Water's Song: Hiking the ends of Malta

Hiking Marfa Ridge with Comino and Gozo Islands in the background.

This past week, Andrew and I were able to get to the ends of Malta. We hiked the Marfa Ridge area on St. Joseph’s Holiday (Wednesday March 19). Marfa Ridge is composed of a limestone slope that rises gently from the sea to the north end of Malta but drops steeply and dramatically on all others faces. From the airplane, Marfa Ridge looked like it was a separate island but on closer inspection it is connected to Malta by a narrow neck of land. The real islands, Comino and Gozo were within view during our walk. The hiking terrain was like what you would expect on the moon-uneven and crater like. Flowers were popping up all along the rocks. The yellow daisies were the same flower that marks spring in San Diego.

We thought on a religious holiday, the primarily Catholic Maltese would be attending church services. We were wrong. The Maltese took advantage of the midweek holiday to picnic under the acacia trees or pull up to their beach-side holiday hut (a garage-like structure with couch, dining table-often carried out to the drive, barbeque and even a TV in some) for a family meal. That left us in stop and go traffic on the way up and back.

Looking down the steep cliffs

Thank goodness we weren’t driving and were able to enjoy sitting and looking at the sea through the bus window. That was on the way up. On the way back, it was another story. The bus was overcrowded but we managed to get on with a standing position. As Andrew described it, people get on in currents and he got eddied behind the bus driver. I just kept flowing down the bus. It felt like I was surfing down the steep roads in a sea of people. After the 5 mile walk, my arms got a good workout hanging on to the plastic handles above my head. Eventually, I was able to grab a seat. It was one of our more exciting rides—a woman was kicked off with her little dog by the supervisor, the driver was yelling in his phone that he could not go back as he was full up, a small older man was barely able to hang on and stand up at the same time—all entertaining bus drama for an hour ride.

Andrew leading the way.

We hiked with the Malta Geographical Society (established in 1943) on Saturday. Of the 50 walkers, most were a little bit older than us. The group was a mixture of ex-pats (England and Scotland) and Maltese. On the way to Marsaxlokk, our meeting spot, we (Andrew, Debby-from Iowa and me) stopped to view the Ghar Dalam ( which means cave of darkness) Cave. After dodging the swarming wasps at the cave entrance, we entered a chamber 30 ft tall. Inside the cave, skeletons 500,000 years old of dwarf hippos and elephants were found. As the animals are similar to European species, Malta’s land connection to Italy not northern Africa is supported. Pottery and Neanderthal bull teeth, the earliest signs of human occupation on Malta dating back to 5200BC were also found in the cave.

In the Ghar Dalum Cave.

Catching the bus is not always an easy task. Despite posted times, on line schedules and GPS monitoring systems that digitally display expected arrivals of buses at the stops, there is an element of luck of catching a specific bus. We got lucky and caught the bus outside the Cave Museum and continued on to Marsaxlokk, a quaint active fishing village.

Marsaxlokk Bay

The buildings around Marsaxlokk Bay are just 3-4 stories high. Many of the colorful fishing boats, called luzzu, dotted the bay. Fisher people (women were helping too) were tending to their nets. The quay was lined with cafes offering up fresh fish soup and fish dishes. Market stalls were also set up along the quay to sell souvenirs—lace work primarily but t-shirts, bags and beach towels too. It reminded me of the open air markets in the Caribbean. On the 3 hour hike, we headed out to Delimara Lighthouse, meandered along the cliffs past St. Peter's Pool and returned to Marsaxlokk. We caught the bus home and in contrast to the last hike, were about the only folks on board.