Jeep Tour Malta

How cold was it? Our three fingered trusty tour guide, Jochim, said it was Malta's coldest period in 40 years. An ominous sign this morning, the cumulous clouds and the hail, but we were determined to have our Tour of Malta's second largest island, Gozo. A tiny Euro mini van, late by 30 minutes, picked up us and the half dozen other people. Simply driving down Malta's narrow roads on the "other" side of the street is a life threatening affair, but racing to catch a ferry in a midget van crammed with people is, well, death defying. Lives frayed but intact, we made it to the ferry.



Jochim, a scary militaristic looking man with a shaved headed, we figured to be in his mid sixties (though looked mid 50's) was waiting at the landing holding up a blue sign with the tour name. He opened the back of his Toyota rag topped "Jeep" and five of us crammed into the two facing rear bench seats running the length of the truck bed, the sixth hopped into the front. Jochim, in the drivers seat, speaking both English (for Stacy and I) and German (for the other two couples) pointed at his map of Gozo and explained the figure eight we would track over the island. We quickly warmed up to Jochim, 1. because he had our lives in his hands, and 2. because he had a sense of humor.



Jochim was proud that his Jeep could whizz and bump over rutted dirt roads that were barely more than meandering paths. Sitting in the far back, I leaned forward to keep my weight on the balls of my feet (much like standing on the pedals of a bike when going over a curb so to not shorten ones vertebrae), and gripped the rail on the back gate. I didn't quite trust the gate's locking mechanism and expected to be catapulted from the vehicle at every next bump, even with Stacy gripping my arm to keep me in the vehicle. Bouts of fierce wind, rain, lightening, and hail would almost overcome our happy mission. The heat was on in the jeep, but since the rear where I was sitting was open, the icy wind and rain kept me less than pleasantly wet and frigid through the day.



Jochim led us to some wondrous sights, from high cliffs overlooking "azzure" blue waters, to Baroque era basilicas where miracles continue to be regular events, to lush valleys terraced with stone walls laid by Arabs in the 12th century, to a natural stone arch lit with dark blue storm clouds and the sea crashing against its columns (I heroically ran to a promontory during a fierce hail storm to take its picture), to a walled medieval citadel, through small villages made of yellow sandstone, to a neolithic man made stone "temple" that predates Stonehenge by 1,500 years!