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TRAVEL ACTION & LIVING Xemxija view Xemxija 1987 Police Station – Blue Grotto 1993 As a child I used to collect stamps and coins as a stamps and old coins. My child. And through my granddad had huge travels I had even grown to collections of both, and love the barren landscapes. taught me a lot about EVERY After my first day in them. Before long I had my Malta I had already decided own respectable collection, that I wanted to explore including some stamps from every imaginable corner. Malta. But my favourites These were small islands were the Maltese coins, LITTLE and therefore uncovering all with octagonal and their mysteries had to be decagonal specimens, which possible. I rented a car, made them special in my drove to a specific place eyes. I still remember how I each time, and then made a had exchanged my US miles-long roundabout tour coins for the Maltese ones until I was back at my car. with my friend Boris. In PATH I had always hiked a lot that same year, my family with my family, and in and I went on holiday to Malta I re-discovered that Austria, where we visited passion. I walked from the Maltatal valley. At the ANKE JABLINSKI a German travel writer morning to evening, often time it looked like a from Berlin, fell in love with Malta during without any interruptions, rainforest to me. From then almost like someone on, my childish imagination her first visit in 1987. Since then, she has possessed. A Maltese friend started associating Malta been back. And back. And back... thought I was exaggerating when I told him that I had with thick forestry and locksmith drill a hole once walked from huge waterfalls, exotic through it so that I could St Julian’s to Marsaxlokk. coins and rare stamps. That wear it as a pendant. I still In those days I used more was Malta for me, as a ten- have this pendant today. ordinary paths, mostly year-old. I was not disappointed roads, or went along the When I travelled to Malta when I found out that coastline. I have fond and Gozo for the first time there weren’t any memories of how one could in 1987, I immediately got rainforests or waterfalls on walk from Msida to my hands on a five cent the Maltese archipelago, Pembroke with hardly piece. A picture of a crab because by then I had having to leave the coast. was on the coin and since already travelled a lot, just These days that has become Cancer is my star-sign I let like I had dreamed of quite impossible, with Anke Jablinski a friendly Maltese doing when I collected hotels everywhere. 42 FIRST JULY 2011 some paths, byways and roads that I don’t know. But I did what I could, and I can say that I explored Malta, Gozo and Comino as well as humanly possible. I do not think it is possible to have done more. Already during the first section of my journey (the coastal tour) I encountered areas that I had never found in any of the many books I had read about Malta. Hiking along the coast of the island can be briefly described as: cliffs- towers-salt pans. But there are a lot more interesting and attractive things. For example when I think of Gozo, the unique incisions of Reqqa Point, Pinu Point and One of Malta's valleys Mgarr ix-Xini come to mind. A hike along the coastal cliffs from Xlendi to Mgarr ix-Xini On my offers breathtaking second trip I was hooked, views of Comino and and my plan to get to Malta. It was hard to get know Malta, Gozo and from Dwejra Point to Comino began to take Hekka Point, but in shape. I didn’t just want to springtime I was get to know every place, I rewarded by soft, lush wanted to get to know meadows. Hiking from every single patch of land. Hondoq to Xatt L-Ahmar, With Malta and Gozo it again regaled me with was love at first wonderful views of sight, which then gave me Comino. My beloved Gozo the determination to write I have pretty much the book Zufluchtsort completely walked through Malta. I wanted to get to and through, but there too know every path no matter I needed 50 journeys. how small, and to get rid I also did not relinquish of the cliché that there is the opportunity to explore no point hiking anywhere all the towers I came other than on Dingli Cliffs. across along the coastline. My first goal was to circle The coastal path in the the island along the coast east of Malta, from Fort in sections. That proved to St Rocco over Xghajra to be more difficult than Zonqor Point was also expected but still pleasant. In those days possible, and I anyway Anke at Chadwick Lakes there were fewer liked climbing. RTO- interruptions when I signs and hunters were a possible hiked from Mistra Bay to problem, as were hotels alternative routes and also Mellieha or along the and private landowners. be cautious. journeys to Malta in the coast of Sliema and Tigné, I had to find the shortest After a number of 80s and 90s I started to to Ta’Xbiex. At know Malta quite well. I Tigné there used to be had travelled a lot on foot pretty old houses from and by car and felt at colonial times. AFTER MY FIRST DAY IN MALTA home when I came. I Hiking around Delimara didn’t foresee then that it and Xrobb l-Ghagin or I HAD ALREADY DECIDED would take me 50 visits to walking down the coast get as close as possible to south of Hal Far Airfield my goal of knowing every became an adventure. THAT I WANTED TO EXPLORE path. By then I already Farmers and hunters who I called my Malta travels my encountered often didn’t EVERY IMAGINABLE CORNER “every-little-path-project”. believe where I came from I am certain there are still and where I was heading. FIRST JULY 2011 43 TRAVEL ACTION & LIVING to explore. Hence I lived in others were real cave- Victoria/ Dwejra Lines on The way back often Qrendi for a better look at churches, while others had Malta, the landscape was bordered on torture in the Zurrieq, Bubaqra, Safi, old paintings to marvel at. unbelievably beautiful, as summer months, since the Mqabba and Kirkop, or in Hence I discovered is the area west of the necessary return to my car Marsascala to get a proper Il-Maqluba, Hal-Millieri, Chadwick Lakes, with its at the end of the day look at that area. I did the Kuncizzioni church, Santa many interesting facets would have come after a same in Gozo. I stayed in Maria ta’ Bir Miftuh and such as hills, partly hidden trip during which I would Gharb to explore the west, San Dimitri in Gozo, and chapels and even a small carry, and drink, as much in Xlendi or Ta’ Cenc when the cave-churches in waterfall. as six litres of water. I I explored the south, in Mellieha and San Gwann. Since I had gone for long mostly postponed the Qbajjar and in Since my main historical walks inside Mdina several really long walks to the Ghajnsielem for the north interest were Malta’s times, I started exploring winter months. and east respectively. temples, I found out where the area around the silent The second part of my The third part of my there were the lesser city and after that the area plan was the towns. Here I plan was perhaps the known temple ruins or of the hinterland of could communicate in nicest, since I explored the where temples where Rabat, the Girgenti Valley English again, since in the landscape of the inner expected to be. Kordin and Laferla Cross and the countryside my island. It was fascinating provided an unpleasant area around Siggiewi, to find that experience where students where I once got threw completely lost after dark (later it turned out that I had walked around in circles for hours). I also explored Valletta and the ‘three cities’ on foot often and thoroughly, but then I wanted to explore the outback there too and found small places like Bidni and San Leonardo. A lot has changed in the twenty four years since I first visited the archipelago. I am certain I will still find a little treasure here and there, and there is one that I definitely don’t know yet : Filfla! Laferla Cross area Since I have given many areas special, personal nicknames, newly-learnt, modest Filfla would Maltese had to undergo a probably become hard test. I drove around Area of Birds, one by car to get to know the I WAS PARTICULARLY ENCHANTED last squiggle on one of my region where larger cities many maps of Malta. like Birkirkara, Hamrun BY SMALL CHURCHES AND You may think that with and Qormi dissolve into all my hiking around each other. Here my walks CHAPELS, SOME OF THEM BUILT Malta, I don’t have time were just strolls of one to INTO CLIFFS, OTHERS WERE REAL for collecting anymore. In two hours with nice breaks fact, I do, though not coins in a café, bar or restaurant. CAVE-CHURCHES, WHILE OTHERS and stamps. Those It became more interesting collections have been in little towns and villages HAD OLD PAINTINGS TO MARVEL AT replaced by, you’ll be were I saw many things pleased to know: an that I would have never it had still so much to offer stones at my companion impressive collection of seen if I hadn’t done my that I had never seen and I while we looked at Malta maps! ‘project’.

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