Malta - Saturday 19th Nov

Everyone we had talked to about Malta said we had to go to the Blue Lagoon. So we did. It was a short ferry ride from the mainland to the island of Comino, which is really just a barren rock with a little fortress on it, but all around it are caves with this beautiful turquoise sea.

The island s named after the cumin seed that once flourished in the Maltese islands and the caves and coves of Comino were frequently used as staging posts for raids on hapless boats crossing between Malta and Gozo. In later years, the Knights of Malta used this island as hunting and recreational grounds. It has a permanent population of only four residents. One priest and one policeman commute from the nearby island of Gozo, to render their services to the local population and summertime visitors.

We hung around the port waiting for our little boat, the ferry only took about 20 mins and we were there. We started off our little trek heading towards St. Mary’s Tower. The vegetation on the island was interesting, quite desert like. The tower is the most visible structure on the island. Its background dates back to 1416, when the Maltese petitioned their king, Alfonso V of Aragon, to build a tower on Comino to serve as an early warning system in case of invasion, and to deter marauding Turks, pirates, smugglers and corsairs from using Comino as a hiding place. It was closed when we got there but that didn’t stop us hopping the fence and having a nosey.

We kept walking thinking that we could circumnavigate the whole island, until we reached this battery with old cannons which was cool. We took a shortcut back over the top if the island with Hamish stopping every couple of minutes to try and take photos of these gecko things…they weren’t that cool.

 
Now Hamish loves the sea, and considering it was unlikely that we were going to be coming back to Malta he decided that he would swim in the Blue Lagoon in his undies and “air dry” as he put it. Bearing in mind it was about 18 degrees air temp and much colder in the ocean. But full credit, he did it and didn’t even get sick. We took the ferry back around lunchtime, and as a bonus they took us closer to all the little caves and lagoons.

We got back to our car and realised that some idiot and blocked us in with their car. We were seriously screwed; we faced the potential of being stuck with our car there for the whole day until whoever it was came back from their day trip. Again, a few choice words were spoken. Luckily, after about 20 minutes this other car left leaving a gap that was about 2 inches wider than our car. Hamish did a sterling parking effort and after only about another 30 minutes we got the car through. Talk about drama!

We drove to another tourist site called the Red Tower, which as its name suggests is a red tower. We had our packed lunch, and a wander round. Also known as St. Agatha’s Tower, it was built in the 18th century as a defence post and used throughout both World Wars. It was pretty ordinary but worth a look. 

Next we took a bit of drive seeming more of Meliha, and over onto the west coast to a beach called ‘Golden Bay’, which was more of a tan colour. The ‘Beware of jellyfish’ signs didn’t fill us with much confidence. We had a coffee and headed back to the hotel where Lou decided she needed to make use of the hotel gym to make up for the pastitsi'.

We treated ourselves to a dinner out and came across this great little restaurant that served huge platters of amazing food. We both sampled the local beer, Cisk, which was really good. We had a Maltese sharing plate to start with lots of olives, cheese, tomatoes, ham etc. Hamish had the rabbit, which is the national dish, and Lou had the seafood platter that was stunning. We wandered round the town after dinner to make us not so full and got some great shots of the main church.

Highlight: The ocean really was blue.
Lowlight: The temperature - if it was a couple of degrees warmer!
Interesting Fact: According to Maltese folklore, a mystical hermit named Kerrew would occasionally cross the channel between Malta and Comino on his cloak to meet the renowned cabbalist, Abulafia.