Xlendi to St. Lawrence and on to Marsalforn – 18th April 2023
Really enjoying my ferry ride to Gozo in the morning. It’s about 1/2 the size of Cairnryan P & O thing, takes 20 to 25 mins and has not left on time any of the 4 times I’ve travelled. No strain.
Ceramic enamelled V.M. to bless me as I pass. Where’d she nick that brit post box from?Cats, ducks, now hedgepigs. Beezer!Xlendi down below. Had to take to the roads. Weren’t any safe paths up these’uns.It does my brain. My whiff of smoke, ephemeral, here for an instant brain. The wind takes a few grains of sand, picks them up and spends tens of thousands of years carving rock with them.That scarecrow chap – Wurzel Gummidge fell through from above and getting stuck was cut in half by the harvester. Once a tree.I thought it a round hole in the hill and couldn’t figure but, it’s a tree.The azure window, fungus rock and the inland sea. Worth coming to from Malta? No.The inland sea. A collapsed cave that is fed sea water from that tunnel. A big pool really.A restored Gozitan (that’s what they’re called) tower.The comment was that this side was best for a shot of the azure window – just an elongated sea arch – but I’ll be fucked if I can get one. You’d need a boat, Plenty of downz and upz going round Gozo.There is definitely a mystical feeling when around and about these overhangs.I think this is as high as I get today.A long and hard climb to dump your old Ikea crap.Half way up that one is an overgrown field with a narrow path in it. I’ve thistle thorns coming out of me everywhere.This one is a bit wider but they still get me. Big sea cave approaching.This is all rock, not sand. See how the softer stuff has eroded away from under that boulder. Looks like a bird dipping down to snatch something with its beak.More rock. That strange thing on the left is me plastic water bottle bombing the shot. In the wet I’d be on me arse down here.Gawd! It’s in this one as well. Ta’ Ġurdan Lighthouse up on its hill.A big gash I do not have to climb into and out of.Żebbuġ on its hill as well. Prob best way to keep the pirates away.Loads of sea caves. Now I’m wondering if they extend under my feet and if they’ll collapse with the huge weight of me.I love the way the rock falls off in straight lines, almost like it was the act of man.Miles of salt pans now. Go way back.You know they’re serious when they start carving it into the rock.Some still working to give you that ‘Genuine sea salt’ stuff that’s monster expensive.Holes that they stored the salt in. I’m almost sure that that is an artefact and not the big girl using the sun to announce the emergence of some new messiah from that cave,I think that the curvy ones are the oldest.They’re certainly storical. Did someone just dictate it.There was once a cave into which the sea deposited all its treasure. Then the wind got at it and eroded the sea cave away exposing her goods for all to see. How did that carrot nose guy from Bob the builder get his portrait carved in the side?Coming into Marsalforn and that looks like a bastard climb for the morning.I’ll hit one of those restaurants at the head of the bay. No damn boats!
The two section thing wasn’t too bad and the wind died away after a few hours which helped. Makes me more confident that I can complete the last two sections tomorrow. I’d prefer an early start but with the trip to the ferry, the crossing, and then getting to the starting point, I’ve no chance.
