We had enjoyed our fireworks night cruise with Hera so much that we decided that Hera was the boat we wanted to take on an around Malta cruise. We booked with Hera, although the trip date choices were limited. I suspect since it is not the summer season yet, Hera doesn’t do this trip every day. We read some review comments that weather may often cause a change in route (not going all the way around the island due to wind and high swells) and sometimes the cruise is canceled. Since our choice in cruise dates was limited, we had to take a chance with the weather and just pick a date. Fortunately, it was a very fine day with little wind on Wednesday, so no worries about the weather. We also opted for no pickup, since that was so stressful the night of the fireworks. So, on to our trusty #13 bus for the short ride around the front to the ferries side of Sliema.
We boarded the very nice sailing vessel Hera II and staked out our seats on the second deck on the right-hand side of the vessel so we would be on the land side. I would estimate about 80 or so people were on board, but there was room for everyone without too much problem with having a little personal space. Two Italian couples were near us. They were entertaining even though they were speaking Italian and we couldn’t understand their conversations. They certainly were having a good time.
We departed Sliema at about 9:20 and headed out Marsamxett Harbor and around the end of Valletta. I just love looking at Valletta.
We continued on down along the eastern, southeastern side of the island. We haven’t done much touring in this area and so the sights were new to us. There was a colorful little town, Xghajra, close to the shore that looked pretty. We passed by a large water storage area. Water is such an important commodity in Malta and water is tanked in as well as converted from seawater. The shoreline along this area isn’t cliffs and so the hills slope down into the sea. There is some limestone edge visible. One thing I don’t remember from our 1985 trip is how hilly Malta is. The island is very hilly.
We rounded the southeastern end of the island and began seeing some of the limestone cliffs. There is a peninsula called Delimara that gives you a flavor of what will be in store on the western side of the island. I was interested to see Delimara because I read about a nice swimming area called Peter’s Pool that I though we might check out. However, from looking at this area from the sea, it looks as though it would be quite a challenge to get to.
The next area was Marsascala and Marsaxlokk, two fishing villages. We have been to Marsaxlokk and I was surprised to see that the harbor of this very quaint, picturesque village is far from the harbor entrance. Also, even though Marsaxlokk is one of the most famous tourist attractions, it is ringed by a huge power plant on one side and a huge shipping port on the other. I guess it is a good thing that the actual village harbor is tucked back in away from the heavy industrial images.
We saw something interesting near the Marsascala Harbor. The boat pilot, Alex, who was doing a very nice commentary about what we were seeing as we went, pointed out something in the water. They looked like a bunch of metal structures, like cages. And, that’s exactly what they were – tuna pens. This was an area where live blue fin tuna are penned after being caught. They are fed fish and kind of fattened up and will eventually be sold. Most go to Japan and become sushi. I had never heard of this practice of tuna penning before.
Next, we sailed past a shipping port, the Malta Freeport, in the village of Birzebbugia. From afar you can see all the huge cranes used to load and unload cargo ships. Whenever I see these things, to me they look like huge chairs for giants. We’ll be going near Birzebbugia on Saturday evening for a Heritage Malta event we signed up for.
Once past Birzebbugia, we’re now starting to go up the western side of the island and the cliffs are now in abundance all the way up this side of the island. Most of the cliffs are many hundreds of feet tall, and some are essentially 2-tiered, with a slope from the top of the first set of cliffs up to a second set of cliffs. I posted photos of this sloping farm land between the sets of cliffs in the Dingli cliffs post.
The geology of the cliffs is awesome with all kinds of patterns and colors in the limestone. Although there isn’t much in the way of tides in the Mediterranean, so there isn’t a lot of erosion caused by the sea, what there is an abundance of in Malta is wind. The limestone has been raked over by wind so most of the areas on cliffs seem quite smooth. And where there is some protection from the wind, the limestone is bumpy and there is vegetation growing out of the rock. I especially enjoyed seeing birds gliding along the cliffs. I think I saw the indigenous bird, the Maltese Blue Thrush. The western cliffs apparently is the only place this bird exists.
We passed by the Blue Grotto caves and saw the little luzzus full of tourists motoring out from Weid iz-Zurrieq to enter these phosphorescent caves. As you might recall, when we went there with Eve and Michaela, it was too windy for the boats to go out. That wasn’t a problem today. I hope we will be able to do that one day, maybe when Eve is here visiting in June.
We then passed by Qrendi where the two temples, Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, are. We visited those the same day we hiked the Dingli cliffs. And we saw the Hamrija Watchtower that we walked out to when we were visiting Mnajdra. Also, this is where you can see the little islet of Filfla. This rock was used for bombing practice during and after WWII, so the islet is half the size it once was. It is now a protected nature reserve.
The pilot tried to get fairly close to the cliffs and so we spotted a couple of surprising things. One was a person on a ledge about halfway up a cliff, and the other was a ladder hanging out on a ledge. I couldn’t believe my eyes!
And then came the Dingli cliffs. The patterns in the rock are beautiful and we marveled at all the caves, cut-outs, ledges, holes, vegetation and the sloping farm fields up from the top of the first set of cliffs to the second set of cliffs. That is a long way up!
After Dingli cliffs came a little village right at the sea edge, Mtahleb, where apparently one can get the best fish dinner in Malta (per Alex, the pilot). There was an interesting little house there as well.
We then passed another reverse osmosis water plant, this one creating a little waterfall.
Then the pilot had a lot of fun taking us into a little cove where there were some caves. He asked us if we’d like to go into a cave, and of course, we all said yes. He then proceeded to carefully pilot the sailing vessel, masts and all, under the cover of a rock overhang. I suppose one might call it a cave, and in fact, the entire boat came into the shade of this cave overhang. It was quite a trick.
Then back out into the sea. We came upon some interesting coastline. One place had very cool limestone. It almost looked like the stone had been quarried, and there were some really large boulders lying about. Look for the guys sitting under the point in the Smooth Limestone photo to get a sense of the size of the limestone. I took a telephoto shot of some steps carved into the limestone which were really neat. It was a really beautiful area. And then it became very different with these large boulders sitting tenuously up a hill. Then, it was different again with what almost looked like sand, but it was limestone. All very interesting in close succession along the coast.
Northward, to the northwest section of the island just before the Marfa Ridge, are three of the very few sandy beaches on the island. Golden Bay has been developed. Its neighbor, Ghajn Tuffieha, is one of our favorites, and the last is il-Gnejna, a favorite of the Maltese. The walk down to Ghajn Tuffieha is quite a hike, as is the hike back up.
Then around the very northwest end of Malta, the Marfa Ridge, and I saw the Red Tower. Makes me happy every time I see this structure, don’t know why, but I really like it.
Then we are crossing the north end of Malta heading to Comino and the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is probably the most popular destination for both the Maltese and for tourists. You can only get there by boat. There are only a handful of fulltime residents on the island, but a lot of people go daily to this place. It is beautiful and picturesque. The Hera spent 2 hours there, so we could swim and explore the island a bit.
Yes, an idyllic spot. Did I mention that it is probably the most popular destination in Malta?
Because the area in mostly lagoon, and all the sand is at the bottom of the lagoon, there is no beach per se, and all the perimeter is limestone. There aren’t very many places to sit or lie on your beach towel. Space is at a premium right around the lagoon.
But we enjoyed our time at the Blue Lagoon and want to return for a longer stay. What we’d really love to do is kayak around all the area since there are lots of caves to explore and big rocks to paddle around.
We then spent 45 minutes a short distance from the Blue Lagoon in a place called the Crystal Cove. Some of the people on the boat were having fun jumping off the boat railing into the water.
By now, it’s about 4:30 and time to head down what is called the urban coast of Malta, the northeast and east sides. All of this area is quite familiar to us because we’ve walked a considerable amount of it. I’ll put several photos here with captions. Hopefully, a lot of these places will seem familiar to you, as well, because I’ve posted about them in large part.
And so we arrived back to Marsamxett Harbor and the Sliema Strand. It was a great boat tour and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Malta is such an interesting island, full of history, geological contrasts, and beautiful scenery. Exploring the island from many vantage points adds to its allure.