We seem to have spent precious few hours on our now two month long jaunt doing much relaxing, so today we decide to make up for lost time. Our apartment is made for the job; a sizeable terrace equipped with a couple of large sunlounges overlooking the water, and if that gets a bit warm theres always the leather recliners in the living room where we can stretch out and stare through the full length glass doors at the sea.
Unlike my beloved I do start to get itchy feet after an hour or so of lounging around, so I head off towards Zonqor Point at the mouth of Marsascala Bay. Im not quite sure what to expect. One reviewer gave it one star with not nice, which is not particularly encouraging, or helpful for that matter. Another gave it five stars and said its good for standing. I think the was probably more helpful; at least it was less ambiguous. As is the case along most of Maltas coastline it does look very rocky, so maybe the reviewer just meant its not good for sitting, unless of course you happened to bring your own deck
chair. I dont know everyone in the world so I guess its possible that there are people out there who like standing so much that theyre prepared to give a place five stars on that basis alone. Anyway, there arent too many people here today, just a few stretched out on towels under umbrellas on the rocks, plus some others in the water; nobody seems to be just standing, but I guess its possible our reviewer here every day.
I round the point and wander down onto the Zonqor Point salt pans. If the shack at the top of the beach and the pile of salt under a tarpaulin held down by a few rocks are anything to go by, it looks like the pans are still in active service. Theyve apparently been carved out of the soft rock by hand, and knowledge of the salt production process has been handed down over the generations, sometimes for as long as 350 years. Apparently you can buy packets of locally produced rock salt in the shops here. It seems that this is just one of a number of similar sites around Malta and there are even more in
We head out for a very pleasant home cooked meal at Issys cousin Nancy and her husband Frances house in Birzebbuga. Were joined by their daughter Shirley and her two children Kelly and Jake. As often seems to be the case the conversation inevitably turns to Australias seeming abundance of spiders, venomous snakes, sharks, crocodiles, vicious mosquitoes and deadly marine stinger jellyfish. Shirleys never been to Australia and if the look on her face as the conversation proceeds is anything to go by thats not about to change anytime soon.
