Dangerous Rips and Pounding Surf?

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Today’s our last full day in Gozo and Malta more generally, and we plan to spend most of it on the beach.

We went to great pains to move the car last night. Signs in the car park told us they’d tow it away if we left it anywhere near where they set up a market there every Tuesday morning. We’re looking forward to taking some happy snaps of the market, but we arrive to find that the “tow away” zone is still full of cars, and no signs of anything resembling a market. Hmmm.

Next up is an off-road detour to take in the views we’re supposed to be able to get from Qortin Dog Park at the top of a ridge overlooking Marsalforn. Issy says we probably shouldn't expect to find too many dogs here. This is probably right given the blazing heat, but we did at least expect to find the Park. The only thing that seems to be up here is the Qortin Landfill. Google Maps has tagged it with a symbol showing a castle, and describes as an “historic place”. I‘m pretty sure no one from Google Maps has ever been here, or if they have they must have overdosed on something just before their visit; I know we’re not archaeologists but to us it just looks like a tip. … and the views that we came here to see.… What views?

Next stop is Calypso Cave. According to Malta.com “the site is thought to be the same cave Homer mentioned in “The Odyssey” where Calypso, the beautiful nymph, kept Odysseus as a “prisoner of love” for seven years.” I’m a fan of caves, so I charge enthusiastically through a gate following signs pointing, rather unambiguously I would have thought, to “Calypso Cave”. The path ends at the top of a cliff. The views down over Ramla Bay are stunning, but it seems that I’m now standing on top of the Cave and that’s about as close as I’m ever going to get to it.

So that’s nought out of three so far this morning; hopefully the day improves from here. I suspect the false advertising lawyers would have a field day if they were let loose here in Malta.

The “roads” here in Malta are, well, I think “interesting” might be the right word. There are some multi-lane highways on the main island, but none here in Gozo, or at least none that we’ve seen. The backroads, and that’s most of them, are all barely more than a car width wide, and that assumes that you’ve remembered to fold your mirrors in. All are flanked on both sides by either stone walls or buildings, and if you deviate a few millimetres offline, well goodbye paintwork and panels. The roads from the tops of the ridges down into the valleys are generally the most “interesting”. They’re usually a series of continuous tight hairpin bends, and have been formed by someone throwing a few bags of concrete down onto the rock. They haven’t bothered to finish it properly, but this is a good thing; the stones sticking up out of the concrete provide some traction, and if it wasn’t for that I suspect you’d just slide down the slope into the stone wall at the first bend, and that would be the end of that. And of course it’s way too narrow to be able to see around any of the corners, so if there happens to be a car coming the other way, well that wouldn’t end well either. The road down from Calypso Cave to Ramla Bay is a classic example. We’re not quite sure there’s really a road there; it’s so steep that we can’t see it over the bonnet. Fortunately Google maps has got it right this time….

We make our way down to the stunning Ramla Beach, which is a long stretch of golden sand, and thus a bit unusual for Malta. We rent some sunlounges and an umbrella and set up shop on the sand together with what feels like half the island’s population. It’s very pleasant, although the water’s almost a bit too warm to be refreshing, and the sand’s threatening to bake the soles of our feet. We’re sitting right next to the lifeguard tower. When we came here in 2015 this had been set up right next to a large religious statue, which somehow seemed appropriate. They’ve moved it now and the religious statue is looking distinctly lonely. The lifeguards seem to be taking their jobs very seriously. There are two large yellow boards marked “Surf” next to the station, and these are poised ready for a rescue mission when the next violent rip drags unsuspecting bathers out into the depths of the Mediterranean. Well it would if there were any rips, but it looks dead calm to us, and the only “surf” is coming from the gentle wakes of a couple of row boats. I think we might be just a bit too used to the perilous rips and pounding surf of our homeland.

As we make our way back to Marsalforn we notice a small flock of birds overhead. Why is that worth mentioning, I hear you say? Well we realise that we’ve scarcely seen a bird since we’ve been here. I’ve often heard stories of the Maltese of decades past being avid bird hunters, and any winged creatures that dared venture into the sky risked being shot down in very short order. The ever reliable Wikipedia confirms that Malta is “the most savagely bird-hostile place in Europe”. Getting shot out of the sky is a factor in this but so too apparently is the dense human population which has resulted in massive habitat destruction and a loss of virtually anything that could be described as a “wild area”. We heard quite a few roosters crowing yesterday so maybe chickens are the new hope for Malta’s bird population, well assuming they don’t all end up in restaurant kitchens.

And on a similar theme we’ve struggled to find many genuine Maltese restaurants on this trip. There are plenty of places spruiking pizzas, pasta and other standard fare, but not too many with rabbit, horse or snails on the menu. And now that we come to think of it we haven’t seen a rabbit or a snail in the wild since we’ve been here, and only one or two horses. I hope the reason for the lack of Maltese restaurants isn’t that trigger happy locals have killed off all the menu items.

As we go to hang our clothes out on the apartment balcony it’s a bit hard not to reflect on how hard it must have been to retrofit all these ancient buildings with electricity, phone and internet cables. I go to hang our wet towels on the four evenly spaced clothes lines hanging above the balcony, well that’s what they looked like. No they’re electricity cables. I’m not sure that would have ended well either. Malta’s turning out to be a dangerous place.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Gozo
We've enjoying following your Malta travels.

[RENanDREW]

Eeekkk!
I'm very glad you noticed they weren't clothes lines! I've loved reading your Malta blogs - it certainly is a beautiful country, even if somewhat lacking in wildlife :)