Setters or knockers?

It was our final night on Gozo, and after breakfast we made our way to the ferry terminal for the trip back to Malta.

An uneventful crossing saw us in Mellieha mid morning for a walk around the upper part of town that we missed last week (in the rush to get to Gozo before the storm hit), exploring the town square and Jensen's Lookout.

We headed out of town to Popeye Village, the set of the 1980 Popeye movie and had lunch in the cafe there.

To reach our hotel for the night in Għaxaq (pronounced ash-a) at the eastern end of the island, we had a long drive by Maltese standards (30km). It's fair to say we had our navigational challenges, with the satnav telling us to take exits at roundabouts that didn't exist... and vice versa 😵‍💫. After we parked the car and checked in we were happy to take a walk to find a few caches.

On our walk we came across a game of Boċċi, the Maltese form of bocce. Played on sand courts like bocce, teams use 3 coloured balls and 8 cylinders per side, to try and get their coloured balls closer to the jack (which is only marble sized). Where it differs is that players are designated as either setters (to get their coloured ball closest), or knockers (to throw the cylinders with the aim of knocking their opponents balls away).Read more