Ghar Lapsi

The photo is of the Valletta bus waiting outside one of the three churches that surround the square in Siggiewi.  This is where I had to get off to walk down to Ghar Lapsi because the buses only run there during tourist high season.  I had to walk down the road to the left of the church.  

As I was taking the photo, a Siggiwin (someone who comes from Siggiewi), walking through the square, stopped and said to me "You look like a happy person."  It was a great way to start a conversation!  Like many Maltese, he had lived in Australia for some years and was glad to talk to someone from those parts.  I have noticed that I present myself primarily as Australian here, even though my British passport makes it easier for me to travel in and out and settle in Malta.  After chatting for a few minutes, the inevitable question came up, "Is your husband with you?"

"I have no husband," I said, hoping that the unspoken "and I am not looking for one because that is why I look like a happy person" was understood.  He then invited me for coffee at his house just off the square and when I responded that I needed to start walking as I was due in Ghar Lapsi at 2.00pm, he offered to give me a lift.  By now I was pretty focused on my intention, so I declined the offer as politely as I could and we parted as friends with a vague hope that we would meet again someday.  As I set off to Ghar Lapsi, I thought about how many Maltese people present themselves as very friendly and open to visitors from other parts of the world.  It makes Malta a welcoming place for tourists and overseas residents but I'm not sure to what extent 'foreigners' are allowed more deeply into the Maltese culture where people seem to argue and joke with each other very passionately.  Perhaps I have to learn the language to find out about that.

By this time, I had walked through the outskirts of the town of Siggiewi and was heading towards Ghar Lapsi on a major road lined by high rubble walls.  I was starting to worry about getting to the Ramblers Malta meeting place at the old police station in Ghar Lapsi on time when a car pulled up and a woman leaned out to ask if I wanted a lift - it was two women on their way to join the walk so I accepted with gratitude.

In my library book on Malta's Southern villages, Siggiewi is described as a town on three levels, hills, plains and coast.  The Ramblers' walk was planned to take us up from Ghar Lapsi down at the coastal level up the magnificent cliffs to the plain where the town is built and most people live and then on a circular route back down to the coast.  Ghar Lapsi is a tiny fishing village at the base of the cliffs with a series of caves, some used as boathouses, others collapsed into the sea to continue the work of cove building.  Like most Maltese place names, there could be more than one derivation.  Ghar means cave (as in Ghar Dalem in one of my earlier posts) but Lapsi could be a corruption of Habsi, an escaped prisoner who hid in the cave or the Greek word, lapsi, which stands for Christ's ascension to heaven on the 40th day of Easter, a Thursday.

Because of my lift, I arrived in Ghar Lapsi with half an hour to spare so decided to go into the local restaurant/bar to get some lunch.  As I was waiting for my spaghetti with rabbit sauce, I found myself chatting to a woman whose story was very similar to mine.  Her mother was Maltese and her father was in the navy; she had spent some of her childhood in Malta and had been visiting for over 30 years.  This time, she was visiting with her husband staying at Ramla bay and had come to Ghar Lapsi for the wild flowers.  It seems it is still a bit early for the full wild flower display but I had noticed on the way down that there was plenty of heather in purple bloom and I have been noticing other flowers ever since we started getting rain at the start of the winter in November.  I now have quite a collection of wild flower photos which I'll have to collate for my friend, Carol, in Australia.

So, all this had happened even before we set off on the walk!  By 2.00, most people had gathered across the road from the police station and Dr Gunter led us off but first we just went to the left hand side of the village where we had a good view of the collapsed cave that gave Ghar Lapsi its name.  This remains a popular swimming cove in the summer, but people have to be cautious of the rocks scattered under water.  Yesterday, there was a strong swell running and I would also have been wary of being swept onto the rocks. 

We walked back through the village, past the Reverse Osmosis plant that has been built here to help with Malta's growing water shortage, past a solitary castle/house built on the rocky garigue,  and on up the road past a deep gorge plunging to the sea below.  Geologically,  this area is important because it demonstrates clearly the layering of the rock that makes up Malta as well as the massive folding of the earth that has pushed up the Maltese archipelago and the mountain peaks between North Africa and the Alps.

Shortly after the gorge we left the main road and started up a country lane with irrigated fields and high stone rubble walls on either side.  In the Times of Malta that morning there had been a short article about the government demolition of a high stone wall somewhere in this area.  It seems it has become common to build up the usual waist high rubble walls to a height higher than human.  Several people, including the Ramblers Malta Association, have complained that this is altering the nature of the rural landscape and it seems that the government are starting to take notice.  This first demolition using a bull dozer had to have police in attendance because the farmer, who had been notified of the intention, was protesting strongly.  This kind of scenario is being played out in different ways as government organisations try to regain control of public space where individuals have traditionally stamped their own dreams and endeavours onto the landscape.  This has given us the amazing array of shrines and chapels that dot the rural areas, the great street cafes and restaurants in the built up areas, the lovely rubble walls that surround the fields and country lanes.  But it has also enabled some abuse of public space and now the government is finding it hard to establish policy to prevent that.

The country lane narrowed and it became difficult to walk up an overgrown stretch that appeared to be used as an irrigation ditch.  When it opened out again, we were walking along a flat stretch at the base of the cliffs reaching up to the Gebel Ciantar plateau that has Siggiewi, Rabat and Dingli on the edges.  We came to a tiny hamlet that has two chapels; Tal Lunzjata is a familiar medieval chapel and further on Ta-kammnu has a fascinating history.  It was built over a spring by the noble lady Gebel Ciantar who gave her name to the plateau above.  The spring dried up, and Gebel Ciantar prayed to Our Lady and made a vow that if the water started running again she would dedicate a chapel.  When the water came in again a few years later, the lady kept her promise.  She later presented the chapel to the safe-keeping of the religious order associated with the chapel of St Paul shipwrecked in Valletta.  This is why there are excellent records of the development of the chapel and it is very well maintained.  It also explains the milestone nearby saying Miles to Valletta.  The number of miles has been erased, probably in WW2, to avoid giving useful information to an invading force.

After the hamlet, we started in earnest up the rocky path to take us up the cliff.  It was very steep despite the hairpins and many of us were breathing heavily as we came up to the top and gasped at the stunning views of the Dingli cliffs to the North and Ghar Lapsi to the South.  Right at the top we passed a high rubble wall that I realised had letters built into the wall using quarry stones amid the rubble.  I tried to work out the word that had N, A, Z, I, and C, I think, but one of the local people said that it was just advertising for some kind of battery!

The pace quickened as we walked along an old Roman road because our leader had realised that we were running out of time to get back to Ghar Lapsi before it was dark.  As we got back onto more established country lanes, we passed the Madonna tal-Girgenti, where someone had seen a vision that inspired the large outdoor seating area for people to contemplate the three statues and the trough where running spring water still comes out.  Several walkers renewed their bottled water from the spring.  

We also passed the Girgenti palace that I had visited before with a Malta Heritage tour (see one of my previous posts).  The orange trees in the valley were heavy with ripe fruit.  Soon after, we came closer to Siggiewi before turning towards Ghar Lapsi and I decided to leave the main group and head towards Siggiewi to get the bus back to Valletta.  It was getting dark as I walked into the main square and a bus was waiting for me.  What a rich day!