The Mass Attraction of Dawn walking in Malta

   It’s official, I have joined the ranks of the walking   masses!

 

SLIEMA SUNSET1
The sun rising in the East, over the Mediterranean Sea, Sliema, Malta iPhone image © Helen Jones-Florio.

 

Not that I haven’t always been a walker (Florio and I once walked around an entire West African country – albeit tiny, but 930km is by no means a stroll along the beach – oh, hang on, actually we’ve done that too!), but the point is I have never been one to gravitate towards what the masses do – right from my young punk rock self, back in the day in the UK, drawn towards a scene where we were then considered ‘outcasts of society‘ (that’s the polite way of putting it – you really don’t want to know the shocking names we got called, or what we got thrown at us, as we strutted past a bunch of market traders on a weekend, cockily showing off our newest Crazy Color barnet (fair/hair, get it?) de jour – red, blue, pink… .).

     “Och aye, Helen Jane, you’ll grow out of it“

as our old lovely Dad was apt to say – rather wistfully. Somehow, though, thankfully I never did. Ok, not that I sport a different tropical-bird-coloured hairdo every week (he was right about that part), these days, but I do still tend to steer away from what the masses do, preferring to go down the route less travelled, which could mean making the very easy choice of Kinshasa, DR Congo over, say, a nice pre-planned itinerary holiday on a Greek island, to going out of my way to find a less-trampled country pathway, where I feel sure there will be little chance of bumping into anyone else.

However, after spending the last week heading out of the door just before the sun comes up, iPhone in hand, walking purposefully down towards the sea, only to find dozens and dozens of other people who gravitate to the seafront early every morning too, running or power-walking along the promenade, I can certainly see the attraction, can’t you?

SLIEMA SUNSET2 AGAINST ST JULIANS
Me and my shadow – the rising sun towards St Julians Bay, Malta iPhone image © Helen Jones-Florio

 

Mind you, I do veer off the promenade as soon as possible, for an – almost – solitary walk over the rocks, bar the occasional dog walker or a lone guy practising Tai Chi, away from the masses. Just how I like it.

Helen Jones-Florio

More images on Floriotravels/Instagram

Moto-Taxi boys – Labé’s got style, Guinea-Conakry, West Africa

Moto Taxi Boys, Labé, Fouta Djallon, Guinea Conakry. Image ©Jason Florio from the River Gambia Expedition
Moto Taxi Boys, on the streets of Labé, Guinea-Conakry, West Africa ©Jason Florio

Decemeber 2012: ‘Labé, the capital of Guinea-Conakry, up in the Fouta Djallon, is motorcycle city, overrun with thousands of Chinese-made bikes – and ‘moto taxis’ are the way to travel, carrying a minimum of 2-3 passengers a piece. As we walked around the town, we had to constantly dart out of  the way as  a ‘moto’ zoomed towards us, at maximum speed– within inches of us – “à ton, à ton!” (we have this expression: ‘taking no prisoners’, which seemed rather apt, on the frenetic, horn-blaring, streets of the capital, as we leapt and scurried out the pathway of motorcycles, coming from all directions!).  “In Labé, there are too many accidents every day.” Saif (our local fixer) told us, as he led us through the dusty, stinking, dirty, litter-filled streets of the downtown area. Despite the moto-taxi dodging, and the putrid aromas, Labè is a vibrant, animated, friendly place – ‘Jarama’s’ (local Pula language greeting), “bonjour’s”, and “ca va’s”, abound, from every smiling, curious (intrigued by the two ‘portos’ – white people/European) person we pass’  – words by Helen Jones-Florio – extract from ‘The Long and Winding Road… Kedougou, Senegal – Labé, Guinea-Conakry – and back again‘ Read more on the River Gambia Expedition blog.

Screen Shot 2015-11-30 at 9.02.49 AM
Ebu – on his moto-taxi, in Mali-Ville, Guinea-Conakry – and our (extremely bumpy!) ride back down the Fouta Djallon Highlands to Kedougou, Senegal.
Moto Taxi Boys, Labé, Fouta Djallon, Guinea Conakry. Image ©Jason Florio from the River Gambia Expedition
Moto Taxi Boys, on the streets of Labé, Guinea-Conakry, West Africa ©Jason Florio
Screen Shot 2015-11-30 at 12.37.40 PM
Photographer, Jason Florio, gets details from moto-taxi rider, Labé, Fouta Djallon, Guinea-Conakry – image © Helen Jones-Florio

Photo of the Day: The Birdman of Malta

BIRDMAN1 IMG_1824
Man with Bird of Prey, Malta © Jason Florio

Carpe Diem – life is quite frankly too bloody short!

Kids on Jinack Island
A moment in time – happy girls, Jinack Island, The Gambia, West Africa © Helen Jones-Florio

 

Life is full of surprises… sadly, not all of them good. Before you know what’s happening, without any warning, a curveball the size of a Hereford Bull hits you – WHUMPH! – and literally knocks you flat on your back and suddenly, holy cow, you can’t get up again! Which is exactly what has recently happened to very close family members (not by a big cow, mind you, but most definitely by a humongous curveball). Not surprisingly – and perhaps a touch self-serving – one begins to question one’s own mortality, how quickly time is racing ahead, and how much more there is to do in this lifetime.

“The trouble is you think you have time” – Buddha

OR:

“Seize the day, bugger the ruminating, this life is quite frankly too bloody short!” Yours Truly

Sending positive energy and support to those I love dearly, who are going through what is the toughest challenge of their lives… and, without a doubt, more testing times are ahead for them.

HJF