We said goodbye to Eve this morning. We had a quick breakfast out on the terrace. She got one last sketch in and then her cab arrived at 8:00. After hugs and kisses, she was off. I have to say again how wonderful it was that she joined us in Athens and finagled additional time off from school so she could join us for 10 days and come back to Malta with us. We’ve made some great memories together.
After Eve’s departure, Christine and I had an adventure to get to. When we were here in 2016, we rented kayaks and had a memorable day. We found a fantastic spot across from St. Paul’s Island that was a windswept limestone “beach.” The water was crystal clear and we had a great swim. And, we nearly lost our kayaks and our stuff, including passports, when the tide came up while we were swimming and didn’t notice our boats starting to float away. That was a close call. At any rate, this limestone beach area was why Christine wanted to stay in Xemxija. She wanted to get back there.

The limestone beach place is not easy to get to. There are no roads to it, only hiking trails, rough farm tracks, and a bit of a road at Mistra Bay that goes about a half-mile around the bay to the old Mistra battery. The hiking trails are steep in places, over rough rock in others. But we were up for an adventure and started off exploring our little neighborhood and then finding the first hiking trail to take us to Mistra Bay.
We walked to the Fire Station and found the trail behind the station that took us to Mistra Bay. We enjoyed nice views of St. Paul’s Bay and walked through a relatively level easy trail. As we were getting closer to Mistra Bay, we realized that we were at the top of a significant hill and that we would somehow be going down the hill to the bay.

The trail then became very rocky as it descended to the bay.

Christine was a real trooper and with a slow and steady method, she managed to get down the steep, rocky trail to the bay. It was not easy, for sure, and we were both happy to be on level ground at the bay.

We walked around Mistra Bay to the Mistra Battery, an old army barracks and watch post. The areas on the hill close to the battery are really beautiful, terraced fields with rubble walls everywhere you look.

Once at the battery, we saw lots people on a trail that went up the hill over some fairly rocky areas. That’s the way we went. We had to watch our footing to be sure we didn’t slide on loose stone. Once at the top of this hill we had a fantastic view of St. Paul’s Island and the rugged coastline both on that island and around the area we were standing.
We continued along the cliff until we crested another hill and once over that we finally saw the area we had remembered from our kayaking trip. It’s a really beautiful area.

We walked down the hill to the limestone and recounted our memories of kayaking there, getting out for a swim and nearly losing the kayaks.
We walked up and down the limestone beach taking in the beauty. Unfortunately, dirt bikers interrupted the solitude of the place as they raced up and down the hill surrounding this place. It drove me nuts.
We then made our way up the hill towards Fort Campbell. We decided to return a different way to avoid having to climb up that rocky trail at Mistra Bay. The way we picked to return was a lot farther, but in the end we were happy to have taken this track because it was really beautiful. And we got to see Fort Campbell, an abandoned army base that was significant during WWII.
Although by this time we were at the top of the hill and walking on relatively flat ground, it was still a long way to get someplace where we could catch a bus back to Xemxija. From Fort Campbell we came to Selmun Palace which was built in the late 1700s by the Knights of St. John as a summer retreat and a hunting lodge. As we were walking by the palace we noticed a lot of activity there and learned that there was some movie filming going on.
By now we were quite tired from our trek, having been walking some4-1/2 hours, and we still had some distance to go. As we were heading to the main road from the palace we passed by a little hole in the wall that said Selmun Bar and Restaurant. The bar was the hole in the wall, but upstairs was a nice restaurant with a fantastic view. This place was just what we needed to rest and recoup some energy with a beverage and a pizza. We felt really happy to have found the place.
Rejuvenated, we went on our way another 20 minutes until we reached the main road from St. Paul’s to Mellieha. We found a bus stop and waited about 15 minutes for a bus that would take us back down the hill to Xemxija. And, after quite a long trek, we returned to the flat tired but very happy to have seen our limestone beach and to have successfully covered the many kilometers. It was a great adventure!