In the morning, following a discussion with Roberta, I had texted Phyl our plan and asked her if she was ok with it. She was happy to help. We had packed our bags before leaving the apartment and left them in the living room. We had also talked to the owner, Roberta had, to ask if we could check-out late, at Noon. He was fine with that. Original check-out time was 1000.
After saying bye to Sam in Nadur, we got in the taxi with Phyl. First of all, I emptied that bottle of water in my stomach. I needed it. You might not have noticed but we had left without breakfast this morning. I also wanted to eat that “Cheese thing” but it looked like it would be flaky and I didn’t want to mess up Phyl’s car. She was moved by my tales of hunger and tried to find me a paper napkin so I could eat it while she drove but tough luck. By the way, the cheese thing was called Qassattat, I found out later. It will feature in the story again later.
Following our plan, Phyl brought us back to our apartment so
we could pick up our bags. On the Segway tour I had used a small crossbody bag
which I had recently bought for photography day trips. This I left in the car
for the time being. I had one backpack and one suitcase. During the flight to
and from
Right now I behaved completely ungentlemanly and left Roberta to deal with her bags (she always did anyway) while I used my free to hand to devour the Qassattat as we went from the apartment to the car. By the time we had stuffed our bags in the boot, my Qassattat had disappeared and my stomach was happy. It was absolutely delicious, by the way.
Now, let me try to paint you a picture while knowing that I
won’t be able to do it justice. As we drove off from there to do sightseeing
with Phyl in the driving seat, this was my mindset. I was in a car with a good
friend and a friendly driver (call her a second friend). The sun was shining,
the weather was warm and pleasant. I was on a beautiful island far from
conference calls and meetings. I had been fed and watered. I had my cameras and
I was about to go see some beautiful sights. I think the French have a phrase
for it – bien être – the feeling of well-being. That moment for
me, was
The three of us chatted about a bunch of things while Phyl drove us over some rough roads. It was easy to see why other drivers don’t take that route. The magic of Phyl’s personality was that you didn’t feel like you were riding in a taxi but with a friend who was going to show you around. She was driver, guide, photographer and friend all in one. That’s why I called her a character because she was not your average taxi driver.
Often people exaggerate their own goodness and the value they bring to the world. We found that Phyl was not one of them. Everything she had told us was true and accurate – the roads were bad, the sights were stunning and she did care that we got a lot out of that trip. It was like riding with a family member. She even gave us ultimatums for each stop. There were many things to see and we were short on time, we had told her already.
Unlike the hop-on-hop-off bus, Phyl’s tour was not signposted with clear stops. She just drove on a route which she knew had great visuals and stopped anywhere she thought we could get a good picture. In some places it meant stopping by the side of the road, I got out, snapped a few shots and away we go again. It was glorious!
She drove us by Marsalforn and I saw that it was very pretty if you had the right perspective. Then there was a cave by the salt pans. Then the salt pans themselves. Don’t ask me what they are, see the photos. At each stop I was torn between using the camera or the phone and ended up using both, especially the phone is really good for videos.
Remember, I told you about the futility of taking photos from the top deck of the bus? In some places here I literally stuck my hand out of the moving car with my camera, or phone, and snapped a few shots. I could not see what I was shooting, I could just point the lens in the general direction of the scene. So much for composition. Surprisingly, a lot of them came out well.
In one place, Phyl told us not to look back just look ahead until she told us. Well, that doesn’t work with me. I sneaked a look and knew what she meant. Finally when she stopped in an open plain and told us to look we could see caves in the cliffside below. It was a beautiful scene. See pictures. The reason she told us not to look back was that the drive up there was in a curve and the caves were coming into view one by one as we drove. If we had looked behind, we would have wanted to stop there, but the best place to stop was at the top of curve from where we could see all the caves. I hope that’s clear from the photos.
Because Roberta and I are both photographers our cameras usually point outwards. Roberta does try to document her journey with some selfies but I forget that also. In this place we got a few photos of us because Phyl offered to take them for us. This place was quite windy and because of that felt a little colder than the rest of Gozo. I am saying “this place” because we didn’t know what it was called. Neither did Phyl. She just knew it was a nice place to take photos. We stayed here a few minutes to admire the beauty and marvel at the craziness of those who go kayaking down there.
The big stop, and the final stop, on this route was Wied-il-mielah. Unlike the last evening, Phyl got us so close to it that we could see the window spot as soon as we got out of the car. She gave us 15 minutes to do our thing there if we wanted to get to the harbour on time. The window itself was nice, huge, but neighbouring with another cliff and therefore not easy to photograph in its entirety. There was a concrete staircase leading down which got us in a better position to take photos.
I don’t mind telling you standing on that small platform was a bit nerve-wrecking because I can’t swim, the sea was noisy and well....you had to be there. I get scared easily anyway – heights, water, work, dentist, pretty much anything. We managed to take all the photos we wanted in 15 minutes, then we were back in the taxi. This time Phyl took the road that we would have taken the previous evening coming down to the window. We timed it to the spot where she had picked us up. It was a long road.
When Phyl picked us up in Nadur, she had told Roberta to create a multi-stop trip in the Bolt app for the apartment, Wied-il-Mielah and the harbour because that was the cheaper way to do it. But the Bolt company would only pay Phyl for driving the route. All the stops and waiting was not included in that. So, we added a tip equal to the meter on top to compensate her for her time. She had been really good to us and I can honestly say that the tour with her was the best time we had in Gozo. A close second was the Segway tour.
Let’s break it here, in the next chapter I will talk about
the scariest time I had in
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