As Liquorish Returns, These Are The 11 Maltese Travellers On The Adventure Of A Lifetime
They say life begins at the end of your comfort zone, and 11 Maltese travellers are currently putting that maxim to the test.
Liquorish, one of Malta’s most-loved reality TV shows, has returned for its 15th season, sending a group of Maltese travellers to Tanzania on an epic adventure.
How would you cope with being made to work with a group of strangers to race to a destination with no smartphones or money? How would you react if a local had to snatch your bag while you stop for a breather?
As Liquorish kicks into gear, these are the 11 brave travellers who will be competing for your vote. Beware, spoilers for Season 1 follow:
1. Aidan Gatt
A sports enthusiast, 31-year-old Aidan already has some experience in wooing the public after winning a Coca-Cola-sponsored challenge to select the first finalist. He was instantly isolated from the rest of the group and sent to the Liquorish version of Exile Island, which involved spending a day on the uninviting-sounding Mafia Island, where he had to build his own shelter to spend the night in.
Aidan proved extremely resourceful here, using logs, branches and leaves to construct his shelter without cutting down a single tree. However, lighting a fire proved a little bit harder and the Liquorish producers had to help him out with a piece of flint.
2. Charmaine Tanti
Charmaine, a 32-year-old human resources officer, put on a cheery and optimistic front as she helped her team win the first challenge and locate a university in Dar es Salaam.
She also took on a leadership role in the shopping challenge, mentally calculating the costs to buy a list of ingredients and trying her utmost (unsuccessfully) to barter with a trader to sell her a live chicken at a discount.
3 & 4. Boċċ and Booster
A brotherly power couple, Boċċ, 30 and Booster, 23 are competing as a single contestant and will contest every challenge together. In a nasty but humorous twist, they were told at the Malta airport that they will have to share a single backpack between them and were given only five minutes to choose which items to take with them on their journey.
They came off as a jovial pair, while Boċċ also got to flex his mechanical skills when he helped jumpstart a jeep that had broken down.
5. Dylan Vella
Liquorish’s website says that Dylan, a 25-year-old soldier, fancies himself as something of a ladies’ man.
He took the wheel of the jeep when his team won the first challenge but he stayed very much under the radar in the first episode. To be fair on him though, this is his first trip outside of Europe. Talk about a baptism of fire.
6. Graziella Bartolo
Graziella, a 28-year-old pastizzeria worker, seem like a feisty and passionate character and her sharp tongue ensured she was very much at the centre of attention in the first episode.
When someone stole Nicole’s bag and her team tried to retrieve it, Graziella lashed out at a local for smiling as they explained their desperate situation to him. When more locals arrived on the scene, she instinctively warned that she was willing to physically fight them off.
7. Hubert Cutajar
Hubert, a 34-year-old crane operator, seems like one of the most relaxed characters on the show.
While his team members were laying into the locals during the robbery incident, Hubert added a touch of class to proceedings, urging them not to generalise Tanzanians and reminding fellow contestants that others had given them free food on their journey to the university. He also made sure that a touch of Malta will be left behind in Tanzania when he handed a Maltese flag to a local during negotiations for the traditional African ugali.
8. Kyle Curmi
At 22 years of age, insurance worker Kyle is the baby of the group. Despite his tender age, Kyle showed leadership skills in the first challenge, regularly stopping locals to ask for directions and chatting with them along the way.
When the journey to the university ended up taking longer than the locals were claiming it would, Kyle saw the funny side and passed a joke about how their destination was probably hours away.
9. Mari Farrugia
As a former air hostess, 28-year-old Mari, easily recognisable by a large tattoo on her shoulder, could well be the most well-travelled of the group.
However, she didn’t certainly didn’t instantly adapt to the Tanzanian way of life, rejecting a spirit from the locals and refusing to use a toilet when she realised it was just a small hole inside a dark, damp room.
10. Nathalie Micallef
38-year-old Nathalie, an artist who has settled down in Greece, has a larger-than-life persona and was at the centre of much of the drama in the first episode, with her frantic walking pace getting on some contestants’ nerves. She absolutely lost it during an argument with a local about Nicole’s stolen bag, warning him: “We have a camera and we will go to the police and you will be fucked up. We have a camera and you will be in prison!”
However, she also got show her tender side, helping Nicole out when she was struggling to carry a heavy bag and acting a peacemaker when an argument erupted between Nicole and Graziella.
11. Nicole Ebejer
If there’s anyone who currently seems like a fish out of water, it’s 23-year-old model Nicole. Quite understandingly, she threatened to quit the game when a motorcyclist stole a bag containing her passport and medicine, but her mood continued to dampen even after her items were returned to her.
As her team struggled to find a way to reach their next destination without a cent to their name, Nicole called them out for walking too fast, threatened to quit the game for a second time and accused fellow contestants of wasting time by stopping to talk to locals.
“You don’t want to ask him for his Instagram while you’re at it, do you?” she asked sarcastically.
Cover photo and all photos from Liquorish and ONE TV
Who is your favourite Liquorish contestant so far?
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