Marsaxokk harbour

Very strong winds blew masses of clouds scudding across the skies today. Even so it was much better than yesterday with some sunny spells and blues skies later in the afternoon.

Our first destination was Marsaxokk in the SE corner of the island. It’s Malta’s premier fishing port, landing 70% of the island’s catch and the second largest harbour in the country.

The seafront promenade was very fine with low rise buildings fringing the bay and plenty of restaurants overlooking the water all offering a large variety of fish. The traditional boats were plentiful and colourful adding to a most agreeable scene.

We had lunch there, spoilt only by having to hang onto everything on the table to save it from being blown away. A two course seafood menu was only 10€ and included a glass of wine. What was not to like.

After lunch we drove to the nearby Hagar Qim archeological site. What an excellent place that is. Two megalithic temples have been excavated and opened with an informative visitors centre and virtual tour guide.

The two temples were built at least 3,600 years BC, lying undiscovered for thousands of years until the 19th century. When you stop to think that the temples were built in the old Stone Age using only simple tools and structures, great ingenuity and a great deal of muscle it makes the mind boggle.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ħaġar_Qim

Both temples much older than Stonehenge and arguably the oldest substantial large scale stone buildings in the world. Wonderfully situated high on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with Filfla Island isolated in the middle distance. The people who inhabited these buildings all that time ago lived in a very special place.

For those of you enquiring about the traditional island buses, I’ve included one as an extra. This example seems more modern than some we’ve seen. If we see any further examples I’ll post them.

Also as an extra is a shot of an artist just putting the final touches to a traditional Maltese boat in Spinola Bay. He was telling us that the eye was for seeing fish ( not as I’d read elsewhere for warding off evil spirits). The other images depict a dragon with flames coming from its mouth. I thought of the parallel between these boats and the canal art on our narrowboats.

Another lovely day on Malta, it has acquitted itself very well in the past three days.

On a final note, I’ll record that diesel fuel is about 1.21€ a litre and petrol around 132€. I wonder why that is? Tax?