Day 3: Malta

A leisurely start to the day and a cab ride down to Avis to pick up a car. "Robbed" by the cabbie - but that is life! Took a long while to get the paperwork done but finally on the road. First stop - Marsaxlokk in the South. Very cute fishing village. We manged to see it all, and Steve bought yet another model boat! Very pretty! Breakfast and away before the tourist buses off the cruise ships in Valetta arrived!

Marsaxlokk

Marsaxlokk markets

An addition to the fleet

Driving here is a bit different - the distances are only short but the roads very narrow and extremely rough. We discovered that our little car had a very dodgy front-end suspension - and worst of all the air-conditioning didn't work!

Ghar Lapsi

Next stop was on the West coast at Ghar Lapsi - in the middle of nowhere but a cute little ocean swimming inlet. Shared the water with some folk from Brisbane!

Bozo and friend go to Gozo

We then headed North to get the car ferry across to Gozo - the subtitle for today's adventure is "Bozo goes to Gozo". The landscape all over is very dry with hardly any trees and more stone fences than you have ever seen. The water is a clear and as blue as you could imagine.







We pottered around Gozo - saw some preparations for a festival (St Lorenzo?) and caught the views from the fort at Victoria - in the centre of the island and quite dominating.

Festival preparations at Xewkija

From Victoria

Then down to Masalforn for a light lunch and a swim - very refreshing. We then drove around some adjacent beaches and also saw some ancient salt pans - really interesting land forms.

Salt Pans

Xwenji

ir-Ramla

"The" beach on the island (sand!) is at ir-Ramla. No lifesavers on duty - just a statue of Madonna and Child to watch over the bathers. We had an cool drink and a look - and then the car wouldn't start. Aided by a really helpful young local we got going (some weird occurrence in the ignition / immobiliser that self corrected!) and took off for the ferry back to the main island. Made it just in time!













Drive back to Valetta was uneventful and we handed the car back and retired to the apartment to freshen up before dinner. Special treat - restaurant called ll Horza. We were the only customers (it seats about 10 people!) which often is not a good sign. However we had the full attention of both owner and his chef and had a superb meal (including the most delicious tuna sausages) and much complimentary grappa etc to conclude. Bravo!

ll Horza