Sunday, 25th March 2007

Start of walk

A group of 95 ramblers turned up for today?s walk, in excellent weather, especially appreciated after the rain of the last few days. This group included a nice contingent from the Biggars Ramblers.

Our meeting place today was St Thomas Bay, known to the locals as ir-Ramla taz-Zejtun, thus imposing a proprietary tone in the name itself. In fact, part of the bay is occupied by "beach-huts" mostly "owned" by people from Zejtun.

Munxar Peninsula

From the bay we headed approximately south east and up to il-Munxar. We did not actually enter the Munxar peninsula, but headed on to Xrobb l-Ghagin, or more precisely il-Hofra il-Kbira (literally, the large hole). Apparently this is also known as Island Bay to folks from Sliema, because of the small island in the centre of the bay. From here we walked approximately south-west, mostly along country paths, passing by St Paul?s Battery and Tas-Silg Battery (now a dog sanctuary) until we reached the southern cliffs of the next bay, il-Hofra z-Zghira (literally, the small hole).

Il-Hofra z-Zghira

We then continued south, hugging the coast, to St Peter?s Pool and on to il-Kalanka until we reached Fort Delimara, where the Biggars brought out their sandwiches. Fort Delimara, inaugurated in 1881, was used as a pig farm until a few years ago. It is now officially in the hands of Heritage Malta, hopefully for restoration. The front gate was locked, although we could see a red car inside the grounds. We rang the door-bell, but no one answered our calls.

Along the coast

From Fort Delimara we walked back north along the paved road, passing by the power station, on to tas-Silg Battery again, and then we took a different way back to St Thomas Bay, mainly through unmarked country paths in between fields. Many of the Biggars left the group before the last part of the walk, taking the road to Marsaxlokk.