Malta
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 8:40 pmChaps,
I have to be honest with you, its a little embarrassing, but, well, I am, er, going through rather a dry patch…Despite a splendid team, in Romania/Bulgaria I missed two new species… Cannes and Nice… nothing, not a sausage, bugger all… unless the wall lizards at St Jeannet in the Alpes Cote d Azur are not just plain muralis…
So with high hopes I joined a team of Dutch gentlemen for a brief attempt at increasing my practically anorexic tick list in Malta..One potential tick in the form of Hemorrhois algirus..
I left rain drenched Blighty, obscenely early, and landed in sunny Valetta at 11:30 hrs.. team Holland were not due for another two and a half hours, so after briefly searching the airport grounds for herps, I had a charming sleep in the sun.. awoken by the romantic sounds of taxi drivers hawking up phlegm, I went into the terminal and soon spied the vision of loveliness that is Gert jan striding out of the arrivals hall.. after the usual ruffling of hair and bottom slapping, we arranged the hire car, whilst we waited for the remainder of the team, Sjoerd and Sjuul.. both sounding and looking like characters from Game of Thrones and both operating on Dutch time..
We jumped in the car, and had the pleasure of being driven by Gert Jan on the correct side of the road.. after only a few minutes(Malta is smaller than a pole dancers pants) we arrived at our first site.. an overgrown park near the Harbour in Valetta.. this park is home to the highest quality gay dogging and the infamous Algerian whip snake.. this snake is rarely seen.. Jeroens trip found three on the Island.. and since then there has been a few sporadic sightings, making the local paper..
We searched for hours, under the watchful gaze of bemused men in tight trousers.. many rocks were flipped, and a wealth of condoms, needles and other detritus was found.. no snakes.. despite warm temps.. around 21 degrees.. sunshine and suitable habitat, all that was found herp wise was some very chubby oscillated skinks and some geckos.. both Turkish and Moorish were in abundance.
As the light faded, and fearing for the safety of our reputations.. and sphincters, we left the park and headed to our accom..
Our accom was managed by a charming cougar of a lady that, helped by the fact that Gert Jan cant keep his abs covered up within ten metres of anything with a womb, freely admitted she wanted to do special things with at least two of team Holland..despite many years of CQC training between us we beat a hasty retreat to our rooms.. we emerged later showered and rested and ventured to the restaurant where beer and scoffs were in abundance..Gert Jan bonded with the locals..if they were female and a size 8 and a pleasant evening was had .. I retired to my room, shared with Gert Jan, on the 7th floor.. no lifts were allowed..cardio rules.... and Sjoerd arrived.. he had found out that the basement of our hotel was a Pole dancing establishment.. apparently Dutch people are very interested in Polish traditional dancing.. I did not see them again to early in the morning……they must have danced their little socks off…
Next day, after a reasonable breakfast..I can only assume Britain’s colonial influence meant that the usual bizarre Euro breakfast, was replaced by tea, toast and marmalade..yummy.. we headed out.. once more bend over park, as it had become fondly known, was visited..I think Sjoerd was starting to quite like it.. again only skinks and geckos to be found, so we headed of to a different, better maintained park.. here the lovely Malta wall lizard, filfolensis, was very abundant. Gert Jan also found a juvenile chamelon which Sjoerd and Sjuul found as cute as the dancing girls..
After many wall lizard pics we again searched here and two more sites for the snake… nothing..as the light faded we headed to a lovely stream habitat and Sjoord quickly found a painted frog..
then it was back to cougarville.. Again an evening of good food, beer and pleasant waitresses.. maybe not the Serbian one.. she was a bit scary..
Up early for my last chance of a whipsnake.. weather pants…
a quick visit to the park, where the helpful gardener said he saw three snakes a few weeks ago..fighting the urge to stuff him in his own dustbin we took a few shots of wall lizards and then it was time for me to leave..
A teary goodbye to team Netherlands.. it will be ten days before I catch up with them in the Balearics…. Thanks to the three of them for making me laugh,waffles and protecting me from naughty ladies.. Hopefully next trip, I will get a new tick..
As I sat waiting to board the plane, I got a message from Gert Jan.. they had found a snake.. I will let you read his report to find what it was…
Thanks Pauli
I have to be honest with you, its a little embarrassing, but, well, I am, er, going through rather a dry patch…Despite a splendid team, in Romania/Bulgaria I missed two new species… Cannes and Nice… nothing, not a sausage, bugger all… unless the wall lizards at St Jeannet in the Alpes Cote d Azur are not just plain muralis…
So with high hopes I joined a team of Dutch gentlemen for a brief attempt at increasing my practically anorexic tick list in Malta..One potential tick in the form of Hemorrhois algirus..
I left rain drenched Blighty, obscenely early, and landed in sunny Valetta at 11:30 hrs.. team Holland were not due for another two and a half hours, so after briefly searching the airport grounds for herps, I had a charming sleep in the sun.. awoken by the romantic sounds of taxi drivers hawking up phlegm, I went into the terminal and soon spied the vision of loveliness that is Gert jan striding out of the arrivals hall.. after the usual ruffling of hair and bottom slapping, we arranged the hire car, whilst we waited for the remainder of the team, Sjoerd and Sjuul.. both sounding and looking like characters from Game of Thrones and both operating on Dutch time..
We jumped in the car, and had the pleasure of being driven by Gert Jan on the correct side of the road.. after only a few minutes(Malta is smaller than a pole dancers pants) we arrived at our first site.. an overgrown park near the Harbour in Valetta.. this park is home to the highest quality gay dogging and the infamous Algerian whip snake.. this snake is rarely seen.. Jeroens trip found three on the Island.. and since then there has been a few sporadic sightings, making the local paper..
We searched for hours, under the watchful gaze of bemused men in tight trousers.. many rocks were flipped, and a wealth of condoms, needles and other detritus was found.. no snakes.. despite warm temps.. around 21 degrees.. sunshine and suitable habitat, all that was found herp wise was some very chubby oscillated skinks and some geckos.. both Turkish and Moorish were in abundance.
As the light faded, and fearing for the safety of our reputations.. and sphincters, we left the park and headed to our accom..
Our accom was managed by a charming cougar of a lady that, helped by the fact that Gert Jan cant keep his abs covered up within ten metres of anything with a womb, freely admitted she wanted to do special things with at least two of team Holland..despite many years of CQC training between us we beat a hasty retreat to our rooms.. we emerged later showered and rested and ventured to the restaurant where beer and scoffs were in abundance..Gert Jan bonded with the locals..if they were female and a size 8 and a pleasant evening was had .. I retired to my room, shared with Gert Jan, on the 7th floor.. no lifts were allowed..cardio rules.... and Sjoerd arrived.. he had found out that the basement of our hotel was a Pole dancing establishment.. apparently Dutch people are very interested in Polish traditional dancing.. I did not see them again to early in the morning……they must have danced their little socks off…
Next day, after a reasonable breakfast..I can only assume Britain’s colonial influence meant that the usual bizarre Euro breakfast, was replaced by tea, toast and marmalade..yummy.. we headed out.. once more bend over park, as it had become fondly known, was visited..I think Sjoerd was starting to quite like it.. again only skinks and geckos to be found, so we headed of to a different, better maintained park.. here the lovely Malta wall lizard, filfolensis, was very abundant. Gert Jan also found a juvenile chamelon which Sjoerd and Sjuul found as cute as the dancing girls..
After many wall lizard pics we again searched here and two more sites for the snake… nothing..as the light faded we headed to a lovely stream habitat and Sjoord quickly found a painted frog..
then it was back to cougarville.. Again an evening of good food, beer and pleasant waitresses.. maybe not the Serbian one.. she was a bit scary..
Up early for my last chance of a whipsnake.. weather pants…
- GetAttachment.jpg (6.59 KiB) Viewed 11865 times
a quick visit to the park, where the helpful gardener said he saw three snakes a few weeks ago..fighting the urge to stuff him in his own dustbin we took a few shots of wall lizards and then it was time for me to leave..
A teary goodbye to team Netherlands.. it will be ten days before I catch up with them in the Balearics…. Thanks to the three of them for making me laugh,waffles and protecting me from naughty ladies.. Hopefully next trip, I will get a new tick..
As I sat waiting to board the plane, I got a message from Gert Jan.. they had found a snake.. I will let you read his report to find what it was…
Thanks Pauli
