Wednesday, 10th May 2006

 

The number could not have been better rounded when 60 ramblers assembled in the square of Bahrija for the second visit to the bronze-age village of Il-Qlejgha. One can call all of them "fair weather birds" as they had missed the walk there first time round because of the bad weather. But the day promised fine fare, and so it was even though it was slightly marred by the intervention of a co-owner who tried to scare the group off the bronze-age site.

In no time at all the group were down the valley and up to Il-Qlejgha. The makeshift gate at the entrance of the site was open and that is where the group gathered to be briefed by the Secretary about the site and the people who inhabited it in prehistory. Two hunters were busy chatting behind the rusty 45-gallon drums' obscenity, flaunting guns, and the group was on them before they had time to notice. During the brief talk they tried to draw attention but the lecture went on, and abnormally quickly they disappeared.

The site was studied and the silos appreciated even in their negligent tree-pot state. The views from the top of il-Qlejgha were being taken in with admiration by one and all when a person claiming to be a co-owner (name recorded) approached with the usual respect "aqbzuli l-barra ghax ser incempel il-pulizija" (Translation: "Get out of here before I call the police") and wielding his mobile phone. It appeared as if the well-dressed gentleman, certainly not in bucolic attire, was summarily summoned from his daily routine by a phone call, say from the hunters who made the disappearing act, to interrupt our presence there. The cheek does not stop there, but he claimed that he was a full-time farmer, while a real creature (full time farmer) within visual distance did not bother to stop his work to affront us, noting that we were harmless creatures like him. Politely we begged him to call the police, and pointed out to him that permission had been sought from and given by one other co-owner. Upon which the full-timer also put on the disappearing act.

Exiting the gate the group made its way to Wied Rini, where ground upheavals by heavy machinery were alarmingly noted to be causing irreversible damage to the natural state of the rocky surface and its shrubby flora. Thence the group proceeded to Bahrija along the asphalt road. By 12.30 all were tiringly (sic) back in their restful carriages.