Some weeks ago I travelled to Sicily with some of my regular climbing partners, for a few days of rock climbing (and of course some great food and pastries). Sicily is only just around the corner – a short flight of a little over half an hour, about an hour’s driving, and we were out in the Sicilian countryside. We stayed at an agriturismo – … Continue reading Gole Della Stretta
I’m not sure I even mentioned on this blog, three weeks ago I headed up to Gozo with my friend Hendrik for a day’s walking. I had not been that way since before the pandemic. In fact, I had not had a proper full-day break since the pandemic, so this came as a very welcome treat. The excuse, if I needed any, was that I … Continue reading Tieqa ta’ Wied il-Mielaħ
This week I thought I’d share a somewhat different type of photo for the throwback series. Well, three of them really. As readers of this blog will have realised, I don’t often have people in my photos, but it doesn’t mean that it never happens. I do take photos as memories of events as well, after all. Keepsakes of a kind. In this case I … Continue reading Outings with Christina and Matrix
Today’s blog post has been a long time coming. Several months ago, my friend Ken adopted a Sicilian rescue puppy. She’s a delightful Labrador / Border Collie mix, and has clearly seen some unpleasant stuff in her short life, as she was rather shy and skittish around new people. I say ‘was’ but in fact one can see lingering effects still. Though I must say … Continue reading Cersei
Something special came through the post today. Over the last few years I have been slowly collecting every guidebook that has been published about climbing in Malta. I was lucky enough to find a reasonably priced clean copy in good condition of this book that was printed three times from 1949 to 1960. It has taken some time, as copies of this title are not … Continue reading Walks and Climbs in Malta
This summer doesn’t seem to be like others in the last few years. Maybe I have been on this rock too long already, and the many little annoyances are making themselves felt. Maybe it’s the never-abating traffic. Or perhaps it’s climate change and what seems to be a hotter-than-usual summer. And it’s not like I enjoyed our summer here before. I guess what I’m saying … Continue reading Matrix on Bird’s Nest Wall Direct
Lately things have conspired to keep me inside, so I’m sharing a photo from a few weeks ago, on a climbing outing in Wied Babu. Unusually there were three of us on this outing, so I took advantage of the additional downtime to take some photos. This is Hendrik-Jan tackling The Flying Arête, a very memorable 6b+ route. Continue reading Hendrik on The Flying Arête
Today I thought I’d share one last photo from a climbing outing last autumn in Wied Babu, when Hendrik-Jan and I were working on the (easy) multi-pitches where the valley meets the sea. I already shared some photos from higher up on that day, with the blue grotto opposite. By contrast, this one is from close to where the climbs begin, and no more than … Continue reading Wied Babu Zawn
Something a little different today. A friend of mine, currently living in Australia, was visiting Malta over the holidays. As he’s also a climber, we pencilled in a day’s outing early on. In the morning we headed to Chapel Buttress, in the sunshine, and we were soon climbing in tee-shirts. I took my EOS M5 and a tripod with me, as he wished to have … Continue reading The Shoe Seat
In this last hour of the year, as many await the strike of midnight to celebrate, I wanted to share with you a photo from a week or so ago. This was at the end of a climbing session, as we were walking out of the valley, when we looked back and saw the full moon rising. As it happened, from our path this appeared … Continue reading Full Cold Moon Rising
Today’s blog post is going to be somewhat longer than usual. And it includes more photos than usual. At the tail end of this year I find myself with many more processed photos still left to share than I generally have, even though I think I have posted more frequently than usual. This is a good thing: it means that I’ve been shooting more, and … Continue reading Climbing with Hendrik-Jan
This weekend, finally, the rain decided to take a break from its recent pattern (of only raining on the weekends). So yesterday my good friend Hendrik-Jan and I went down to Wied Babu for a bit of climbing in the morning. Given the wind, we ditched our earlier thoughts of tackling a sea-cliff and instead headed all the way down the valley to do the … Continue reading Blue Grotto and Filfla
Muddy Boots 