In my last posts about the pre-history of Malta and Gozo, I got a bit caught up in the academic side of things and the writing became long-winded as a result! This post will be about getting back to normal and outlining my next series of posts. The photo that heads the story is of some local council tree-planting that I noticed on the first of the walks that I have been on over the past few weeks. The trees are locally endemic and the location is Wied Garnaw, a valley running down from Luqa past Tarxien to the coast at Marsascala.
Over the past few weeks I have been looking into the natural history of Malta. I've joined the Malta Ramblers Association, contacted Geographic Malta, and have enrolled in an evening course being held in Mosta on the habitats and wildlife of Malta and Gozo. The latter is organized by the Institute for Environmental Studies and I'll write about that after I've completed the course towards the end of next week.
Today's post is about Wied Garnaw where I first started to pick up on the pressures that the Maltese countryside is under. My landlord put me in touch with the Malta Ramblers Association who lead short walks on Saturdays and Wednesdays at different locations around the island. On their programme, they list meeting places and times and everyone turns up. A few longer walks are restricted and have to be booked a week or so beforehand. In December, there is a length of Malta walk that I would love to go on and I will try and get my email in as soon as the bookings open to get into the small group. On the open walks, over 100 people usually turn up.
The meeting place for the Wied Garnaw walk was the parish church at Luqa. Every small village has its parish church and it is a central meeting place for everyone. I decided to walk over from Marsaxlokk through the fields to Zejtun and then on through Ghaxaq and Gudja. It took me about an hour and a half but on the way I met a woman whom I had first talked with when we were both buying vegetables at the cart in Marsaxlokk soon after I came here two months ago. At that time she told me how to cook stuffed aribaldi (round zuchinis), a dish that has become one of my staples. This time, we chatted about Malta geographic, an organisation that I hadn't come across before, and mothers-in-law.
When I arrived at Luqa with about five minutes in hand, there were already well over 100 people waiting in small groups and chatting in Malti. The walk had been programmed as 'Four Santa Marjas' as there are four churches in the area dedicated to Saint Mary but the planned leader couldn't make it and instead the walk was lead by a women from MEPA, the government's Environmental Planning section. She advised us that we would be going on a circular walk through Wied Garnaw and she was going to focus the walk on the conflicts and tensions that are now emerging in the Maltese countryside. She spoke in English once she identified that there were a handful of us who couldn't speak Malti. I continue to feel humble and grateful for the ability of most Maltese people to switch easily between the two languages. Wied in Malti means valley, and Garnaw has got something to do with flying creatures like birds.
We set off through back roads to Gudja where apparently there are bronze-age silos in somebody's private field. This area it seems was part of the cotton belt in Malta until the Suez canal was opened and cheaper cotton from Egypt lead to decline here. The whole valley is under siege from ribbon development of the villages along the sides. This is expressed in a number of ways as people build workshops on prime agricultural land or extend their houses over the fields or even across the public right of way roads. Several times as we tried to follow the planned circular route we were turned back by a farmer who had put a barrier across the lane. After this had happened two or three times, the organiser from Malta Ramblers talked to us in Malti about writing letters to the Times of Malta to raise awareness of this issue and protest to save the valley. I have noticed at least two letters printed so far.
Usually, the building that goes on is not in keeping with the rubble field walls that are so characteristic of the Maltese countryside. At one point we walked past a massive high wall with strange little turrets that had recently been built and now proclaimed the proud name of Country Castle. Towards the end of the valley we came upon the little chapel of Santa Lucia that was built in 12th century and was surrounded by fields but is now built out by houses.
Malta is so small, that the conflicting uses of the countryside are clear. Even the size of the group of ramblers walking down the lanes is illustrative of the heavy pressures on this fragile environment. Hunting is another recreational activity that impacts in several ways. Sheer numbers of hunters in such a small area obviously puts pressure on the wild life but also the landscape has been changed quite dramatically by hunters planting eucalyptus to attract birds. Once established, these Australian natives adapt very well to the conditions and will in time push out the native carob trees. In one area, the local council was planting Mediterranean pine to counter the plantations of eucalyptus in the area. There are also horses agisted in the valley and although MEPA is aware of the degradation of the land caused by the introduction of horses, they have to make their decisions in terms of the lesser of evils - our leader talked about a choice between horses or warehouses.
Other problems that we encountered included the use of reservoir areas as dumping tips and the use of small pockets of countryside now surrounded by buildings for various anti-social, if not criminal, activities. The small size of Malta somehow allows us to see more clearly the complexity of these issues. The concerns are common throughout the developed world but when the issues occur in a larger scale context, it is more difficult to see the connections between all the diverse factors involved.
I left the rest of the group at Santa Lucia where they turned and walked back to Luqa. At this point, we were close to Tarxien where I knew that my bus to Marsaxlokk goes through and I decided to go and find a bus stop. I left my details with the organiser so that he could send me the application form to join the group and continue to receive details of their programme. I'll write about the next walk I went on in another post.
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