The PicuMarZ Diary

When we woke up I gave Stephen the last Xmas present (I gave him some small presents already the previous evening), namely two large books about the flora and fauna of Malta, and he seemed to like the present.

After eating breakfast, arranging our backpacks and checking the map we decided to spend the day walking along Wied Hanzira, which is a large valley near Xewkija. We drove to Xewkija and parked near the fields. When we parked the car we realised that we had forgotten to bring water with us, and on Xmas day all groceries are closed But luckily the Gozitans are extremely friendly and helpful people, so when we asked two old men in a nearby house where we could get some water they gave us to drink.

Our walk started in an olive groove, and we then came out to some open fields. Very soon we spotted the valley, which was very narrow at this stage, just like a large ditch. There was water running in the valley, and Stephen stopped to take some photos, while I was just enjoying the warm sun and the relaxing sound of running water.

We kept on walking, stopping here and there for photos of both plants and the scenery. The valley was gradually getting wider the further we walked. After a while we were no longer able to walk on the valley bottom, because of the increasing amount of water. We climbed upwards, and found a beautiful spot with a view of the dam and with Xewkija church far in the background. Here we shared a large cheese&bean-pie that we bought at Martin's Diner the previous day. It tasted delicious, and we even had dessert: Finnish chocolate by the courtesy of my friend Katarina

We chose a good place for a break, because immediately after we encountered the most difficult part of the walk. We had to walk on a narrow passage high up on the valley wall, and it was very slippery. But luckily we did not fall down the steep cliffs, which would had lead to a quick death.

After the difficult passage we were rewarded with another beautiful scenery, a split of the valley with some interesting stalactites and lots of birds. We also saw some rock climbers here, far down in the valley.

We continued a bit further along the valley, before we turned towards Ta Cenc. We crossed a large bridged and continued walking for quite a while before we finally recognised the Ta Cenc cliffs. From here we followed the road, walked past Sannat church, saw some cows and finally arrived back to our car after a whole day of walking.

When we arrived back to the apartment we had some coffee and lazied in front of the television before we ate some oxtail soup. I was a bit sceptic about the soup, but it was not too bad. Unfortunately we did not have any bread to eat with it.

Later in the evening we got a bit bored watching TV, so we drove to Victoria and went for a walk there. We played "20 questions" during the walk, and were so absorbed by the game that we got lost Embarrased we had to ask a young man for the way, and we soon returned back to the apartment to have a well deserved sleep.