A Winter in Malta #8 - Dwejra Bay

Hey, fellow Steemians!

This is our final post in the series about Malta (we do have a couple more topics to cover but we’ll tackle them sometime in the future). To wrap things up, we wanted to show you a fascinating place in Gozo that used to be even more beautiful in the past but now stands forever scarred because of an unfortunate turn of events. Had the fate decided otherwise, this post would have been called Azure Window but instead, let’s talk about Dwejra Bay.

The famous Azure Window, a true natural wonder collapsed in March 2017. As luck would have, we were a little late. We will not post any 3rd party photos of it, but you can google it and see for yourself how it used to look. If you watch a lot of movies or TV shows you may have even seen it in one (Game of Thrones, for example). Sadly, it’s gone forever.

Nevertheless, we felt Dwejra area itself still had a lot to offer so we decided it was worth the trip.

Getting here from Gozo’s capital, Victoria, is easy - just take the bus 311 from Victoria bus terminal and get off at the last station which is in Dwejra.

Our first stop was the Inland Sea. This peculiar natural phenomenon was created due to a cave being formed inside a cliff that used to separate the sea from the land. It let the water in, which in turn created a small lagoon and a pebbly beach. During our visit, a really strong wind caused a big turmoil and waves to get crazy big. The water was rushing through the cave and into the lagoon with tremendous force. We could almost feel it sweeping us off our feet and pulling us in!

When the sea is calm, the open water can be reached through the cave by boat. It must be a fun experience to pass through, but it was not destined for us (at least not for this visit).

We returned back to the rugged coast to see the waves crashing off the coast. It was quite a sight! It was fun getting close and almost showered with the salt water (we had to leave the camera so to not risk it getting wet, so we don’t have many photos to show). There were many people besides us who had the similar idea.

Another phenomenon that can be seen around Dwejra is the natural pool, sitting just below the cliffs. When the sea is calm and the water warm, you can even go into it. But with these conditions, it’s obviously not possible. Not only that, but it was difficult to get a picture of it with a normal level of water in it. It got constantly flooded due to the waves.

Some people were more curious than the others and wanted to get a closer look.

To get some nice shots, we decided to hike the short trail to the top of the cliffs that stretched above the Inland Sea.

On our way, we noticed many seashells and fossils embedded in the rocks. It’s truly fascinating to think about how old some of them may be. Thousands of years, easily. But some of the fossils may even be millions of years old.

We got to the top pretty quickly, it took us no more than 20 minutes and the hike was pretty easy. Rarely anyone goes up, so it was a good spot to capture the photos.

On the other side, cliffs get even higher and the whole scene reminded us of our time in Dingli.

When we got back to the central area, one last thing for us to check out was the Fungus Rock. The path leading to it was walled by some pretty cool rock formations. It kind of looked like the rocks were imitating the waves coming from the opposite direction.

The Fungus Rock itself was pretty important during the Hospitaller period. As the name suggests, the knights believed the plants growing on it had healing properties and dedicated much effort to collect it. The researchers nowadays still haven’t proven this to be true.

That’s all for this series! If you liked this post, join us for the following ones. We hope to keep you entertained :)