Monday was a public holiday here and the Malta Ramblers Association planned a long walk around Mgarr followed by Christmas lunch at a local restaurant, il-Barri, next to the church that heads up this post. I've been walking in this area before and tell the story in a previous post headed 'Rambling around Zebbieh'.
I managed to catch the quarter to eight bus from Marsaxlokk, kitted up in my trusty boots that took me all around the Ring of Kerry walk in Ireland. It was a lovely day, cold and clear. The bus dawdled a bit on the way, and when we got to the terminus outside City Gate at Valletta I found that I had missed the bus to Mgarr and the next one didn't go until 9.00 when the walk was due to start. I caught that bus anyway, deciding that I would walk on my own when I got there and treating myself to coffee in Valletta whilst I was waiting.
When the bus arrived in Mgarr, I walked back down the main road a little way from the parish church and found Ta'Hagrat temples, another circle of monumental stone slabs dated C3600 - 2500BC. The site is open on Tuesdays from 9.30-11.00 as is the Skorba site further down the road in Zebbieh and mentioned in that rambling post.
Then I set off to walk to the little bay just down the road in the other direction. The problem with walking on my own is that I don't yet know the country lanes and so I often have to back-track if I wander off down a lane that disappears in a field or a farmhouse. But I managed to find a track that went up over the rocky garigue of the cliffs, past a few barking dogs on the top of farmhouses and headed towards Ghan Tuffieha bay. Two trail bike riders passed me as I got to a steep and rocky section so I knew that I could get through when it looked like it was going to peter out.
The path widens out into a lane again and goes through fields and past the Ghan Tuffieha Roman baths which are closed for conservation at the moment. It then goes up to the main road to Ghan Tuffieha. I had to walk along this road for a while heading back towards Zebbieh where I had coffee in the place I had found on my last visit and then walked up the back roads to Mgarr. On the way, I passed a farming family sitting in their field having their lunch break - no public holiday for them!
I still had an hour before we were due for lunch so I sat in the little park next to the church and read my book whilst children played on the swings. I'm reading the C.S Forester book called "The Ship" which is about the Malta convoys in World War 2. My father served on the Malta convoys and it is strange to find in the detail of this book a glimpse of what life must have been like for him in the engine rooms of naval destroyers. I have to finish the book soon because I want to send it to my older brother for Christmas.
When I got to the restaurant and found my way upstairs, the long tables were crowded with 100 people from Malta Ramblers. It took me a while to find a place and I ended up sitting next to two retired couples who had been academics at University of Malta, a retired British couple who come to Malta for two weeks every year and stay at Hotel Phoenicia, and another Maltese man who was on his own and ate his way solidly through everything that was placed before him. For the first time, I tried Maltese snails as an appetiser and really enjoyed them. I also had great home-made vegetable soup and fish.
It was after dark when I got back to Marsaxlokk and it was too cold to linger outside and enjoy the lovely half-moon.
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