Experiencing Malta – Natural Wonder

Malta itself feels like being a natural wonder, but I mean those fantastic, breathtaking creations only mother earth can form!

Dingli Cliffs

As far as I can tell, the north west coast of Malta is either prepared or naturally grown for bathing. You can find some kind of terraces which are very close to the sea level. In the south, the coast is steep and I would recommend jumping into the water here.

We went to the Dingli Cliffs taking the bus 202 from Rabat/Mdina. It’s just a 20 minutes ride. We decided to get off the bus at the station Zuta and walk back. There is a station called The Cliffs, but you actually can not really see the shore from that point as we found out. But there is a restaurant/café. Instead we had a nice, but windy, walk from Zuta back to the first station in the city Dingli. Unfortunately, there is no footpath, but as there are not so many cars driving, it is convenient to walk on the street or next to it.

I really liked the rather harsh scenery and I mean the stones and rocks and walls and tiny shelters scattered over the area. The landscape was already really green and spring showed its power.

Interestingly, at some spots the coast was not so steep, instead, there was a second level before the ocean. Those areas were really green and it seemed like there were gardens with tiny houses. Later, we found out that there are farmers working and that those green areas are their fields. Fun fact: We found this out, because of signs telling that it is not a good idea to spit over the cliff, because you might hit a farmer.

The name Dingli Cliffs results from the city Dingli close to the shore and the very steep and beautiful coast you can look at. The sea was roaring and the wind was blowing heavily, but this location was some kind of mystical and exalted. It’s also the highest point of the island. Taking a look at the photo, you can see a building with a cupola. It’s a radar station which is now used by the Maltese flight control. On the way, there is also a little chapel which we could not enter.

Unfortunately, the area around the cliffs is a bit polluted. I guess, people are using the steep coast to get rid of old cars, fridges, wheels and other things. But all in all it was a great experience for me. As I love walking, I could have hiked there for some more hours, just along the cliffs, but we had to get back…

 

Blue Grotto

Another natural wonder is the Blue Grotto. We went to the Blue Grotto going first to the airport and taking the bus 201 from there. It’s a 30 minutes drive and you cross several nice towns with beautiful churches.

Honestly, we did not really know what to expect, but when we got off the bus, we saw only restaurants and cafés and actually also a really nice little park along the coast. Mainly, we found boats and ticket shops to buy a boat ticket, but we couldn’t see the window…we were upset. But the view was worth it.

So, we walked the hill back to the station called Panorama and that’s the spot! There is a little walk from this station to an area where you can see the blue grotto window and it’s impressive! I guess, going there by boat is a bit more impressive, but all ticket shops were closed as we arrived there quite late. Besides this, I would recommend to go there in the morning, because we had the sun in front of us and so, pictures were hard to take.

If you want to have a closer look at the cave, you have to take a boat. There is no other way to go there. It’s worth it, I guess, as the grotto consists of 6 halls which shimmer in azure because of a special alga. After I saw all of those amazing pictures on the web after searching for it, I was really sad that we were too late. It must be such a great trip. But the good thing is: Now, I have another reason to come back! 🙂