It is my sad duty to inform the world that after travelling 27,740km around the globe, the furry travel bug called “Robeart Actually” is officially missing in action. The bear began its journey in New South Wales on 26 February 2003 with the destination of Switzerland. It has since travelled to New Zealand, Queensland, Singapore, California, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

The highlight of the trip was being photographed outside Graceland, but this would be one of the last times we would hear from Robeart. He was picked up alongside a highway in Tennessee in July 2006 and has not been seen or heard from since. The map below shows the bear’s journey.

On a happier note, my other travel bug, “Horse with No Name”, continues its journey around the world.

It is currently in Denmark having traveled 22,973km.

Geocaching is a high-tech version of high and seek using a GPS. “Caches”, which could be anything from a film contained to a 40 litre drum are filled with goodies (mostly stuff from the $2 shop) and hidden around the world. The GPS co-ordinates of the location are posted on the internet and anyone with a GPS can try to find it. When you find the cache, you sign the log book, take an item, leave an item and register your find on the web site.

Bookcrossing is a pastime whereby books are left lying around anywhere (in pubs, on the bus etc) for people to pick them up and read them. In the book is a unique code number and instructions on how to register that you have found the book. The idea is that someone will read the book, note it on the web site and then leave the book somewhere else. Ideally, you should be able to track the book as it travels around your city or even the world.

Last weekend I set up a Bookcrossing Geocache. To find it, you need to search through the bush with a GPS, but instead of the usual $2-shop junk, the cache is full of books which people can take and release. As I write this, two books have already been released and I hope to be able to track them soon.

The local cafe has also gotten in on the act and has a bookshelf where you can release books.

We are sitting in the hotel’s breakfast room finishing off a bottle of vino blanco while an interview is being filmed next to us. I have no idea what it is about or who is being interviewed, but we haven’t been asked to move and are sitting only just out of shot.

Today was very quiet. We slept in late again and then went for a walk around town. We stopped at the Internet café where I discovered both the caches I had missed had been found in the last six days.

Sort of hiring a car there was no way to get back to the volcano, so we went back to the cache near the cemetery. Armed with new knowledge that it was a micro cache, we found it easily, but I had forgotten the travel bug. Although there was no way to fit a 10cm long plastic bull inside a micro cache, I left it under the boulder in which the cache was hidden. Having brought it half way around the world, I wasn’t going to take it back.

The rest of the day was spent eating lunch, not too much as our Pesos were running out and the islands only ATM only took MasterCard. It is only 45 minutes until our transfer to the airport arrives. It is 1815 and we will be travelling until 1500 tomorrow (0700 Sydney time). That is a lot of time in the air and not a lot of fun.

As I write these words in my diary, it is dawning on me that my holiday is almost over.

Today we have two half day tours with the two remaining Australians. There was a three hour break in the middle. We visited more huas and the ceremonial village of Orongo. It was just near here that I failed to find my second cache on Easter Island. Ground zero was an opening under a pile of rocks, but the cache was not to be found. The travel bug will now have to returned to Australia. Shame. So many near misses.During the 3 hour break we tried to change our flight to an earlier one, only to find that the flight we are on is the next west bound flight.

At sunset we went to the nearby hua to take photos of the sun setting behind the Maoi, but the cloud conspired to block most of the light.

We had a simple meal before going to bed.

The flight to Easter Island was great because it was on a 767-300 refitted with a new entertainment system. It had both video and audio on demand with a choice of over 70 movies and TV shows and 300 CDs. There were also video games.

At Easter Island our bags were almost the last on the carousel and we feared that they may not have made it on to the plane. We shared our transfer with six other Australians, although they were staying at a different hotel.

We had a few hours sleep to catch up on that lost on the plane, before going for a short walk around Hanga Roa (the capital and only real town). We searched unsuccessfully for a cache and suspect it may have been discovered by a local.