Wednesday 15th February
When we opened the curtains this morning, we saw this unusual boat heading towards the fish farm. We understand that the food from its tanks is sprayed across the fish pens.

Each time we walk down the beach or into town, we pass this busy small jetty at Westreme battery.

It was time for jackets this morning as the wind was blowing off the sea. A couple of kite surfers were taking advantage of it and a few hardy souls were sitting on the beach.

The Nissan huts on the old RAF base are home to Ta'Qali crafts village. We enjoyed wandering around in the sunshine watching a silver filigree worker, glassblowers and ceramic painters. There are many more crafts here including work with wood, leather, metal, lace and wool.

The airbase itself is the site of the Malta Aviation Museum.
www.maltaaviationmuseum.com
This is a De Havilland Vampire T11 WZ550 built in the mid 1940's.

An early ejector seat which shows strong protection with very little comfort.

Unusually visitors can wander freely in all areas including the store rooms. This made the visit much more interesting.

This full size Douglas Dakota DC3 built in 1944 is the feature exhibit in the main hangar.

This special Gloucester Meteor was built in the early 1950's.

The star of the show is this recently rebuilt Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX EN199 which was first flown in the UK in November 1942.



Tuesday 14th February
We drove South along country roads and saw tiny fields full of healthy looking crops.

Several of the hedges were made up of prickly pear plants which were introduced by the Knights of Malta.

Siggiewi is typical of the towns we drove through.

Our destination was the megalithic temples which date from 3600 to 3000BC. They are among the oldest free standing stone structures in the world, 500 years older than the pyramids.
Hagar Qim is the first temple.

The stone roofs have long since collapsed but the remains have been uncovered and the site protected with a permanent canopy. They felt very complete and it was hard to realise how really old they are.

 

 Mnajdra temple is a 700 metre walk downhill.

An entrance is aligned with the sunrise during the equinoxes and the rays of the sun hit the main doorway during the solstices.

The pitted texture of some of the stones was fascinating and archaeologists have various theories about how these were drilled. Circular stones found on the site are thought to have been rollers used to move the massive slabs which weigh up to 20 tons.

Thousands of birds fly over Malta during their migration and these stone buildings are bird hides used by hunters to capture them. Caged birds are used to encourage others to land and they are caught in large nets.

This is another small farm where we saw people still working the land by hand

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A distant view of a town which has grown up around a big church on a hilltop.

There are now more crops under cover and the fields are much larger in the centre of the island.



Monday 13th February
This morning we walked further along the beach which is very quiet as it is out of season.

We took our first trip in the hire car to the northern end of Malta, the Marfa Peninsula, which is the wildest and least developed part of the island.

We visited St Agatha's Tower ( the Red Tower ). It was built in 1648 and is a fortified watch tower which overlooks Comino and the Gozo Channel.

We haven't seen many birds but these two sparrows seemed to enjoy pecking the tower's surface.

At the end of the peninsula is the Madonna statue and a small chapel built by a sailor who survived a shipwreck. They both stand on the top of crumbling cliffs and the chapel had to be rebuilt further inland.

We walked along the clifftop footpath to Ahrax Point.

We hoped to explore the White Tower a little further west but the route was closed and the tower looked unsafe.

We had a closer view of the fish farms as we returned to Millieha. We had learnt that most local fish is farmed rather than caught.

We finished the day by exploring the town.



Sunday 12th February
We started the day by admiring the view of Millieha Bay from our balcony.

We had seen the Red Fort lit up against the dark sky when we arrived last night. It was built in 1649 as a signal tower and was painted red to stand out against its background.

Later in the morning fishermen started to appear and families set up barbecues along the promenade.

The water is beautifully clear.

Later we explored this area on foot.

 

 

There are some quite wild open spaces and it was interesting to see some of the local plants.



This is the church that overlooks the bay and is in the old part of town that we plan to explore tomorrow.



Saturday 11th February
We have just arrived in Malta after a good flight from Manchester. Start the sightseeing tomorrow.