Wednesday

We haven't spoken to a lot of Maltese people - there are many British ex pats running businesses here, especially the diving, but we have heard Maltese spoken and it's an unusual language. Apparently it is heavily based on arabic with Italian, Sicilian, French and Greek thrown in.

This morning Kath left at 7.30 for her dives. Martin and I had a walk planned on the east coast from Marsaskala to Marsaxlokk which meant changing buses in Valletta. The trouble was there were loads of people waiting for the same bus and one flew by as it was already full. We wasted some time looking at alternative places to go but then Martin spotted another route to Valletta so we jumped on a fairly empty bus. We had to wait for the connection and then it was nearly an hour to our destination. We were definitely ready for a coffee by the time we got to Marsaskala. The walk started well, following the coast around the bay but the path turned inland and the environment was a bit barren. The leaflet from the Tourist Office which described the walk was inaccurate and quite a few of the numbered markers were missing but we followed our noses and managed not to get lost.

We ate our lunch sitting by the pretty harbour at Marsaxlokk - well it's pretty if you look one way.....at one side of the entrance to the bay is a power station and the other side is a major container port! We had a wander then started our mission of returning on the buses. It was a real bundle trying to get on at Valletta and, by the time we got home I had resolved to find a day out for Thursday which wouldn't involve changing in Valletta.

We had kept in touch with Kath by text when she finished the dives. Her verdict was "ace" - she had dived to see a WW2 shipwreck and then a ship which had been purposefully sunk to create an artificial reef.

After a rest we all went out for a walk to make the most of a lovely evening and had a beer.

Marsaskala;

Salt pans;

Not much view

Better view;

Marsaxlokk;

Evening stroll;