Malta - National Aquarium and Salina Cart ruts & salt pans

 Interestingly, I think that may be the longest title I've ever done for a blog post, but I wasn't quite sure what else to call it. Better to be a long title so you know what you're getting yourselves in for, then a short title that someone sues me for misleading them about the content of the blog post. Or something like that anyway.

I will just say, one of the things I love about being on holiday with James is that he is very good at balancing and planning what we want to to do. He wanted to visit the aquarium, I wanted to visit the Cart ruts and the salt pans, and somehow, he planned a day that combined the two which minimised the time spent travelling. He is very good like that. He worked out which bus got us from Valletta to to the National Aquarium in St Pauls Bay, then a bus to Salina for the afternoon, before then planning the next bus to take us to Sliema for dinner, before heading back to Valletta and our apartment for the night. Sometimes I think he would be better than me as a travel planner! (Correction, I think that he is better than me at planning travel!)

The aquarium is right on the coast of St Pauls bay, giving you some beautiful views out to sea. It's also seems to be where a lot of holiday makers end up, we got there and it felt like everyone around us had Geordie accents. To me, the aquarium was nothing special, but it was nice to visit. I felt that the tickets were a little bit pricey for what was on offer, starting at 13.95 euro's for an adult, especially as for me, it felt like a very child orientated place to visit and felt like it was a bit lacking in areas. Hey, just my personal opinion. James loved it though. I remember him saying he had never been to a zoo or an aquarium as a child, so as an adult it's something he loves to do. 

These jellyfish were beautiful with thier little pinky coloured bodies with the little spots on them. Something very frightening but yet also calming about watching jellyfish swim and move through the water.

Calamari anyone? You don't get fresher than that!

This little fella looked very glum, but so would I be if I was in a tank with screaming children the other side of it!

We had a bit of a walk along the waterfront, grabbing ourselves and ice cream for good measure, before heading over to Salina. The bus dropped us off at the side of the road, and we walked up to see the cart ruts. But we had a nice surprise on the way, when we discovered this! It's a little chapel of the annunciation. You couldn't go in which was a shame, but it was a lovely building none the less.

We then got our second surprise, just behind the chapel, was this collection of catacombs! Completely open and free to enter, we have a good look inside and explored around them. I did try to find out how old they were, but no where seemed to be able to give me a definitive date. But they look very old, and I was excited to be able to go in!

We then walked further up the hill, to find the cart ruts. Now here is where things became a little unstuck. The cart ruts are in an enclosed area, with a road on one side and some buildings on the other. I had checked the map to make sure we were in the right area, except due to them being overgrown, we had real trouble finding them. You can see in this one, it was full of plants and grasses, so we never managed to quite find the main chain of them, which was rather frustrating. Further research from Google Maps shows the Cart ruts as clear as day, so obviously they had been cleared of vegetation at some point. But never mind, there is no point getting hung up on these things is there. James's foot is there for comparison. 

We then wandered down to the headland where we found this little fortification, apparently called St David's tower. The headland gave us a beautiful view across the crisp blue ocean, although here the wind had picked up a bit and it wasn't as sheltered as Valletta was.

How's that for a view?

We headed back into Salina, where the salt pans and wildlife zone is. We walked along the edge of the salt pan and into the little visitor centre, where there was some panels about the wildlife conservation area and the restoration of the salt pans. As you can see, the pans were full of water, but as the weather gets warmer as we head into summer, the water would evaporate and leave behind piles of fine Maltese salt. 

The visitor centre also had this table, which was full of things local children had found on a local trip to the beach. It's amazing what they found, especially as Malta felt and looked like a very clean place, we barely saw any litter anywhere. But it's proof that you've got to look after the area where you live, as rubbish can float across the sea and appear in unlikely places.

And the final photo of the day was perhaps my favourite, after spending an hour watching to see if we could see any rare birds (which we didnt) we caught sight of the sun setting behind the hill, and the beautiful colours of the sunset radiating across the sky and across the salt pans. What a truly beautiful place. No wonder people Malta has such a pull on people to come and visit.