Bowled over...

Malta. A touch of winter sun, we thought. Brighten up the end of February, we said. Not today. Today it was blowing a gale - literally: black blob gusts on the weather app - and raining sporadically. But this is HF, we’re here to walk ....

By 10.15 we were off. A curtailed walk, avoiding the most exposed cliffs. But not long after I took this photo of the group heading down the the shoreline track, I had the rare experience of being almost blown off my feet. One woman was. I sat down on the limestone rock to get the energy to go on. In the event another woman and I linked arms to provide ballast - I couldn’t reach Mr PB to hold onto him.

Funny thing, though. My brain was saying: this is scary. Dangerous, even. But at no time was there that rising panic in the pit of the stomach, that sensation I associate with having to catch a plane ...

Very odd. And very, very tiring, and very, very muddy.