About Two Islands of Malta (3)

Image from
“Black Mountain – Part 3”

More Hiking…
before Our Problem Escaping

By James T. Carney
Photos by
Detmar Straub

We resumed our hiking the third day, over a field in whose stone we could see ruts that some believe to have been worn by prehistoric carts.

About Two Islands of Malta (2)

Image from
“Black Mountain – Part 3”

Some More History
and Hiking

By James T. Carney
Photos by 

Detmar Straub

The island of Malta was a major fortress in the war with air bases built into caves and air raid shelters in many public buildings. The tourist picture of Malta envisions blue skies, sunny days, and sandy beaches, but the reality is a little different: Malta is very hilly and often the hills run down to the sea, so there are not nearly as many beaches as one would expect. Warm sunny days may characterize the summer, but not March with temperatures in the 50s and frequent stiff winds.

About Two Islands of Malta (1)

Image from
“Black Mountain – Part 3”

Getting to Malta

By James T. Carney
Photos by 

Detmar Straub

Malta – or rather the Maltese islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino – lie in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea about half way between Sicily and Tunisia. It has been held by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British, among others, given its strategic importance in what the Romans called mare nostrum (our sea) and its excellent harbors.

Black Mountain – Part 3

In and around Dubrovnik

By James T. Carney

Photos by 

Detmar Straub

The next day, the rest of the tour group went to the Dubrovnik airport to return to London, but Det and I had arranged to spent two days in Dubrovnik (formerly known as Ragusa). It is Europe’s best-preserved medieval wall city. For a number of centuries it was an independent political entity and opposed Venetian attempts to dominate the Adriatic (though it did pay tribute to the Ottoman empire).

Black Mountain – Intermission

Part 3 has been delayed

By James T. Carney
Photos by Detmar Straub

A lightning strike in the mountains of western North Carolina has left the photographer without a way to access the photos we need for Part 3. Thank you for your patience.

Copyright © 2020 by James T. Carney & Detmar Straub

Black Mountain – Part 2

Hiking with the Tour Group

By James T. Carney
Photos by Detmar Straub

We caught our flight from London to Dubrovnik and took a van across the border and along the Adriatic coast to Petrovac. This part of Montenegro is a great tourist center in the summer; people – particularly Russians – flock there to enjoy the sun and the beach. Prior to the 2008 Great Recession, there had been a great building boom along the coast. The Great Recession ended that, leaving a huge number of half-finished apartment buildings between the road and the shore. Apparently, Montenegrins could not obtain financing for a whole building, so they financed construction on a stage-by-stage basis, which meant that the project was incomplete when the financing dried up.

Black Mountain – Part 1

Straub (L) & Carney (R)

Bunker and Tower of London

By James T. Carney
Photos by Detmar Straub

For reasons that I do not understand, I have always been fascinated by the areas encompassed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the neighboring lands to the south of them. Certainly, the interest is not inspired by genealogy since I have no ancestors south of the Alps or east of the Elbe. In all events over the years I have made four trips to the area on pleasure and on business. My last trip there, in October 2015, was to Montenegro (“Black Mountain”), which country was part of Yugoslavia but was for most of its history semi-independent. Today it is a small country of perhaps 600,000 people (the population of Glasgow). It was recently the scene of a Russian plot to overthrow the government and install a pro-Russian regime.