A Christmas wish

It's Christmas!

We want to send a very quick Christmas message and New Years wish to all of our wonderful family, friends and wider supporters. We know that your days will be busy with all the preparations that surround this time of year so we will keep this short and sweet.

So much has happened during this crazy year, never in our wildest dreams did we think that we would have experienced so much and after arriving back from our most recent trip to the Scottish Holy Island of Iona (you can read more about this trip here) we are now truly refreshed and ready and raring to go into 2016 with a new sense of calling.

Christmas Jumpers were
not my idea (Tim!)

As we remember God's gift to the world in the form of Jesus Christ at this time of year it is our desire to fulfill His call for us to love Him and also our neighbors as we love ourselves, whomever and wherever they are in this wide world. We are seeking to usher in His good news to the poor and truly be the hands of Christ to those we believe God is placing in our paths for this next season. 

It would be remiss of us not to thank all those who have already chosen to support our first 'self funded' trip to Madagascar, we do hope that you will know that we will use those funds wisely, but we would also highlight that our initial financial target is still miles away from being covered!

We do understand that there are many financial pressures at this time of year however if you are still considering supporting us for what we believe will be both a pivotal trip for us and the people of Madagascar then either click on this link to give online or please email us to find out the best ways to give. 

Signing off with best wishes for a peaceful Christmas and a very happy and blessed New Year. Tim and Maz x

Iona Poem

Since returning from our trip to the Holy isle of Iona we've been thinking a lot about our time there and yesterday morning woke with this poem in my (Tim's) head. We hope that it captures some of what we experienced during a week long stay there.

Waking early to see the sun arise
On a remote Scottish island of surprise
Watch him creep above the mountains of snow
Winter time adorned with a dull halo

Walk passed Highland cattle and fields of sheep
Stone walls abound them safe to keep
Gulls soar above in the dawn lit sky
Never ceasing with their mournful cry

Waves that pound this tiny place
Follow many to this sacred space
Ferries bob across the sea
Bringing those who just want to be

The Pilgrims come from far flung lands
To this isle where the High Cross stands
Marking points of Holy ground
Where many believe that God be found

Ancient stones an Abbey create
Monks believe it to be a hallowed gate
Where prayers are offered for the dead
And miracles happened it's often said

God is honoured still there now
Where kings and monarchs came to bow
Some now buried beneath the square topped tower
Having relinquished their earthly power

Walk along Iona's paths
To beaches and hills atopped with grass
And in the wind that blows around
Can you hear the Holy sound?

Of peace and hope and even love
That many miss from God above
Take time to think and listen to
The one who's heart is in yours too

Pilgrimage to a Scottish Isle

tim and emma!

Since we our last post we've driven over 1800 miles (just under 3000km) which has included picking up our great friend and all round happy person (Emma Podmore) from Gatwick airport following her flying visit to Uganda, made our individual pilgrimages to the stunning Scottish isle of Iona, seen the first snows of the winter in the wilds of the Highlands, visited our old pastor (not that he is old!) from South Africa in his new parish in Aberdeen-shire and collected our youngest son, Arron, seeing him again for the first time in 14 months. 

sunset over loch long

It's been quite a journey and 'Colin' (the name of our little Vauxhall Corsa) never missed a beat providing us with over 60 miles per gallon performance which we are so impressed with, well done Colin. We hope that the next few paragraphs will capture some of that adventure so sit back, grab a coffee and come along for the ride!

It would be remiss of us to pass over the real reason for our latest epic so without going any further we'll provide you with some background to the amazing island of Iona. 

emma and maz enjoy some tasty scottish food

Iona sits around one mile off of the Hebridean island of Mull in the country of Scotland, both of which can only be reached by ferry, Iona has been a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of centuries starting soon after Saint Columbus established a monastery there in 563AD around 1400 years ago! 

The island boasts the oldest high crosses in Britain, Saint Martin's cross has stood in the same place since the ninth century and is the burial place of many Scottish as well as Irish, Norwegian and French Kings showing the long established reverence for the place. in more modern times a Scottish minister in a poor community in Glasgow had the idea to reestablish a Christ centered community at the site of the old Abbey, so with the help of some local unemployed (it was the time of the depression remember) Glaswegian tradesmen rebuilt the Abbey and in the 1930's created new buildings to become the home of the Iona community.

ferry trip from Oban

It was with all this in mind that wanted to spend a week living and sharing with the ecumenical (people made up from various expressions of the broad church) community, living within their daily rhythm of prayer and worship and taking time once again to hear God's voice as we seek Him for our futures.

Highland cattle

Our journey started on a trip down south to pick up Emma, who has recently left the work she was doing at the Village of Hope to pursue a life of service with another charity in Uganda, Emma was going to make the trip to Iona with us but the 6.30am pick up was a shock to the system however it was wonderful to catch up with her news. following a night in Bucks we made the start of the trek up north stopping with Emma's cousin and husband in Blackburn.

High cross on Iona

We ventured over the border into Scotland at Gretna and enjoyed some glorious weather passing by Loch Lomond before stopping at the top of Loch Long for the night prior to our first ferry crossing from Oban to Craignure on Mull. 

Upon waking we were greeted by snow on the tops of the surrounding mountains and once the sun had risen over the high peaks our drive took us up and over some tricky conditions with fresh lying snow on the roads, unbeknownst we would experience more of this later on during the trip.

sunrise over the abbey

Our ferry to Mull sailed at 10am so we made sure we were there in good time to grab a coffee and book Colin (the car) onto his berth alongside those others who's vehicles were venturing across the short sound between the mainland and the first of the islands we were to visit that day.

sunset over Mull from Iona

The drive from Craignure to Fionnphort was spectacular with the snow capped peaks keeping our heads up as we passed through glens (Scottish term for a valley or kloof) filled with Highland cattle with their young and gushing waterfalls providing a stunning backdrop to the traditional scene.

crazy girls

After a wonderful lunch next to a warming fire we joined around twelve people, as well as a crowd of school children, who we learnt were performing at the Abbey later that day. it was a strange feeling as we made the short ferry trip onto the Holy island, thoughts filled of what the week would hold, who would we be sharing our time with and what structure the week would take? 

stone labyrinth on Iona

It is funny to think that those who we now consider friends were just strangers on a journey perhaps with the same feelings about their week and who we might be....time and experience is a weird thing and that was shown during the week as we grew closer together as a group and ourselves with our God.

chappel on Iona with ancient grave stones from kings of yore 

Upon disembarking we gathered our bags and made the short walk up from the harbor past the ruined structure which used to provide a home to the women folk connected to the Abbey. walking onto the grounds of the Abbey heightened our sense of awe as we gazed at the huge High Stone Crosses that dominate the foreground of the Abbey, then on into the accommodation which was to be our shared home for the week. the buildings are truly stunning with history seeping from the very stones. our rooms were very simple affairs, all slightly different but home to a bed, side table and lamp, and much needed electric heaters.

atop Dun I

The group of people who joined us for this week long retreat were from all walks of life and parts of the United Kingdom, including one lady who had joined us from Texas, in the United States of America. some had visited before for others like us it was their first visit but there was an air of expectation as we joined together for our first shared meal.

Iona Abbey

Our days were varied but also followed a 'rule' that has been part of the community since the 1930's, this included sharing meals together, and wow the food was fantastic with much the produce sourced locally and organically, homemade soups and bread along with a wide use of vegetables (we did have meat and cakes too!), we then joined the community of paid staff and volunteers at the chapel (the Abbey is used in summer months) for the morning service which is led by staff along a liturgical theme with people groups and countries receiving thoughts and prayers as well as singing of songs and scripture reading. This along with the daily evening service provided us with great solace and with the knowledge that their 'healing service' had taken place every Tuesday for over 70 years provided us with a connectedness to those who had gone before.

St John's cross

The island is still a center of pilgrimage and receives thousands of visitors every year, thus during summer months this tiny place could seem a little crowded, we however had timed our visit perfectly, meaning we visited in the winter where the summer crowds were tucked up at home or at work in their office buildings and factories around the world, thus the isle was so still and peaceful and for that we were truly blessed.

There were many highlights during the week, quite apart from the giggles we had between the three of us, there were times of peace in the vast library, a pilgrimage walk following some of the ancient paths and sights to the bay where Saint Columbus is reported to have landed as he ventured across the sea from Ireland all those centuries ago. we also enjoyed a night of fun, song and laughter as we joined together around an open fire at the weekly Ceilidh and joined the wider local community for their film night which was held in the village hall, all very quaint.

our top floor accomadation

All too soon the week was drawing to an end, in fact the weather reports were so bad that two of our group, including the pastor from the USA, had to make an early exit to ensure that flights and other commitments were met. in fact our whole group had to leave on the Friday due to the worry that the ferries wouldn't run. It was with a slight tinge of disappointment that we left each other early but it did give us the chance to explore Oban prior to our further travels up into the Highlands.

our snow man!

We said our sad goodbyes, again to Emma who was taking the train to spending a couple of days in Edinburgh, and drove through some dramatic scenery up past Ben Nevis (the highest mountain on the British Isles) into the predicted wintry weather of the Highlands where we were to spend the night. the snow was falling slowly as we took to our beds but by the morning Colin (the car, remember) was covered with snow and the roads out of town were quite a picture, fortunately we made our way out of the Highlands before the heavy snow arrived.

Newtonmore high street in the snow

Wending our slippery way past Aviemore (site of the Scottish ski industry) the mountains were invisible due to the low cloud but we gained a sense of awe as the vista opened up the further east we travelled. Our destination was to be a visit to see Neil Meyer and his wife and family who moved from Grabouw a few years ago to take up the post of vicar of a Church of Scotland congregation in Kintore, west of Aberdeen.

tim and neil outside his new church

Our first night in Kintore was spent sharing our story with the youth group that meets on a Sunday evening, after Neil led some worship we were interviewed by some of the young people who asked us about our experiences in South Africa and what it means to share 'the gospel' via works rather than words. this was a fantastic time and we hope we inspired a few of the people there to reach out to their community and be Christ's hands and feet right there in Scotland.

We only had time to spend two nights with in Kintore but there's a couple of things that Scotland is famous for and we were intent on experiencing them both, (and no we're not talking about the famous 'battered (fried) Mars Bars', however we did see the fish and chip shop in Stonehaven where they were said to be invented), no we are talking about Castles and Whiskey. We had woken to a sunny day and drove through Royal Deeside (yes the very same Dee that flows along the Balmoral estate (the Scottish residence for the British Monarch) to Dunnottar Castle, a ruin dating back to the thirteenth century which sits atop a cliff top outcrop and which was home to both William Wallace and Mary Queen of Scots, among others.

Dunnottar castle

After a wonderful lunch of 'Cullen Skink' (a seafood soup made from Haddock) we made our way back inland to the Glen Garioch whiskey distillery at Oldmeldrum for a tour of their premises and a wee dram of their finest produce. We're not great whiskey drinkers but we were impressed with the fine quality of single malt that they produce and the incredible process that goes into making this valuable commodity.

Glen Garioch distillery

Sadly our time in Scotland had drawn to an end and after we had walked Neil and Michelle's two girls to school we said goodbye to Aberdeen and had an interesting journey south through further snow on the A9 in Perthshire. Our destination that night was to be a superb Youth Hostel (and yes they do still accept Grandparents in those establishments!) in Swaledale situated in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

After a good nights sleep following our near on seven hour drive and visit to the local pub in Grinton we ventured towards Leeds to pick up Arron who had been staying with friends he'd met during his Central American adventures earlier in the year.

Arry all back home

In a way we're glad to be back in Bucks, once again living out of a suitcase and traveling so far is quite a challenge, however we have wonderful memories to remind us of the awesome time we spent on the islands and highlands of the wild and rugged Scotland!

As a post script we are off to see one of our all time favourite folk/rock bands, 'The Waterboys', on Saturday and their lead singer Mike Scott has a strong connection with Iona and has produced a couple of inspiring albums with songs that mentioned Iona in their title, we think that 'Iona Song' captures a little of what we experienced:-

Peace of the glancing dancing waves
Peace of the white sands
Peace of Iona

Peace of the singing winds
Peace of the stones
Peace of Iona

Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa

Peace of the crying gulls
Peace of the humming bees
Peace of the noon-time stillness

Peace of the dreaming hills
Peace of the breath of angels
Peace of Iona

Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa
Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa

Peace of the saints and seekers
Peace of the monks and Druids
Peace of the resting place of kings

Peace of the ruins
Peace of the doves in the bell tower
Peace of Iona

Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa
Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa

Peace of the rested mind
Peace of the glad heart
Peace of my lover's pots and potions

Peace of her healing hands
Peace of her lazy laughter
Peace of Iona

Peace of the unseen
Peace of the spirit
Peace of Iona

Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa
Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa
Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa
Iiiiii oooooo nnnnnaaaaaa

Oh and for those of you who are little more cultured you might be aware that Felix Mendelssohn wrote some amazing music inspired by his visit to the Herbries in the 1900's. we would invite you to complete the reading of this post by listening to his stunning 'Fingals Cave' click here for a link to youtube, sit back and be transported to that remote part of the world that has so inspired our last few weeks!

 

Our latest newsletter/support request....

children at a village where Love 'N Care
work in Madagascar

Dear Blog followers, we are sure that many of you who follow this blog will also be included on our emailing lists, however if you haven't read our latest emailed newsletter then please go ahead and continue reading.

Lots has happened since we last sent our email about our trip to Madagascar, firstly we have been blessed with funds to pay for the expensive flights to Antananarivo and secondly we have also bought, insured and taxed a little car which will enable us to travel about in England both before and after our trip.

our new run a round!

The guys on the ground in Madagascar have also been in touch and we just wanted to encourage you with their thoughts about us returning to share with them, its wonderful to know that they are excited about our return and what follows is some of their words which we hope will encourage you to support us as we seek to support them!

'Greetings from MADAGASCAR'

'We are so thrilled to have heard that Tim and Maz are coming here in Madagascar to serve with us in Love-N-Care next year'.

The email goes to on say that they:-

children thanking God for their food
at the Bethany school

 'believe that the skills (we) have developed during (our) time in South Africa will be great assets for Madagascar'.

One of the young men who attended our Sports Outreach training in 2014 continues with some encouragement saying:-

'it will be an opportunity to continue the training you stared with us here about sports and see what is working and what needs improving'

Madagascar
(twice the size of Great Britain)
sits in the Indian ocean
off the east coast of Africa

Our friend Theo, who works along side the Project Directors Cho and Deborah, continues with some words that make us feel very humbled but is exactly what we are feeling too:-

'I'm so thankful to Our Lord for your coming here I believe you are an answer to our prayers, you know when you shared about your training in emerging leaders I said to myself, yes Lord my country needs this ........but for this to come we need you both to come (and share this with us)'

The ending to the email is what we are seeking to do and reads:-

the young leaders who we shared our
sports outreach training with in May 2014

'Thank you for coming and your willingness to pour out yourselves and serve my country'

With our regular support from ThembalitshaUK ending last June we have had no regular income since then, therefore we are still a very long way from the amount that we need to ensure that this trip will be a success.

thanks Mr Nam for the use of
the photothat he took whilst out
visiting Love N Care Ministries 

As highlighted above we have had funds come through to pay for our flights and we are extremely thankful to those of you who have already given.

For those still considering supporting us for what we believe will be both a pivotal trip for us and the people of Madagascar then either click on this link to give online or please write a comment below or find us on Facebook to find out the best ways to give.

Grey Days......but bright futures...(another poem)

we'd forgotten how grey the English autumn days can be, it seems like we haven't seen the sun in weeks and this can be rather depressing. it got me (Tim) thinking about living life in the sun, actually living life to the full and how so many people seem to be living their lives like a 'grey day' without fulfilling all the potential in their lives. 

often people have been held back, mainly by the culture they've grown up in or in social circumstances that have never allowed them to express themselves to the full or allowed them to move beyond the mainstream and those are hard walls to break down. I totally understand that and I also understand some of our life choices have led us to what are now difficult situations to break out of.

anways that said I do believe that there is a life worth living that is oft different to those that we are currently living out and this led me to write this short poem, which is sort of a work in progress but I hope it gives you some idea of where my thoughts have been going.

Poem ;- Grey People


'People living in colours of grey, when above the clouds its a beautiful day,

Lives that have never full begun, not having experienced the brightness of sun,

Seeing the world with monochrome vision, the colour all drained with no definition,

Wandering round with eyes half open, with youthful dreams unfulfilled and broken,

If only our teachers had seen more potential, with classes of children this is so essential,

What of the life of rainbow filled light? with the future ahead all shinning and bright?

It's time to step out with no hesitation, onto a path that leads beyond other peoples expectation,

Don't wait for someone to say its OK, dream big!, this is your life create your own gig today.

There are colours out there that look a bit bright, but don't worry I know they won't bite,

So don't miss out on your bright tomorrow, by following a path that only leads to more sorrow.

The End!

books, books, podcasts and more books

we were chatting with a friend the other day, who just so happens to read this blog, and she asked about the books that we were reading. she had noticed the list changing and increasing to the right hand side of the page and was intrigued about our reading list and which books we liked, why we picked them and which ones we would recommend for her to read.

well we just thought that there might be a few more of you out there in internet land who would also like to know what we have been reading, why and which ones have really inspired us over the last nine months, (and which ones we would suggest you avoid). we have also included some 'podcasts' which have also been helpful, along with a daily email devotion which we would recommend to everybody but more of that later.

before we start however can we add that we are no experts, our thoughts are based on things we have found helpful, or not, and given that both our schooling was undertaken at state secondary schools in the 1970's and 1980's (in Buckinghamshire which still had/has Grammar schools) our initial exposure to literature had been quite limited. that said since we've been married our love of reading has expanded and we both really really enjoy exploring new genre some of which will be seen in our choices of reading during this sabbatical time.

more ramblings before we go any further, just to put things into context. the initial six months of our sabbatical were very structured, we were really keen to make the best use of the time we had been given, not only were we keen to travel, but we were very keen to take time to reflect on the past six years, have some restoration time and also expand our thoughts and ideas, therefore our initial reading list reflected that.

you will see the list of books that we have been reading on the right hand side of this page, those that we read first are at the bottom of the list, with the newer books being towards the top of the list. we have taken the time to highlight which ones we have completed by marking them so.

it's really hard to know where to start and how we are going to do this but we suppose you've got to start somewhere so the first book that jumps out at us as we survey the list is a title by Brian McClaren called 'A new kind of Christian', we read this together in Grenada, the weather was perfect and our long summer was still ahead of us. we had known of Brians' work before we had moved to South Africa but had struggled to find it too endearing to us as we served right at the 'coal face'. Brian's style comes across as written by an upper to middle class middle aged American sipping coffee in the local cafe, therefore it was with some trepidation that we had taken the leap to read this book together. however we really loved the book, the way in which Brian connected some wider thoughts around 'church' and 'organised religion' and bought it together in a fictional story, the main dialogue and story line revolved around a pastor and a 'thinker' which was great. we took a lot out of the book and much of our further 'spiritual' reading was taken along the same lines.

what lines we hear you cry, well this is quite hard to put into words without people thinking that we've gone totally off the rails, but lines around a God who might just want to be known to all mankind, all mankind would include those we have often considered 'in' and those we often consider 'out'. further reading around this can be found in a daily email by Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan monk who is very hot on the topic of 'dualistic thinking'. it would be wrong of us to try to capture what he has to say about this here and any how it would take another two or three blog post to do do that. just to say that we would recommend signing up for his daily email which looks into the way in which the church has somewhat taken Jesus' teachings and made the hoops of 'getting in' little smaller and the outworking of the 'gospel' less important than Jesus originally had showed us.

another author on the list is a guy called Robert Farrar Capon, who has written three fantastic books on the gospels found in the bible, Robert seeks to expand and explore what Jesus 'the Christ', really really meant when he shared his 'parables' with those around him two thousand years ago and whether you consider yourself as a person of faith or not we would challenge you to read these books which basically talk about God's grace towards all men (who he created) and which were written and published in the 1980's but have been somewhat lost (or never recommended to us!).

on a less spiritual but never the less totally fascinating read was the book that told the story of a young american athlete who took part in the 1938 Olympics in Germany, during the war was called up to the american air-force and after being shot down was shipwrecked and then captured by the Japaneses, the book, 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand, which has also been made into a film which isn't a patch on the book, with it's edge of your seat style following one man's life as he endured torture and almost starvation at the hands of his captors. the fact that it's a true story has meant that this is included in our must reads.

we have both been reading the Bible for over forty years but we'd never really looked at the history and origins of this incredible book. Alexander Shaia's Heart and Mind looks at why the gospels were written, who they were written to and how we can apply their teaching in our lives in the 21st century. this book as a must read for those of you who are living Christ centered lives and we would wholeheartedly recommend it to you.

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one other topic we had never looked at were other religions and their holy books but encouraged by Brain McClaren and further podcasts by Rob Bell (an oft criticised pastor) (infact Alexander Shaia shared about his book on one of those Robcasts), we were keen to look at the possibility of God being seen and showing himself to other people groups around the world, rather that just the Jews and or first century Christians. this type of thinking might be seen as a little 'off the wall' however we are finding it hard to dismiss what these thinkers are saying.

in fact Tim has taken time to read the great Hindu classic the bhagavad gita which for those who haven't read it includes dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna (seen as a god in Hindu tradition) as he explains about the way we should live and love here on earth. the book captures the essence of 'selfless action' so brilliantly lived out by Gandi in more recent times and reflects lots of our Christian views from an 'eastern cultural understanding' of God as his love for man, whom he ultimately created, each in his own image.

we have both enjoyed reading some lighter books, not in the literal sense of the word!, Tim thoroughly enjoyed reading Micheal Palins 'Travelling to work', Alice in Wonderland was also something that we'd never fully read and what with Tims love of travel and history there have been books about the history of England, the invasion of Grenada and more recently the siege of Malta in the second world war.

Maz' individual lists all seem to be quite hardcore but she assures me that she has enjoyed her times and has fully explored the new world of Podcasts with regular times of encouragement and entertainment by listening to those.

so really that was short and sweet after all but with all we have said the bible has continued to be a place of solace and although our minds are being expanded by other reading it is still a source of encouragement as we step into the new season of our lives. you'll have seen that we're never gonna make itinerary critics but we hope that this short post might have given you some insight into what we have been enjoying during our reflective time out.

island life.....

chris, claire and maz enjoying
maz' birthday indian dinner!

there's something about being from an island maybe that's why we've ended up on so many since we left South Africa at the end of February!

as anyone who has been following our travels around this amazing world will no doubt agree many things have changed in what were our normal daily lives, we have had the opportunity of visiting some wonderful places over the last nine months and a theme that seems to feature quite highly is the fact that most of these adventures take place on islands.

during this last month that theme has continued as we spent two weeks in the Mediterranean archipelago known as Malta, as you will read later Malta is made up of five islands, three of which are inhabited and we were able to add those to the list of other islands, some big and some very small that we have spent time on during this amazing year.

mr and mrs Zammit at the
church of st francis

before we go on here's the current list of islands that we have visited in 2015, The Florida Keys (over 1000 islands make up this outstanding 120 mile spit of land that extends off of the United States into the Gulf of Mexico), however we only stayed on two so will only claim those, Marathon and Islamorada, we spent time in Grenada and the smaller Sandy Island (of off Grenada), we also visited Barbados and on returning to England then ventured to both the Eire and Northern Ireland (part of the island of Ireland), being based in England which is part of Great Britain and the British Isles, Wales, ditto, Caldey Island (off of Wales) and now Malta, Gozo and Comino. 

It's also no surprise that we will adding to this list before the year end as we are attending a retreat on the island of Iona, which sits off the larger island of Mull and that is part of Scotland which is also part of the British Isles! 

silent streets of Mdina

the list of ferries and boats that we have been on is also quite extensive but we won't go there now.

anyways after spending a few days with our eldest son Chris and his family, where we were able to celebrate both his and Maz' birthdays, we took the three hour flight from Bristol to Malta. 

we were greeted at the airport by Katrin and her daughter Ciara, who we had got to know in South Africa as Kat had volunteered with us at the Village of Hope. we were going to be staying with Kat and her husband Matt in their beautiful home Qormi, in the middle of this quite small island.

maz looking over the grand harbour
towards Valletta

the day we arrived we were greeted with a tremendous thunderstorm, which almost put the island out of action the next morning but once that cleared we enjoyed sunny and warm days which made a change for us after the dreary English summer we had endured.

our knowledge of the island was very limited so we were keen to explore, making use of the week long public transport bus tickets we had procured at the airport and by the end of our stay we were experts on the bus numbers and routes they took, we also enjoyed the air-conditioning that was found in all but a few of these modern vehicles.

Kat and Maz at the temples

Malta sits in the top five most densely populated countries in the world, following the small principality of Monaco who are miles ahead of the rest, with Singapore and Bahrain sitting second and third in the list. with the volume of people, and cars, it's a testament to the country that their public transport system works so efficiently.

whilst being densely populated there are wonderful opportunities to get a way from it all, with the stunning 'Silent city' of Mdina holding it's dominant position high up in the middle of the island. this walled city, with it's tiny streets and no traffic was a 'must visit' for any tourist (of which we must claim ourselves as such!). the tiny natural harbours and even the capital Valletta which sits above the Grand Harbour can be places of peace. 

in fact we found such a place of peace in the church of Saint Francis, where we attended a lunchtime concert given by Silvio Zammit and his wife who performed some beautiful pieces on their flute and grand piano respectively.

Maz snorkeling in a natural harbour

Valletta was full of British history too, old red phone and post boxes adhorned the narrow streets, and we were interested to read of the St George Cross that was awarded to the people's of Malta who endured a three year siege during the second world war.

Kat was also keen to show us some sights, and seeing that little Ciara had just started school and their son was able to attend a local pre-school during the day, we visited what are some of the oldest temple remains in the world, Hagar Qim (much of the Maltese language is quite similar to Arabic due to the Muslim heritage of the island) was built over five thousand years ago, predating and thus older than Stonehenge or the pyramids by over 1000 years!

mass crowds at an outdoor mass

religion plays a huge part of island life with saints, Christs' and Mother Mary statues adorning squares, buildings and even homes at every turn. in the small square where Matt and Kat live there is a large statue of Lady Madonna and it was quite a surprise to return home one evening to find the tiny street overwhelmed with people, including a priest who was sharing Mass with those who had joined him under the stars to pay their respects to the Mother of Jesus.

chevron B16

there is so much history on this island with the local sandstone making for beautiful buildings, apparently there are 365 churches on Malta, many of them host stunning works of art, golden statues and are complete with domes with fresco's depicting biblical stories.

orginal mini cooper

on the second Thursday of our visit we (Tim was anyway) was keen to visit the city of Mellieha where we'd found out that the Mdina Grand Prix was taking place, and after spending a day on the local beach we made our way up the hill towards this imposing city to watch the hill climb. the local road was closed and after a short time waiting for the whole event to start we were greeted by the sights and sounds of classic European cars, many venturing all the way from England to take part in the event. little Austin Mini Coopers, original Fiat 500's were joined by a Chevron B16 and 'C' type Jaguars which graced the Le Mans 24 Hour race in a bygone age.

a fort on Gozo

after spending a week on Malta we had booked an apartment for four nights on the second of the Maltese islands of Gozo, once again we took public transport from Valletta to catch the ferry across the short sea between the two islands, as we traveled we passed the Comino and it's Blue Lagoon, but more of that later. Gozo is much quieter and also greener than Malta, the quietness could be attributed to the lack of deep harbours around the island which prevents cruise-liners from docking.

view from Comino to Gozo

Gozo was truly delightful, friendly people, lack of tourists and a real feel of welcome. the sights were amazing too, we ventured on a bus around the island to enjoy the Citadel in Victoria, the Azure window, which was stunning given the spectacular seas that were encouraged by another thunderstorm we had endured the night before. 

Gozo, like Malta, has coastal fortifications protecting the lower lying beaches, however much of the coastline is made up of huge cliffs descending hundreds of feet straight into the Mediterranean sea. we were also amazed at the hand cut salt pans where local people still produce the Mediterranean sea salt that we enjoy on our dinner tables.

Maz enjoying the blue lagoon

on our last day we took a small ferry to visit the smallest of the inhabited islands, Comino, to take a swim in the Blue Lagoon, once again the island didn't disappoint and although we're sure the feel would be different during the summer days were up to 6000 people visit to enjoy the aqua blue waters that offer snorkelers the chance to swim in some of the clearest water in the world. the day we visited was very quite and as always Maz was in her element, donning her snorkel and mask and spending literally hours face down enjoying the underwater world.

the blue lagoon didn't disappoint

after spending one further night with Matt and Kat we made our sad way back to the airport and the cold and wet weather that was to greet us as we arrived back in England. 

there is so much more to tell about these wonderful islands but time is limited but we feel truly blessed to have been given the chance to visit this wonderful archipelago. we are grateful to Matt and Kat for their hospitality and the people of Malta who made us feel very welcome. we will be back! 

we have updated our reading list, which sits at the right hand pane, and due to a request will be writing a post about the highlights, and lowlights, of the books we have read during our year very soon!