I was still successfully running tours throughout September. Even after the children had returned to school and families were replaced by couples on short breaks.  However, a second wave of Covid loomed on the horizon and Conwy County was closed to visitors.  "O Well", I thought "There are still plenty of local residents up for listening to a good story", so I began to work on Ghost Tours building up to Halloween.

I started desk research on stories of  local hauntings and there was a wealth of quality material. A tour began to take shape. I also put out feelers on the community Facebook pages to find out if the demand was for a child-friendly tour or a scarier adult-focused one.  The response was amazing. All the lockdown restraints of events being cancelled were beginning to bubble up. Folk volunteered to dress up as ghosts to haunt the town towers etc. In fact, the response was so positive, it was pretty obvious that I wouldn't be able to ensure social distancing in the dark and could not ensure Covid security. Once again I had to rethink.

Other communities were doing pumpkin hunts etc.  for families to go round as individuals so I decided to turn my tour into a self-guided one and provide a downloadable treasure hunt free of charge on this website.  
I visited the local businesses who were incredibly supportive and enthusiastically agreed to put clues in their windows from cats in the cheese shop to bats in the toy shop; a carved swede in the flower shop and skeletons dressed as the resident ghosts in a pub, the Post Office and the Knight Shop. It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know local businesses and be known in the community even if I was going to make no money.

I began writing the worksheet and involved myself in more lockdown self-education learning to master a computer drawing programme for the illustrations. Then another blow - the Welsh Government announced a firebreak two week total lockdown.   I would have to cease work on even the free self-guided treasure hunt since it was neither of the permitted reasons for leaving home - work or exercise.

 Who were my clients? It was obvious for walking tours not less than half a day, folk were not going to travel far so the market would be locals looking for things to do and holiday makers staying in local self-catering accommodation since hotels were not yet opening. Couples would enjoy the food tours with pointers about where to eat that evening and families would be looking for a mixture of learning about history but tempting the teenagers along with promises of ghost tales.

a My first expenditure on physical marketing was some business cards as I went around the food shops and local businesses telling them what I planned. I knew I wanted an A board or banner where the tours started and I also decided to print some posters for the caravan parks where families from the North West had holiday lodges. The Welsh Lady would be the attention grabber and selfies were not good enough - time to rope in that family. We were still only allowed to meet one household outdoors and social distancing had to be maintained so my daughter and son-in-law agreed to be a model client and photographer at the low price of fish and chips on the quay! I used www.canva.com for producing the artwork for the A board and posters and the next stage is cycling to the caravan parks for distribution.