bearing of 300° from the Cirkewwa lighthouse), and is a short surface swim of about 140m from shore.

We arrived at her stern, which offered us the chance to see and film her rudder and to explore her engine room. This has easy access as the deck plates above this area have been removed. The funnel sits forward of this space and then there is a short gap before the wheelhouse, which can be safely entered. There are a number of hatches and doors below the wheelhouse and a large deckspace leading forward to the impressive bow, still dressed with its truck tyre bumpers.

We left the MV Rozi and headed back to the 'reef', which hosts some wildlife, but the wreck is definitely the highlight in this area. Our time on the MV Rozi was slightly limited so we wanted to come back later in the exped to do some more filming here. The MV Rozi is a good little dive site.

Day 6: Wednesday 6 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Diving with Paradise Dive Club.

This morning we arrived to a closed, deserted dive centre - we were starting to form a pattern. The owner was busy driving around the beach in his 4x4 so we waited outside the large, grey steel doors. Once these were unlocked we set up our gear and did some more waiting. I decided to get ahead of the game and move Carol's dive gear down to the jetty, but was told not to do this as the boatmen weren't here yet. Once they arrived it was all 'hurry up and get in the boats', followed by a lot of impatience whilst I made my two trips between dive centre and jetty - watched by all the staff who lifted not a finger again, even to move heavy gear into a crowded boat.

Our dive site was Ras il-Hobz, a 40 metre rock pinnacle that sits a few metres below the surface. It is abundant in marine life and a simple, but very good dive. The light was good and the visibility around 20 metres, good conditions for filming and exploring.

Carol Courtnage

Following our morning dive, Carol and I retired to a couple of sun loungers to consider our feelings about Paradise Diving. We concluded that it was all very relaxed, possibly a little too relaxed and customers here have no idea what the emergency plan might be if a diver were to have a serious problem in the water. Assuming they have a plan, it is obviously a closely guarded secret. OK, what happens if a buddy pair has to surface without their guide (you make up your own scenario)? Where's the boat (often out of site behind a headland and we never saw a boatman watching for divers anyway)? What safety equipment do they carry? Who's qualified to use it? What help is available? We had the answer to some of these questions, but only after repeated enquiries. It seems the thrust of their plan is to call 112 on a mobile phone (I often dive without one) and be rescued by the excellent search and rescue service - if you know the Maltese name for your dive site. Their concept of operations is that customers simply follow the instructors and let them handle everything - not our style

Other things that were a bit disconcerting to us were: hearing an 'instructor' start with "The maximum depth for this dive is 42 metres", and 'instructor' asking "Right, who's diving with me?" (you tell us) and or fellow 'clients' starting to express their own concerns. On the plus side, I have to report that their equipment was all in good condition and carefully maintained - the owner personally strips and resprays all the centre's air cylinders every winter and very good they looked too. We watched their operation quite carefully and we noted that their instructors were very good with their Open Water students; they were thorough, patient and coped well with a number of languages. Anyway, we weren't planning to dive for a few days so we would consider what we would do next.

Day 7: Thursday 7 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Exploring and filming Malta - Mdina

Joe Borg called by this morning to drop off our car, a neat little Hyundai Getz, which will be great for running around (with air con), but probably only on reasonably good roads. Today we're off to Mdina and Rabat.

Mellieha to Mdina was an easy half hour past vineyards, farms and olive groves. We turned into Mdina, as far as you can drive (only residents inside the walled city) and found a parking space. A very helpful gentleman thoughtfully directed us towards a space that was about to be vacated and charged us generously for his trouble. He also managed to sell us one of his books, which we didn't need, and which came with the promise that we could now park here all day. With no ticket or anything. He kindly advised us to lock our car and not to take a ride in one of the pony and traps as they were really expensive. He wouldn't want to see dumb tourists being ripped off!

Mdina is a mediaeval, walled city, which used to be the capital of Malta until 1568 when the Knights of St John (later the Sovereign Military Order of Malta) built the new city of Valletta after the Great Siege of 1565. Before that, the area had been inhabited by the Greeks, Romans and, probably, the Phoenicians in about 700 BC. The Romans called it Melita, which was also their name for the island itself, and it is known as 'The Silent City'. Much of the city wall is Roman and fortifications were added throughout the centuries by numerous occupiers, although a lot of Mdina was destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1693. Today is has a population of only 300.

We entered Mdina through the main gate, erected in 1724, replacing the old drawbridge who's outline is still visible to the right of the new gate and which used to span the moat. The main street (Triq Il Villegaignon) took us to the northern bastion from where we were afforded a beautiful panorama of northern Malta, across Bugibba, Mosta and the Mediterranean beyond.

The place to eat here is Ciapetta in St Agatha's Esplanade. Beautiful shaded courtyards are filled with lush greenery and the food is wonderful. After lunch and some excellent local wine, we wandered the narrow lanes and breathed the essence of Mdina.

Recklessly ignoring earlier advice, we took a tour of the city in a pony and trap, which also took us around neighbouring Rabat. The pony was five year old Timmy and he pulled an 85 year old surrey with a fringe on top, stopping occasionally for us to alight and visit important sites and scattering tourists with urgent ringing of an old bell.

The Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul is magnificent - maybe not to everyone's taste, but still magnificent. Every inch of its interior is decorated with paintings, guilt (catholic guilt) and icons. It is not large, but then there isn't much room in Mdina. It is, however, a grand and amazing sight.

Mdina is also famous for its glass; colourful and rather charming. Carol found a Mdina Glass necklace and ring to match a sarong. We have decided, as many before us have doubtless done, that a visit to Malta is incomplete without a day in The Silent City of Mdina.

Mdina

Day 8: Friday 8 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Exploring and filming Gozo

Our plan for today was to go across to Gozo on the ferry and to explore the most northerly of the Maltese islands. The Gozo Channel Line operates three large car and passenger ferries (M.V. Ta' Pinu, M.V Gaudos and M.V. Malita) between Cirkewwa (Malta) and Mgarr Harbour (Gozo) all year including weekends, Public Holidays and a night service. A car and two people can cross both ways for under €25 and the service is good; gifts, books, food and drink are all available on board and they don't make a lot of unnecessary fuss about loading and unloading cars and foot passengers.

Steaming past the island of Comino, we were offered a good view of Malta's solution to its waters' lack of fish - fish farms. We have seen a lot of these all around Malta, which is not surprising as the Mediterranean has been fished for thousands of years and over-fished for decades. Yes, these are a means of raising fish for the ever-demanding Mediterranean market, but they are not an ecologically sound solution. Virtually no fish farm in the world breed their own fish - some are trying with mixed success - so fish farmers still have to catch all the stock fish and massive quantities of smaller fish either to feed directly to the stock or to be processed into fish granules.

Keeping large numbers of fish in such tight confines concentrates disease and parasites that affect the stock and local, wild fish populations - not that there are many of these left. Overfeeding clouds and pollutes the local waters. The lack of much else to eat causes large predators, mainly sharks, to be attracted to the pens, which they regularly damage or, worse, become entangled in. See my article on fish farming for more on this.

Gozo itself is very rural and, looking at its capital, Victoria, is in something of a decline. Talking to the locals here, the youngsters go to mainland Malta or abroad to attend university, but then find that there are no jobs or careers on Gozo that suit their qualifications or their expectations. The island is quiet, rather too quiet for the younger generation and, so, many simply move away to somewhere more exciting and with better prospects.

Tourism is by far the main source of income here and this means that the locals continually build hundreds of new apartments even though once beautiful older buildings are standing empty and starting to decay. The global recession (and, maybe, a false impression that Malta is somehow bound up with the troubles in Libya) means fewer visitors, so a lot of the new apartments also remain empty or stand unfinished. This does nothing for the appearance of many of the towns and villages.

Malta and Gozo don't have many sandy beaches so wherever a patch of sand protrudes from the sea it is immediately pounced upon and rapidly surrounded by a jumble of ugly, modern flats. The islands are quickly being ruined by careless over-development. And, I have to say, one doesn't have to look too hard to see that the building quality is not always that great.

We found ourselves atop the Citadel that dominates Victoria. It is a grand and very impressive fortified town, but even this is falling into disrepair. We didn't have to explore very far to find large areas of it that are derelict (much of it from a very long time ago) and overgrown with prickly pears, which seem to flourish wherever man has made his mark and moved on - or, in this case, moved away. Victoria has a population of roughly 6,500.

Formerly Rabat, the city was renamed Victoria by the British in 1897 for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; many locals still call it Rabat. The Citadel dates back to Neolithic times and the first fortifications here were constructed around 1,500 BC. Like Mdina, it was further developed by the Phoenicians, Romans and the Knights of St John.

The walls contain an elaborate 17^th cathedral (the Cathedral of Assumption), which is the work of the same Maltese architect that built cathedral in Mdina, Lorenzo Gafà.

Gozo means 'joy' in Castilian. It is the second largest Island of the Maltese archipelago, with a population of approximately 30,000. Gozo is distinctly different from Malta, more rural and simple, its culture and way of life rooted in fishing and basic agriculture.

Whereas Malta was blessed with natural harbours and defences, Gozo was totally exposed to any passing raiders. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the rule of the Knights of St John, Barbary corsairs and Saracens regularly raided the island and, in 1551, the Saracens captured almost the entire population for slavery. Gozo never really recovered from this and remained under-populated for centuries until the arrival of the Knights and the refortification of Rabat.

The inhabitants of Gozo have their own distinct style with noticeably different lifestyles, accents and dialect. We found them to be very friendly and welcoming.

We found a lovely bay on the north coast near Marsalforn, nestled between the hill-top towns of Xagħra and Żebbuġ, which made a pleasant resting place - ignoring the usual new apartments. But we were also pleasantly surprised to discover more about Maltese produce. We discovered throughout our explorations just how much of its own fruit and veg the islands produce (about 20% of its food needs). Given that most of the islands are covered by rocky scrubland or, in the case of southern Malta, a large conurbation, it is quite amazing how much produce comes from numerous, small fields and allotments. We saw tomatoes, vines, olives, figs, salad crops, citrus, plums, garlic, melons, pumpkins and onions. Long, hot days make great growing conditions as long as the growers add water, which brings us to our next point, water.

It rains a lot here in the winter months, but they don't seem to collect it for the long, dry, hot summer. There are no permanent lakes or reservoirs on the islands and we saw no rivers at all, just dried up river beds. So with a large population (maybe around 420,000 in just 316 km²) that is swelled greatly by 1.2 million tourists every year, they are forced to desalinate sea water. This is expensive and adds hugely to their, already massive, oil bill - oil is imported in vast quantities to generate electricity, which is also very expensive in Malta. Until the events of 2011, Malta had a great deal going with Libya who provided them with cheap oil. But the uprising and (I'm going to call it) civil war there meant that Malta had to buy it on the open market and energy prices and cost of living on the islands soared - a constant danger for any small place that is almost totally reliant on the outside world for its needs. Tourism pays for just about everything, plus some limestone exports, manufacturing and film production.

Day 9: Saturday 9 July 2011 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Exploring and filming in Valletta.

So, south to the Maltese capital, Valletta. This is a huge, impressive, baroque, walled city, built as a fortress by the Knights of St. John in 1568. The city walls are tens of metres thick, the gates are magnificent and ornate and, for the time being, the buildings are old, decorative and grand. The city has a good feel about it and is crammed with treasures: bars, restaurants, gift shops and historic buildings and churches.

We started our visit by taking a seaplane to afford us a bird's eye view of Valletta as well as the islands of Malta, Comino, Cominotto and Gozo and to capture some pictures of Mdina and the other places we had visited. This is an experience we would highly recommend as it allows one to take in most of this small country in a relatively short space of time; it's well worth getting to know the islands on the ground first as this puts the flight into better context.

Like the ferries, Harbour Air make it very easy to jump aboard their DHC-3 Turbine Single Otter with none of the rigmarole that usually comes with flying. Our pilot, Stephan, is a Canadian that had been diving up at Paradise Diving with us and, usefully, took us everywhere we needed to go.

There are some great bars and restaurants on the front at the Grand Harbour, many of which had sprouted Union Flags, White Ensigns and Canadian Maple Leaves and the reason for this was revealed to us as the presence of HMS Ocean (Amphibious Helicopter and Troop Carrier, launched 1995) and the Canadian frigate HMCS Charlottetown (multi-role patrol frigate, launched 1994) in Valletta harbour. There is money to be made from two ships' compliments of thirsty, hungry sailors and, with the troubles in north Africa, they were likely to be around, on and off, for a while - the crews we saw looked pretty happy with that.

It's a long climb from the harbour to the centre of town in the summer heat, so worth taking it gently with regular stops to cool down and refuel. Republic Street runs the length of the town from the grand, main gate in the west to Fort St Elmo (now the Police Academy) at the city's eastern point. It was at the eastern end that we found the war museum, which wonderfully captures and preserves the hell that was Malta's lot during WWII as well as the amazing spirit and bravery.

Malta's important strategic position and its proximity to the Axis powers' shipping lanes made it a prime target during World War II when it was besieged (not for the first time) and heavily bombed and shelled by the Germans who, like the Knights of St John, were determined to own this strategically vital place. But the Maltese people held out bravely, only occasionally relieved by the Malta Convoys of 1941 and 1942 bringing urgent supplies to a starving island. This was of special interest to me as my grandfather (Harry Courtnage) was on HMS Manchester as part of the massive escort of Operation Pedestal's 14 merchant ships.

HMS Manchester was a Town Class Light Cruiser. On 13^th August 1942 she was attacked and torpedoed by two Italian Motoscafo Armato Silurante (Torpedo Armed Motorboat or 'MAS') off the coast of Tunisia and very badly damaged. Her captain, Captain Harold Drew, decided to scuttle HMS Manchester to prevent her radar and other equipment falling into enemy hands. While many of the crew were rescued by allied ships, many more, including my grandfather, were captured and imprisoned by the Vichy French in Tunisia - they were not well treated, but fortunately liberated by the Americans after some six months. As an aside, the wreck of HMS Manchester was found in 2002 and dived by a team of 10 British divers in November 2009 - she lies in 85 metres of water.

King George VI awarded Malta the George Cross on 15^th April 1942. The image of the George Cross appears in the upper hoist corner of the Maltese Flag. This is not the same as the Maltese or Amalfi cross, which was the symbol of the Knights of Malta. The Maltese Cross is a national symbol.

We could easily have spent two or three days exploring Valletta, but we needed to move on - so much to do, so little time!

Day 10: Sunday 10 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Marsascala

And so for a trip down memory lane for Carol. Some 35 years earlier, Carol had come to Malta on a family holiday. They had taken a villa on the south side of the bay in a place called Marsascala, a fishing village in the southeast of the island, just south of Valletta. We decided to drive ourselves there and this brings me to another point. There is something you need to know about driving in Malta; one or two things, actually. First be very relaxed about how people drive. We did see a couple of people out and about in driving school cars, but we couldn't easily surmise what they might be being taught or what the driving test might entail. Which side of the road do they drive on in Malta? The shady side.

Next, whilst there are some decent ('arterial') roads, don't expect to know how to get onto or off them just by looking at the road signs. You need a good map and careful concentration (not to mention a fair wind a good luck) to avoid getting sucked into the centre of many small villages or finding yourself on a minor road, many of which are 4x4 territory and not for the faint hearted. I have no sat nav, but I do have a Carol, who is an excellent navigator, but we still found a few challenges on the Maltese roads.

And that brings me to my third point about using their roads: don't get onto the minor roads in a little car. The potholes, ruts and bumps will try to break your suspension, the hills will probably exceed your engine's capabilities and there's every chance that you'll simply run out of road. But it is an adventure.

With all the above in mind and the random removal of some roads that were clearly there on the map, it took us a fair part of the morning to arrive in Marsascala. The best place I could find to park was a pedestrian crossing, so we abandoned our vehicle and went in search of refreshment.

Marsascala was no longer the quaint little fishing village of Carol's younger days, it was overgrown with holiday apartments and scruffy bars. Unlike other places we had seen in Malta, it looked like the 'new' building had started much earlier, probably about 30 years ago, so the buildings that had sprung up since Carol's previous visit were now looking sad. No one had bothered to get a paintbrush out for the last three decades so the whole place had taken on the appearance of a run-down seaside resort. Why they felt the need to knock down the old, pleasant, stone houses to make way for breeze blocks shedding flaky, faded paint, I cannot say. It's such a shame.

We think we found the villa that Carol as a youngster and her family had inhabited and we found the spot where she had bravely launched herself on a cross-harbour swim. The only other landmarks that were still there were the church and tower, an old fort (these are everywhere in Malta) and the salt pans where men evaporate seawater to make sea salt, well, sea salt mixed with other contents of the Med along with a quantity of donkey droppings and insects. Seriously, Carol has seen it done!

I can't say that we were that impressed with Marsascala. Returning to Mellieha, we discovered that we much preferred the north of the island. It seems less spoilt and more rural. It has a better feel.

Day 11: Monday 11 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Tourists

We wanted a day at the beach so we decided to catch one of the new Arriva buses down to Mellieha Beach.

Now, the buses had been running for just over a week, good time to sort out the early problems of the new service. But they hadn't really. In fact, things had gone from bad to worse. A lot of drivers had left, gone on strike or been sacked and the number of buses running did not seem to be up to the job. Buses passed packed bus stops without stopping because they were almost full and drivers feared they would be unable to stop a surge of angry travellers forcing their way onto the bus - we saw this once or trice. Other buses passed by empty, apparently on their way to the start of their route. They could easily have helped clear some of the backlog on their way. People became increasingly frustrated and Arriva's reputation sank ever lower. At least they had fixed their ticket machines so they could take people's money.

We had our day at the beach and, after that, joined a long queue for a bus home. It didn't look good. After four buses passed without stopping followed by a 40 minute gap with no bus at all we decided to leave the baking sun behind and find our favourite beach bar, have a cold glass of wine whilst waiting for a taxi. Our driver took us right to our door in comfort for only a little more than Arriva would have charged us for an interminable wait and a jerky stand on one of their buses.

But now, every little village on the island had its own bus service to the airport. Not that anyone in the little villages ever want to go to the airport. Still, the buses on those routes run very efficiently, exactly on the timetable with no passengers at all, which is why those routes run so smoothly.

On the rest of the routes, the locals, the tourists and the drivers were all unhappy with the new service. On day one, some 60 drivers simply didn't show up for work. Arriva had to get more drivers from the UK. Things weren't going well.

We dined at what must be Malta's top restaurant, The Arches, run by Anthony Pace. If you come to Malta, you must dine here at least once. It is more expensive than the average, but everything about it is excellent.

Day 12: Tuesday 12 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Diving with Paradise Dive Club

Back to diving and filming today and I have to say that we were much more impressed with Paradise Diving than we had been before. What's more is that the dive sites improved dramatically. In the morning we dived the wreck of the Patrol Boat P29 and in the afternoon we went across the channel to eastern Comino to the Comino Caves.

The 51 metre P29 was originally built for the East German Navy as a Kondor class Minesweeper and later transferred to the Maltese Armed Forces as a Fast Patrol Boat. She was scuttled for diving on 14^th August 2007 and sits upright in around 35 metres of water, the top of her mast is at about 12 metres. The P29 was the sister ship to the P31, also later sunk for diving nearby.

The P29 is a straightforward dive. She has a single rudder and a flat deck at the stern, part of which is cut away to give easy access to the empty engine room. Forward of this is the funnel and then the superstructure and bridge, which is very open. The forward deck is also flat.

This is a good dive and you should really take your time to make the most of exploring the wreck carefully. The P29 is just beginning to get a good covering of flora and is home to many fish.

Malta has a reputation as a destination for cave diving and, whilst it is true to say that it has quite a number of overhead environments, most of these are little more than swim-throughs or, at best, caverns (in that you can always see an entrance and daylight, unlike true cave diving). That said, Comino Caves (or Santa Marija Caves) make a very interesting and beautiful dive, generally between 6 and 12 metres. There are a number of swim-throughs and lots of saddleback bream that are very happy to swim with divers.

Inside the caves, there is very little sediment (the bottom is mainly rock) and there is not much in the way of life either. But these caves have a beauty all of their own. The longest of the caves has a hole to the surface half way through, illuminating that section from above casting dancing rays through the darkened waters. After this the cave descends through a narrow gap to a 'moon pool' lit from below with vibrant blue light. These are visually stunning in the afternoon. A torch is useful, but not essential; I found it really good to have lights off and let my eyes adjust to the dim blue to enjoy nature's atmospheric mood lighting. You need to watch our exped video diary to get the idea.

Day 13: Wednesday 13 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Final Day with Paradise Diving

Since we arrived in Malta the temperature has risen steadily. Now we were seeing 38°C in the morning and the sun was baking hot. Even the locals were complaining about the heat. Today was our last day of diving on this exped and we were very keen to finish off our filming on the harbour tugboat MV Rozi, which we dived last week. We arranged to dive with our Italian friend Giuseppe Capparella and our buddy from Denmark, Per Andersen (below-left), who had just come back with his girlfriend Annette from a weekend of diving and playing music at home. He is a great musician, as you will hear from his website www.perandersen.com - for non-Danish speakers, the music is on the page called 'Lydclip'.

Our dive on the MV Rozi was great. The light and water conditions were wonderful, perfect for filming. We did the wreck in the opposite direction this time (bow to stern), which gave us the opportunity to cover the areas we couldn't do thoroughly last time. The MV Rozi was a good way to finish our diving here.

We invited Giuseppe and his wife Marina, Per and Annette to join us for supper, so we all decamped to the Arches in Mellieha, which was as wonderful as ever. Unbeknown to us, Giuseppe very generously and naughtily paid the bill. Such good friends. Meanwhile Per expressed his concerns about some of Paradise Diving's practices.

All that aside, we had a good day with great friends, excellent food and loads of delicious Maltese wine. We crawled into bed in the wee small hours and slept well. Incidentally, according to the internet, Per Andersen er en meget rutineret musiker og entertainer, der de sidste 10 år har spillet på store og små spille- og dansesteder i det meste af landet som solist, og i forskellige konstellationer.

Per Andersen and Carol Courtnage

Carol Courtnage and Per Andersen diving on the Wreck of the Tugboat MV Rozi , Cirkewwa, Malta

Day 14: Thursday 14 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Tourism and Packing Up.

For our final day, we had a couple of things we wanted to do as well as washing all our dive gear; that was job one so that it would all dry for packing up later on.

We wandered up to the big church in Mellieha, standing atop impressive cliffs as do so many churches and fortifications in Malta. It commands a fantastic view to the north and east, overlooking the north of the island, Comino and across to Gozo. After exploring the cloisters, we found a small, local café with an equally impressive view, where we stopped for lunch. We pondered what it must have been like for soldiers stationed at one of the numerous, remote forts we could see from our perch, back in the days of the Knights of St John. What did they do for food and water? What did they do when they spotted unfriendly ships heading their way? How quickly could support be deployed when needed? What if somebody was ill? What did they do to pass the time on a rocky, dry, scrubby island when they weren't besieged of fighting?

Walking back from the magnificent church and our little café, we came across two older gents who were rebuilding a 500 year old house that was carved out of the sandstone cliff. They invited us to view their work, which was wonderful. The basic shapes of the rooms were hewn out of the bedrock and extra walls, vaulting and stairs constructed from massive, beautifully cut stone blocks. At the rear was a further recess, carved into the cool rock, that had been the family air raid shelter for one of the gents during his childhood.

A narrow, steep, spiral staircase led us up to bedrooms above the main living area and small windows cut out of the rock lit it dimly. It was wonderfully cool inside and we fell in love with it immediately.

The old boy described that his wife, parents and brother had all died here and told us, without sadness, that he intended to do the same. 'Not soon', we wished to him. They had been as thrilled to show us their place as we had been to see it. It was a real work of art and a labour of love.

Then it was onward for the highlight of the day, something we very much wanted to try out. Getting down to Mellieha Beach involved the now usual lengthy wait for a bus that would stop for us - the service wasn't getting any better. We arrived at our favourite beach bar and enjoyed a glass of wine, while Courtney went off to rent us a jet ski for the afternoon. This was a frivolous indulgence, but enormous fun.

We didn't even bother trying to catch a bus home and went straight for the taxi option. We wined and dined for the last time on this trip at Il-Mithna and said our goodbyes to Sandro and his crew. We wandered home to our apartment for the last time with a small sadness in our hearts, having made many good friends and warmed greatly to the islands of Malta. It is very Mediterranean, but the huge mix of cultures that its history has bestowed upon it makes it quite unlike anywhere else. We like it. We like it very much and shall miss it greatly.

Day 15: Friday 15 July 2011 - Expedition Ocean Vision 5

Return to UK.

We made ourselves a simple lunch of local produce: wine, cheese, bread, ham and tomatoes. We left for the airport at about 2:15 and took the little country back lanes as far as possible in order to take in as much of the rural landscape as we could; our last taste of Malta - for now.

There are a lot of small farms to be seen all over the island if one gets off the beaten track; it really is very deceptive from a distance. Malta grows a lot more fresh produce than many people think.

Malta International Airport is very good. Signs on its entrance doors boast that it was voted European Airport of the Year in 2010. And I can believe it. Despite a considerable volume of traffic and the handling of some 3.3 million passengers each year, there is very little in the way of queues for check-in, security or the departure gates. Again, everything to do with travel is done without too much unnecessary fuss or bother or inconvenience to the traveller - you know, the mug that's paying for a service and ends up being treated like cattle or 'self-loading cargo' as we have been described by certain members of the business. But not so much here. The whole place is new and bright and clean and the people are nice. The toilets are clean. They even have a Hard Rock Bar - so we stopped for a glass of wine.

Air Malta charged us £50-something for a seat on one of their eleven aircraft (5 Airbus 319s and 6 Airbus 320s). Let me digress for just a moment. With just 11 airframes, they fly something like 150 flights per week and manage to cover 35 airports in Europe, The Middle East and northern Africa. That's pretty efficient. Anyway, for the price we expected a seat (each) and not much else. But, no! A good little in-flight meal and a drinks service (with a smile and at very reasonable prices). There was even tea and coffee, if you like that sort of thing when you're travelling. Personally, we preferred a glass of their Pjazza Regina Maltese white wine. There is the occasional video screen to be seen, but I couldn't tell you what's on them. At slightly under three hours flight time to London, all one really needs is an MP3 player (my choice) or an Amazon Kindle (Carol's) or, if you remember paper, a book.

We met a lot of people in Malta that claimed to use EasyJet or RyanAir to save money, but we could see neither why you would want to make your journey with such grim organizations nor, really, how they are cheaper - especially once you pay for some baggage and some food. If you ask me, book early and fly Air Malta every time.

Briefly, think that some airlines threaten all manner of bullish sanctions against drunken yobs on their flights. Quite rightly. But then consider Air Malta's somewhat gentler approach:

SAFETY.

Excessive consumption of alcohol is prohibited to the extent that the bar service may be refused, thus ensuring safety and comfort to other passengers on board."

Elsewhere they do say that under international regulations Air Malta is not permitted to carry drunken passengers. But their in-flight magazine, SkyLife, goes on to reassure us that,

Once you are reading this article, Air Malta's Flight Safety Committee is confident that you are a law abiding citizen and exemplary passenger. Indeed, the cabin crew may need your assistance to restrain another passenger in the unlikely event that he or she may act irresponsibly during the flight.

I for one, would like to thank the Air Malta Flight Safety Committee for their confidence in me and would like to enquire if they would like to offer me a job. They sound like just the sort of people I would like to work for.

I also rather like the sound of Malta's Home Affairs Minister, Carmelo Mifsed Bonnici, for his clarity and, frankly, balls. It appears that a Spanish warship, Almirante Juan de Borbόn, had rescued 111 Libyan 'migrants' that it picked up seventy odd miles off the coast of Tunisia. International law states that people rescued at sea should be taken to the nearest, safe port of call. Despite this and without consultation, NATO announced that they would be taken to Malta. Mr Bonnici say no, on the grounds that there are plenty of countries closer to the rescue site and that it wasn't for NATO to decide who would be granted access to the Republic of Malta. I was born and raised in an international society, I do a lot of work that involves recruiting PhD students from all over the world and I have friends from lots of different countries. But I still wonder why we can't dream up an immigration policy for Britain as simple as that.

Anyway, Air Malta, Flight KM102, departed Luqa 16:55, arrived LHR Terminal 4 19:25.

We were totally unconvinced by our taxi company on our return ride home and will certainly not be using them again. The driver was late and I had to call the company from the airport. We had to wait while the driver refuelled the car, he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, spent the entire drive home on the phone to his girlfriend and, largely because of that, he completely missed the fact that there was an accident blocking the M40 - hence a long delay getting home. And they call themselves Sky Executive Cars; there was nothing executive about that!

In all other respects we had a really good journey home.

Summary and Conclusions

Our exped to Malta involved a simple plan and our filming and photographic requirements were modest and easily met. We were also keen to find out more about diving in Malta as well as familiarizing ourselves with the Republic of Malta, its people and culture.

It is widely known that diving in the Mediterranean is not in the same league as many of the seas we have dived, but we are sure that Malta has some of the best that the Med has to offer. It has gained a reputation for wreck and cave diving, but it is probably fair to say that this is slightly overstated in the sense that the wrecks are generally small and many scuttled deliberately for diving and the caves are mainly swim-throughs or caverns rather than the more technical penetrations that we would expect from actual caves where one does not have constant access to or sight of an exit. Once we have drawn this distinction, the area offers a lot of interesting sites in these classes and most are suitable for less advanced divers, without redundant equipment.

Our exploration of Malta was a great success from a personal perspective and we found that Malta is unique in the region, distinct from any of its neighbours, but embracing many of their cultures. It is a small nation, steeped in history and the locals are generally friendly and welcoming, if not a little reserved at times. We warmed greatly to the islands and their people and this, combined with its easy access from Europe, makes it a very worthwhile holiday destination for those that are not necessarily looking for the more traditional beach and nightlife holiday. There is plenty of great food and the local wine ranges from good to excellent.

Whilst we only dived with one dive centre, we did contact, visit and investigate others in the north of Malta, and regarded the considered opinion of a fellow PADI professional who was diving with us at times. Generally, the dive operations here are small scale and well-suited to divers that are happy to be led around various, local dive sites with minimal responsibility, involvement or choice. We found some concerns about safety procedures and customer care, but it appears that Malta has a good overall safety record. Its advantage is that European divers can easily come south to warmer, sometimes clearer, waters for a few days' diving with relative ease. But if you're looking for bright colours, abundant sealife, access to more exciting sites and high standards of professionalism and customer care, I'm afraid you'll have to travel further afield to places such as Egypt, Thailand or Australia. Paradise Diving is fine, but it doesn't really suit our style of diving and I don't think they could cater for people that were there for a reason other than simple, instructor-led diving. We believe they would probably be a good outfit with which to learn to dive.

Overall our expedition to Malta was successful; we returned with the video footage we required and the experience we wanted.

EXPEDITION OCEAN VISION 5 VIDEO DIARY

Click the button for our video diary
from Expedition Ocean Vision 5
to the Malta in 2011.

Paul Courtnage - Project Ocean Vision, Malta 2011

Paul Courtnage (Courtney) - Project Ocean Vision. Photo by Carol Courtnage

GATCOMBE PARK - FESTIVAL OF BRITISH EVENTING 2011

Carol and I received complimentary tickets and passes to the members enclosure at this year's Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park and, so, decided to make a weekend of it. This is very much Carol's territory having organized the Bramham International Horse Trials for many years.

The Festival of British Eventing is held at HRH Princess Anne's home, Gatcombe Park. As well as the amazing cross country, show jumping and dressage, we enjoyed watching the Duke of Beaufort's hounds, falconry and the retirement ceremony for Zara Phillips' horse, Toytown - not a dry eye in the house!

What an excellent weekend it was too - and a great photo opportunity. Here are just a few memorable moments, with some more pictures in the end-of-chapter slideshow.

Riots in the UK                                                                                  

Actually, not riots. The word 'riot' tends to conjure up an image of people out on the streets being violent for some sort of political reason - like overthrowing the government of an Arab nation, for example. The cause need not justify the violence morally, ethnically or for any other reason, but in my head, rightly or wrongly, a riot does have some sort of grievance as its motivation. These riots were plainly and simply packs of (mainly) young thugs out for a good time and to steal anything they could.

On 4^th August 2011, whilst trying to arrest him, police shot dead 29 year old Mark Duggan. Two days later there was a peaceful protest about this in the Tottenham area of London. Groups of 'young people' used this protest as an opportunity to take to the streets, smashing the place up, looting and destroying businesses, burning cars and homes and killing 5 people. Over the next four days, these 'riots' quickly spread to cities all over England. In short this was criminal opportunism and the 'feral rats' that perpetrated these crimes were just out to get 'free stuff'. They were seen running out of shops carrying clothes, shoes, electronics, anything they could grab basically. These were not politically or socially motivated protests, the majority of victims were respectable, hardworking people and the buildings that were targeted were shops, not symbols of authority.

Filmed by BBC news crews, some of them stated that nothing would happen to them because the prisons were full, they would only get a caution for a first offense and the worst that would happen would be an ASBO and "I can live with that." Oh, how wrong! By mid-August over 3000 of them had been rounded up and courts worked through the nights to sentence them to significant prison terms. Councils even started to look at evicting those involved from their council houses.

Of course, it wasn't long before human rights groups started bleating about unfair sentencing, but I have to go with public opinion on this one, the little bastards deserved everything they got - maybe more. Why are human rights groups always more concerned with the rights of criminals than those of victims? Personally, I think these yobs gave up their human rights the moment they decided to ignore everyone else's. It was repeatedly remarked that they don't know right from wrong. No, worse. They knew right from wrong, they just don't care and thought they could get away with it. Throw away the keys and make them and their families pay back everything they stole or destroyed.

GEORGIE SEAGRAVE AND GEORGE GRANT MARRY

Carol and I always try to do something a little bit special for your anniversary and this year we decided to take a few days to go back to the scene of the great event, three years ago. Three years! Where have the days gone? Anyway, apart from being spoilt rotten in our favourite hotel there, The Barnsdale Lodge, the weather was very kind to us and allowed us to get out exploring - some old haunts and some new ones.

Arriving at lunchtime gave us the opportunity to wander down to Rutland Water and see what was around - not our favourite ospreys, of course, as they all moved off to Senegal in September. What was around was a great buzz because a white rumped sandpiper had been spotted in the area. Whilst we didn't immediately appreciate the full import of this fact, hundreds of twitchers certainly did and had rushed to our lake to scan the skies longingly through their very smart telescopes in the hope of catching a glimpse of this rarity. We didn't notice anyone actually seeing it - I'm sure we would have known.

Notable places to consider visiting if you're ever in the area. Cavells outdoor clothing (really nice stuff to keep you warm), The White Horse at Empingham, The Finches at Hambleton, Hambleton Hall (if you have a couple of hundred pounds to spare), The Rutland Falconry Centre and The Rutland County Museum (in Oakham).

Plenty of pictures and video to come...

Time now for one last visit to Libya. It's 20^th October 2011 and the uprising against the Gaddafi regime has been dragging on for around 8 months, Libyan rebels struggling hard to take the towns and villages held by Gaddafi's troops. Gaddafi hasn't been seen for weeks, not since the rebels took Tripoli, he's thought to have been hiding out in his home town of Sirte, which is where the fighting has focussed recently. Then a NATO airstrike hit a convoy and soon afterwards Gaddafi himself was found cowering in a storm drain. He was shot in both legs and taken away in an ambulance. A short while later, it was announced that he was dead, having caught a bullet with his head whilst the ambulance was being driven through crossfire. Oh, really? If I were a cynical old git I would have been tempted to say that someone shot him on his way to hospital - after all, they really didn't like this bloke. A few people around the world called for an investigation into the circumstances of his death. Come to think of it, if he was found hiding in a drainage tunnel, he was cornered and not going anywhere. He certainly wasn't running away. So why did they need to shoot him in both legs? Just for fun?

Some of the mobile phone videos that came out on news channels that night were pretty gruesome. It was hard to tell if he was alive or dead at the time, but it certainly looked like he, or what was left of him, had received bloody harsh treatment. Many declared that he deserved nothing better than a frightening, unpleasant end, but was it justice?

Anyway, he's gone now and Libya rejoiced. The U.S. Secretary of State said, "Wow!" Few mourned the departure of an evil man that was responsible for the death and torture of thousands of people that did nothing more wrong than disagree with his rule. So let's see what happens to Libya next. Democracy?

Remembrance Sunday and the F4 TDPU

After four long years of the Great War, the Armistice was signed at 5 a.m. in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, France on 11^th November 1918. The guns of Europe fell silent six hours later on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.

At the suggestion of Australian journalist, Edward George Honey, on 7 November 1919 King George V issued a proclamation calling for a two minute silence to remember those who had given their lives in the First World War:

"All locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead."

After the end of the Second World War in 1945 Armistice Day became Remembrance Day to include all those who had fallen in the two World Wars and other conflicts.

Roughly around this time every year, former F4 aircrew, engineers and one or two others, gather together at a secret location in London to remember their happy days as Cold War warriors flying the mighty 'Toom'. This is known at the F4 TDPU and attracts nearly 200 people.

The term TDPU was coined by Nig Randall during his days at RAF Wildenrath in Germany (Cold War days). NATO HQ had decided that it was no longer proper for communications (signals) to be sent out via official channels inviting fellow aviators from other NATO bases to 'beer calls'. Beer calls were what kept aircrew from other nations working together for God's sake! How else do you think NATO survived? "Officially", TDPU stands for Tactical Discussion and Procedure Update and is a NATO exercise to discuss tactics, experiences and opinions on a certain subject. The aim supposedly being to standardize procedures and create an improved coorporative attitude between NATO squadrons.

Anyway, being creative people, the aircrew (Nig, in this case) found a way around it by inventing the phrase 'Tactical Discussion and Procedures Update', TDPU. For those in know, this actually stood for 'Thinly Disguised Piss Up'. So our allies were invited to TDPUs, which squadron bosses of many nations nations were happy to send their fine aircrew along to and even lent them incredibly expensive military aircraft in which to fly themselves there and back. NATO HQ, no doubt, were delighted that the beer calls had obviously ceased and that their bored (due to the lack of beer calls) aircrew were now filling their time with mature meetings of a more tactical and serious nature. The nature of the tactical discussions will have to be left to your imaginations - highly classified, you understand.

As I've mentioned aeroplanes (again) I wanted to give you a link to some of the best low flying pictures and stories on the internet. Have a look at:

Lower than a Snake's Belly in a Wagon Rut

Prague

Before the rush of the Christmas season, Carol and I decided to visit Prague, famous capital of the Czech Republic. And so, on 9^th December, we set of for London Heathrow's less famous Quality Airport Parking, abandoned our car and were soon ensconced in a small bar in Terminal Three enjoying our traditional travelling breakfast of a large glass of wine. We had already been terribly pleased with the ease and convenience of checking-in on line and even a trouble free (well, relatively) passage through airport security. Duty free and the Mac shop supplied our needs and American Express Services sold us a large number of Czech crowns. So we were all set to go, hence relaxing comfortably with our Pinot Grigio.

It did occur to me just to check which gate we might have to go to, so nipped out of said bar to check the departures board. Next to BA856 in large, unfriendly, red letters were the words 'FLIGHT CLOSING'. I advised Carol to consider finishing her glass without undue delay and then we sprinted to the gate.

No waiting around for us today, but rather straight onto a very smart A320, stow our bag and settle in for the usual pre-flight entertainment or 'safety briefing' as airlines prefer. We were off to Praha - flight time 1½ hours.

We were met at Praha Ruzyne Terminal 1 by our personal driver and taken straight to the city centre and our our lovely hotel, Club Betlem on Betlemska just southeast of the Charles Bridge (Karlov Most). Central Prague (Praha 1) is very compact and it's easy to walk around it. I've stuck in a map below:

We had booked one of their very quaint attic rooms because we didn't want an ordinary hotel room - as you may have realized by now, we like things a little quirky. And it was a really good plan; our room with its sloping ceiling, stout oak beams and tiny dormer window, was enchanting and wonderfully cozy.

It was already cocktail hour by the time we arrived so we did some minimal sorting of your kit and set forth find a suitable Czech hostelry. We didn't have to look far. Next door to Club Betlem we found a small art gallery, which we ignored on the grounds that it sold neither wine nor food, and next to that we fell into U Plebana. This met all of our requirements perfectly and the lovely, friendly people there were happy to supply us with Czech wine, wonderful, sizzling food and a spicy local liquor called Becherovka, a herbal bitters flavoured with anise seed, cinnamon, and herbs. It seems that becoming over-enthusiastic about Becherovka can make your head hurt.

After three of them, which later experimentation revealed to be one too many, we retired to our big, very comfortable bed after a very easy and stress-free journey. We were very happy and slept very well for a long time. Until it was time for breakfast in fact. Refreshed, we set out to find our bearings and begin our exploration of the wonderful city of Praha. The weather was fine and although the temperature was only just above freezing it was very comfortable; nothing like the nasty, damp, windy winter's days we have to suffer in the UK.

We make our way up to the Old Town Square, which seemed to us to be the centre of town. We needed a spot to sit and watch the world go by and carefully selected a restaurant called Staroceska. It has tables and chairs (as one would expect) on the pavement, covered from the elements and with (not very eco-friendly) patio heaters and rugs. This place became our base in town and one of our regular haunts.

We took an immediate liking to Prague. It is beautiful and friendly, has a peaceful, comfortable atmosphere and every corner reveals something different. The buildings are grand and beautifully decorated and no two are alike. Well, not here, at least.

Central Prague

The Old Town Square is dominated by the Town Hall with its famous astronomical clock (Prague Orloj) and its magnificent tower. The clock is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world, installed in 1410. It's hard to see what it does in real time, so here is a rather natty computer model of it showing it speeded up many times. Click here for the Prague Orloj computer model. In Prague you have to keep looking up because there is so much to see above your natural eye line: spires, copper or gilded roofs, statues, murals, decorations, leaded windows and so much more. It's easy to miss the things going on over your head. We found a wonderful wooden Sigmund Freud, hanging by one hand (the other in his trouser pocket) from an old oak beam high above a narrow street. People walk past it every day without knowing it's there.

So, with that in mind, we decided to ascend the Old Town Hall tower (Staroměstská radnice, completed in 1364) next, to gain a stunning view of Prague from above. It is a long climb, nearly 70 meters high, but worth every step. A viewing balcony surrounds the tower rewarding every climber a magnificent view of the architecture of the whole city, but especially gives the best view of the beautiful Gothic Church of Our Lady before Tyn just to the East. I thought the balcony rather needs a one-way system as it's very crowded up there, especially at weekends.

In the hour, the clocks chime and a troop of apostles appear above the clock. Then a medieval trumpeter plays from the top of the tower, once in each direction. The crowds love it.

Central Prague (Praha 1), as I said, is compact. A five minute walk East from the Old Town Square brings one to the Gothic Powder Tower, known as the Mountain Tower when it was built in 1475, it gained its new name after the 17^th Century when it was used to store gunpowder. All these landmarks, by the way, are clearly marked on the free city maps available all over town.

South of the Powder Tower by another few minutes is Wenceslas Square (Vaclavske namesti, actually a boulevard), the Bond Street of Prague and site of Vaclav Havel's freedom address to some half a million people in the Velvet Revolution that marked the end of the communist era in Czechoslovakia.

Here's a thing. An irrelevant series of events required us to try to find a means of charging Carol's Kindle - electronic book thing. So we found a shop called DATART, resembling to the untrained eye a kind of Dixons store. Now you go into Dixons in any UK high street and ask for something that doesn't immediately leap out you like a large television set, a particular compact camera or an HP laptop. See what happens. Now wonder what would happen if you asked for a charger for a device not even sold in the Czech Republic and that the guy in the shop had never seen. Any hope? If you're the bloke in Dixons, you shrug your shoulders helpfully and give me a blank, clueless stare. If you're the Czech bloke in DATART you ask a few intelligent questions and announce that 'this should be easy'. You would then suggest that the very best idea would be to bring the Kindle in so that you can check to make sure it will be OK.

Happy and a little surprised, we returned to the store 15 minutes later with Carol's precious Kindle, which was lovingly connected up and shown to be charging correctly by a £10 unit and adaptor. So it was just like Dixons really. Oh and this bloke was friendly and cheerful too!

Where Prague really comes to life is after dark in the Christmas markets and they have the best Christmas tree, lights and decorations ever. The best place for this is back in the Old Town Square and some people come to Prague just for this sight. Magical! Christmas carols, mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, massive roasting hams, works of art, sweets, nuts, wonderful sweet bread.

Courtney in Prague

During our five days in Prague, we wanted to get a flavour of as many aspects of the place as possible and, obviously, the amazing culture and architecture was to be a major part of that. Everyone has to go across the Vltava (or Moldau) on the Charles Bridge (Karlův most). It crosses the river on 16 massive piers, each protected by a wooden ice guard. The bridge is guarded by three magnificent towers and lined with 30 statues, numerous musicians, actors and craft stalls. Approaching the western end, watch for a well worn statue where everyone touches him and makes a wish.

One reason for crossing the Charles Bridge, apart from just enjoying it, is to reach Prague Castle (Pražský hrad), the biggest castle in the world. It used to be home to the Bohemian Kings and the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Today it is the seat of the President of the Czech Republic and it offers the most amazing views across the city.

Charles Bridge and Prague Castle

The time to visit this diverse masterpiece of architecture is Sunday at noon. Arrive early to get a place to watch the changing of the guard. Allow plenty of time here to look at the four churches, especially St Vitus Cathedral (he that brought us the famous dance), which is the building that stands in Gothic splendour above the castle in the picture above; all spires upon spires and flying buttresses.

If you find yourself hungry while you're at the castle, you could do worse than visit the Lion Yard Restaurant just over the footbridge to the North of the Castle. It's name comes from the fact that it is on the site of the Prague Zoo in the 16^th Century and the lions and tigers were kept on the site. Today it is one of the best restaurants in town. Their suckling pig comes from a 16^th Century recipe and is just fantastic. Highly recommended for unenthusiastic vegetarians.

Carol in the Lion's Yard, near Prague Castle

Beyond the cathedral we found old houses and royal residences that can be viewed for a small price. On the way back down the hill is the oldest vineyard in the Czech Republic; not what you'd expect to find in a city, but this is Prague. Back from the Castle to the centre of Prague gave us the excuse to ride the Prague Metro. Their small, but pleasant underground railway comprises just three lines, imaginatively named A, B and C. We bought our ticket at a ticket office from an unenthusiastic official and were surprised that we appeared to be the only people there that did so. As there didn't appear to be any ticket barriers or ticket inspectors it would be easy to imagine that some people might not bother with such formalities.

Another great eating place is called Stolleti in Karoliny Světlé - it gets a good rating on Trip Advisor and we enjoyed it greatly. I would just mention that their food is excellent and that they do everything with a 'twist'. Every dish is something the discerning diner will recognize, but each has that little something extra. So, you might find that sliced bananas have been added to you streak with pepper sauce or you might find strawberries atop your spag bol. Odd, but really good!

A couple of things that feature large in Czech cooking are dumplings that seriously stick to your ribs and fill you up and goulash; goulash is really Hungarian in origin, but the Czechs have made it their own. You might also be prepared to enjoy a lot of garlic with your food. Lovely and it keeps the vampires away.

Czech Army Guard at Prague Castle

As with any great tourist location, there is a great range of tours, museums and other attractions that the visitor can choose to visit. We opted for a rather different museum on this trip as we found one, quite by chance, at Melantrichova 18, just off the Old Town Square. This was, I am not kidding, the Sex Machines Museum. No, really! It occupies an entire three storey house and includes objects from previous centuries all the way up to the present day. Their cinema shows silent, black and white porn movies from the 1920s. It is a display of over 200 mechanical erotic appliances, a gallery of art with erotic themes and a small collection of erotic clothing. Most of it is absolutely fascinating, some of it highly ingenious. Some of the machines have to make you ask 'why?' or even 'how?' and some of the more recent stuff does get a little brutal. Still, as long as you don't take it all too seriously, it's worth a peek, just for curiosity.

There is, as I'm sure many will know, a very dark period in the recent history of the Czech Republic; the communist era and the Soviet occupation. We discovered that we were a bit hazy on this period and decided that we really should know more. So we signed up for a tour called The Communism and Nuclear Bunker Tour. Doesn't sound very jolly, does it? Well, I guess it isn't, but it would be wrong to think that Prague has always been the bright, pretty, peaceful place that it is today.

The tour is divided into two parts. On the Prague Communist Tour we visited key places in the city where some of the most dramatic events of the 20^th Century were described to us. The story started back in 1918 with the establishment of the independent state of Czechoslovakia, its dreams and ideals smashed just 21 years later with the arrival of the Nazis. We learnt about the arrival of the communist tanks in 1948 and how the communists violently took hold of the country and nationalized all personal property. The Czechoslovaks, by the way, had voted them in, but would soon regret it. By 1950 huge numbers of political executions were taking place and the communists started to look somewhat less appealing.

When Russia realized that Czechoslovakia was moving away from communism they invaded in 1968. We learnt a little of what life was like during this era, the paranoia, the StB (Státní bezpečnost - plain-clothed, secret police), arrests, torture and murders. This part of the tour ended with the fall of communism in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the conversion from Czech Stalinism to capitalism. We found ourselves in Wenceslas Square where Vaclav Havel addressed the nation. He was the last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). Sadly he died just as we were leaving Prague.

The second part of the tour involved catching one of Prague's magnificent trams out to an eastern residential district. Here, the look and feel of Prague changed greatly as the wonderful mix of baroque architecture and colourful murals was replaced by the uniform grey of Soviet era concrete apartments. Every block the same as the next. Across a road we found a large concrete area, clearly a favourite haunt of skate-boarders and graffiti artists. In one corner a massive steel door led to a spiral staircase that took us four floors down, deep into the rock below the city. At the bottom, more doors gave us entry to a maze of tunnels and chambers. It was a bleak and forbidding place.

One of the Prague Nuclear Bunkers

This bunker is one of many built during the Cold War to defend against nuclear attack by the West. This one was designed to take 2,500 people and included decontamination areas, medical facilities, air filtration and a massive collection of Soviet and Eastern bloc respirators, weapons and uniforms. By all accounts, it was not a place for people to come to for months after a nuclear strike. Families could expect to be here for seven days before being transported to safe areas where the radiation levels were safe. As if such a place would exist! But as long as the people believed that the Communist leadership were ensuring their safety, all was fine.

Courtney with a Czech VZ-58 in the Nuclear Bunker

Another excellent way to see the city is to hire a carriage, drawn by two gorgeous coach-horses. We It's a lovely way to spend half an hour or so and affords wonderful views of the town. The only thing is that a horse-drawn carriage on cobblestones is not the best platform for photographic or video work.

Our horses, Lightning and Tornado (which is relevant)

Just across the river on Letna hill to the north of the city stands a massive, 25 metre metronome, created by Czech artist Vratislav Novák in 1991. Even more interesting is that it was built on the spot where, until it's destruction in October 1962 by 800 kilograms of dynamite, there stood a gigantic statue of Stalin (see left), built in 1951 Otakar Švec - the biggest statue of him anywhere in the world. Stalin was not a nice man. Ashamed by his work, Otakar Švec killed himself.

Very briefly, a few facts about the Czech Republic (Česká republika) and Prague. This landlocked country covers 78,866 km² and is divided into three regions: Bohemia to the west, Moravia (wine country) to the southeast and Czech Silesia to the northeast. The Czech Republic has a population of approximately 10½ million and became a member of the European Union in 2004, signed the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 and ratified it in 2009 as the last EU member.

Prague, capital and largest city, is home to about 1.3 million people. The city was founded more than 1,100 years ago. Prague's Christmas markets are open from 26^th November until 1^st January and are usually open from 09:00 until 19:00 each day. Prague has a continental climate with four of seasons: Spring brings flowers and mild temperatures, Summer is warm and green with light showers, Autumn can be crisp, cool and sometimes cloudy and foggy and Winter can be very cold with occasional snow.

Crime rates in Prague are relatively low, although the advice is to avoid Wenceslas Square and the Main Station at night and be aware of pickpockets. Come to Prague for beer, excellent local wine, hearty food, architecture, festivals, theatres, museums, galleries, churches and concerts all year round.

So Prague is a wonderful place to visit. It's easy to get to, there are lots of places to stay, eat and drink. It is not expensive, the people are friendly and the place feels right. We love Prague. What a wonderful way to end the year - apart from Christmas with family, obviously.

Finn Henley Geraghty

On 15^th December 2011, my first grandson, Finn Henley Geraghty, arrived in a the world. Mum and Baby are both well, Mum and Dad looking so proud. Welcome, Finn Henley Geraghty.

     
Finn Henley Geraghty

So, what a year it was! In these 12 months, the world has changed so much. Cities are still recovering from earthquakes, a massive part of Japan is closed, the Arab world has been turned upside down and by the end of it Argentina started kicking up about the Falklands, Iran's military nuclear ambitions were under attack, the Euro and a number of "Euro zone" countries were teetering on the edge and the UK economy refused to grow. People got married, established careers and I became a grandfather! Blimey! That's terribly grown up.

2011 in pictures (slideshow under construction)