Dedicated to: Angela Dixon & the Wrong Direction Team
Did you know that Malta is the only entire country to have
been awarded The George Cross for bravery? It was in 1941, when the island
country was a British colony, suffering round the clock air strikes from
German bombers and its resources were totally depleted. I wonder if a medal
from King George seemed a poor consolation given the circumstances, yet its image
is now woven into the country’s flag.
I learnt that at the National War Museum in the country’s capital
Valletta when I went there on my holiday last year. I’d promised Bill that I’d
still go on our winter holiday every year, yet when the time came I found that I couldn’t bear
to visit the same resort we’d always gone to on the Algarve without him. My
friend Laura suggested Malta because it was impossible to get lost there.
I looked up the coastal walk and thought I should be able to get around most of it in a week. When I told my son Greg, he said, ‘Mum
you’re 77, are you sure about this?’ I told him I thought it was high time I
went on my first trip by myself, after all wasn’t Izzy travelling around
Thailand by herself when she was only 19? He rolled his eyes and helped me
to book it.
And so I went to Malta. I arrived at my hotel at 6.30pm on a
warm Wednesday evening, checked in, got changed and walked to a local
restaurant ran by a Croatian brother and sister. I had a red wine and spaghetti
bolognaise and read my book.
My hotel was in St. Julians. I set off on the first day, keeping
the sea to my left and walked to Valletta, where I visited the Parliament, the
opera house and the museums. I continued to the ancient three cities. I had lunch and
read in my Lonely Planet guide about how the first of the three was settled by
the Phoenicians.
Every night, after a day of walking between 10 and 15 miles,
I took a bus or a taxi back to my hotel, went to the same restaurant and had
red wine and something different from the menu. I emailed my son a ‘selfie’ and
pictures from my walks. Every morning, I took a bus or a taxi back to where I’d
left off and carried on walking, with the coast on my left.
I went to a Neolithic temple, full of cats, walked over
giant cliffs and along the sandy beaches of Golden Bay. I went in every church
I saw and lit a candle for Bill. I visited a nature reserve and watched the
birds. I went in every castle and fort, paid my entrance fee and read the pieces of information on every artefact. I took pictures of other tourists and they
took pictures of me, with old buildings and beautiful waters behind me.
On my seventh day, before my shuttle came to take me to the
airport at 5.00pm, I walked from St. Paul’s Bay to St. Julian’s, with the coast
on my left and the rest of the world on my right. I had my last red wine at the
restaurant.
When Greg picked me up from Heathrow just before midnight,
the first thing he said was,
“you look good mum.”
“Yes” I said, “I’ve walked 96 miles.”
Words: 565
Challenge/theme: coastlines
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