The entrances to the tunnel between Valletta and Floriana have been blocked for many years by chained iron gates and limestone blocks. I have read messages on the internet from people who have managed to find ways into the tunnel and have been sorely tempted to give it a try myself but… that would be trespassing (and anyway, I am far too fat to squeeze through the railings). Imagine my delight one day in September when I read an announcement from the Facebook group’s admin – Paul Galea, that he would be leading tours of the tunnel and Floriana station on the 23rd of October 2011. I booked my flight to Malta immediately.

When I got to the Floriana local council building for the 10.00 tour there was already a large crowd of people waiting. They were not your usual train spotters – not an anorak in sight despite the damp October weather.

First stop was the ticket office tucked away next to the Methodist Church. Here Paul Galea explained that the normal entrance to the station was via a door and a set of stairs that were now blocked off. We followed him down the ramps that offered alternative access and would have been reserved for military personel other ‘special cases’. As we made our way down towards the station level, it was clear that a great deal of debris and rubbish had been allowed to accumulate on the site over the last 80 years. It was also clear from the grafitti on the limestone walls that there had been a steady stream of ‘unofficial’ visitors to the station over the years.

The station area itself had been provided with fairly bright temporary lighting powered by a portable generator. Originally the entire station area would have been lit by candles!

Paul did a tremendous job explaining something of the history of the railway and of the station itself. At one stage during the talk when covering the wartime use of the station as an air raid shelter, an elderly gentleman interupted and explained that as a 10 year old, he was one of those who lived and slept in the tunnel during the war years. He told us how two rooms (behind the bricked up passage to the ticket office) were set aside as classrooms as teachers tried in vain to make their voices heard above the din of the people living in the tunnel. To be honest I am not much of a railway buff and this account of the station’s ‘human history’ was at least as interesting to me as the technical details of the steam trains and the rolling stock.

Not part of the original equipment but nevertheless impossible to ignore were the huge bundles of high tension electricity and telephone cables. Paul explained that the parts of the tunnel that were not accessible to the public were strewn with discarded cable drums and other debris. If the station was ever to be returned to it’s original appearance it would be an enormous (and expensive) job to conceal these cables . Personally, I doubt that anyone would have an deep enough pockets for this sort of work BUT I would love to be proved wrong.

After we had spent a while in the tunnel, we returned to the entrance and were shown the small magazine (with it’s own external access), which was used by the British military to guard the tunnel. It was from here also that ammunition could be loaded onto the train for transport to the Victoria Lines in the event of an invasion.

Beyond the magazine, the railway enters another short tunnel before emerging in the Notre Dame ditch. This section is not currently accessible and houses the remains of the wartime telephone switching equipment.

My thanks to Paul Galea and the Floriana local council for this unique opportunity to travel back in time. Perhaps one day we will see other parts of the Malta Railway opened to the public. I would love to walk underground from Floriana to Valletta or perhaps between Notabile and Museum Stations at the other end of the line!

STUTTGART – INNSBRUCK – BOLZANO – VERONA – ROME – NAPLES – MESSINA – CATANIA – POZALLO – MALTA

Google worked out that the route was 1963.2 km each way but we broke the trip up into several much shorter legs. Our first stop was Rome and the very lovely ‘Camping Tiber’ at Prima Porta, situated, unsurprisingly on the banks on the Tiber river. Our fellow campers ranged from the ubiquitous dutch caravan owners to interailing teenagers from Australia and the USA. At about six o clock on our first evening we were startled by the arrival of a tour bus from Iran.

From Prima Porta it is an easy ride by local train into the center of Rome. We spent the next couple of days sightseeing and managed to tick off all of the usual tourist destinations. We did a lot of walking and I think that the kids saw a lot more old buildings and piles of stones than they had bargained for. We spent the evenings in the campsite pool and the local pizzeria.

When the time came to continue our journey I found that we had flattened the car battery, apparently by constant charging of the kids’ Nintendos and the portable DVD player. The campsite’s friendly odd job man earned himself €10 by giving us a jump start and we were off. The journey down to Villa San Giovanni and the ferry to Sicily seemed to take ages. but, the scenery was fantastic scenery and, we were pleased to discover that there are no charges for using the autostrada in the south of Italy. Late in the evening we finally got to Siracuse where I had booked a €50 room in the local Holiday Inn Express (nothing but the best for my family). We slept like logs! The folowing morning we were up early and drove to Pozallo where the kids spent a couple of hours swimming whilst we waited for the Ferrry.

The catamaran is operated by Virtu Ferries and only takes 90 minutes to do the crossing. We just had time to watch a movie (today it was Johnny English starring Rowan Atkinson) before Malta rose up out of the sea in front of us and we slipped into the Grand Harbour.

On our return journey we stopped once again at the same hotel in Siracuse. The following day we made it as far as Naples (another Holiday Inn) where we visited Pompeii and Vesuvius. We did the rest of the trip back to Germany in one very looong day, broken only by a couple of stops for fuel and food. As we crossed from Austria back into Germany my sat nav started working again!

Would I do it again? Definitely but I m not sure I could persuade my wife and kids to come along. Perhaps one day I will do the trip by motorbike!

Here are some useful links:

Virtu Ferries between Sicily and Malta

A route planner from the Italian motorway network

Ferries across the Straits of Messina (Italian mainland to Sicily).

The car park ar Migra Ferha is rather difficult to find and if I tried to give detailed directions I would probably get them wrong. Suffice it to say that you will need to head towards the west coast from Rabat and look out for signs to Mtahleb. You will know when you get there because there is an attractive chapel perched on the edge of a cliff, and a drug rehabilitation centre surrounded by high walls and plenty of barbed wire. Drive on past the rehab centre and follow the (very bumpy) road round to the left.

Stop and admire the views of the Mtahleb Valley before continuing along the road until you eventually get to a junction Turn left (downhill) and follow the road all the way down to the car park. Get out, take a few deep breaths and start the adventure.

To the north of the car park there is a very steep ravine that is begging to be explored. walk around it to the landward side and you will come to a path that leads you down to the sea. The path is STEEP and can be slippery so be very careful. As you get towards the bottom you will see the entrance to the ravine. Venture in at your own risk. Right at the end of the path is a sort of rocky shelf that is popular with the braver type of fisherman. If the sea is rough, you stand a very good chance of getting wet!

Back up to the car park, now walk in the other direction. You will be getting some spectacular cliff views but keep in mind that these cliffs are made of soft, crumbly limestone. Do not take any risks. If you go over the edge, it is a long way down and nobody will notice except the fish.

After 10 mins or so you will come to the spectacular bay at Ras id Dawwara and it’s sea caves. It must be a great place to visit by boat! From here you can see right up the Mtahleb Valley to the chapel. Look out to sea like I did in the late afternoon and watch the winter sun go down over north Africa.

For about 12 cheeslets you will need:

1. Three litres of fresh full fat cows milk (long life milk wont do). Real Gbejniet are made from sheep or goats milk but this is difficult to get where I live. I use unpasteurised milk straight from the farm but shop bought milk works as well.
2. About 150 ml live yogurt as a starter.
3. Rennet tablets or liquid. Buy from a chemist or one of many internet suppliers.
4. Salt. I used Maltese sea salt because I thought it would be more authentic, regular salt would taste exactly the same : – )
5. Cheese moulds. I got mine from my cousin in Malta but you can find similar cheese moulds on the Internet. See this UK link for a selection: http://www.cheesemaking.co.uk/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi?product=Cheese%20Moulds
6. A thermometer
7. A warm blanket

Pour the milk into a large pan and mix in the yogurt. Warm the mixture up slowly to 40 deg C and then take the pan off the cooker. Wrap the blanket around the pan to keep it warm and leave to stand for 45 minutes.

When the 45 minutes is up, mix the rennet with lukewarm water according to the instructions it came with. Stir it quickly in to the milk, cover and wrap with the blanket and leave for another 45 – 70 minutes. Try not to disturb the mixture during this phase as any vibrations or movement will slow down the curd formation. You will know when it has set because you will be able to ‘cut’ the curds with a knife and seperate the curds from the whey in a ‘clean break’.

When you reach this stage, use a knife to make long cuts the curds, first in one direction and then at 90 degrees so that you have long colums of curds floating in the whey. Leave the mixture to further seperate for about another 30 minutes and then carefully pour the whey off. Note: there are things that you can do with whey (like drink it or make ricotta) but we don’t need it for this recipe. This is what the curds look after the first cut…..

Fill up the cheese moulds with the very soft curds and leave them to drain for an hour or two. At this stage the lower part of the cheeslet will take on the imprint of the mould. Now comes the tricky (but slightly unnecessary) bit….. Tap the cheese out into the palm of your hand and return it upside down into the mould. This way, both sides of the gbejna will have the mould imprinted. I think it looks nicer this way but of course the taste doesnt change.

Leave the cheese draining in the molds for about 12 hours. By now, they will be fairly firm and ready for a 3 hour soak in a 15% salt solution (150g of salt dissolved in a litre of water). After the salting, remove the cheeslets and let them dry for a few hours. Now you need to decide whether they will be peppered, pickled or plain. I have never tried pickling but making plain ones is easy – you have already done it. Peppering is also easy, you just roll the finished cheeslets in ground black pepper!

This is what my plain Gbejniet looked like.

And here is a picture including some of the peppered cheeses made in some (non Maltese) moulds that I bought on the internet.

Follow the signs from Dingli and enter the site from the road that forms it’s northern boundary. Walk a hundred meters or so to the south west and it won’t take you long to find the network cart ruts that have been the subject of speculation and wild fantasty over the years. There are those who maintain that the ruts have extra terrestrial or supernatural origins. The fact that some of the ruts in Malta  go straight over cliffs, and the alleged finding of cart ruts underwater, has prompted some people to speculate that they date from a time when the sea level was lower and Malta was part of a land bridge between Europe and Africa.

I suspect that the reality is rather less fanciful. The information signs at the site talk about Misrah Ghar il-Kbir having been an ancient quarry. The cart ruts were either caused by actual carts or sleds that were used to transport the heavy limestone building blocks.

When you have had enough of the cart ruts, walk towards the south of the site and the enormous modern day quarry that operates today. Here you will find the large cave complex that gives this place it’s Maltese name (ghar = cave, kbir = big).

Apparently the Ghar Il Kbir complex is made up of eight adjoining caves but, when I visited there was a large group of teenagers having a barbecue inside. Not wanting to gate-crash their party I confined my exploration to the small outer caves. Next time I will make sure to visit on a Saturday morning when, as everone knows, all teenagers sleep!

On my way back to the car I passed a number of small entrances to underground passages. They were obviously man made and I wonder if they are linked to the cave complex. If anyone knows, I would be glad to hear from them.

Here are a couple of interesting links that relate to Ghar Il Kbir and the Clapham Junction site.

http://schoolnet.gov.mt/history/wirt/MedjuEvu/GharKbir/GharKbirBuhagiar.htm

http://www.cartruts.com/pages/prehistoricshoreline.htm

One hot Saturday in June 2010 I got off the bus in Ghadira armed with bottled water, cameras, tripod and a printed copy of the Marfa Ridge Walk brochure. It was a very hot day and the German football team were meeting Argentina in the World Cup quarter final later that afternoon so I figured that I would follow the the walk for a couple of hours and then find a bar with a big TV to watch the match.

I left the beach at Ghadira, packed as it always is in the summer with a mix of tourist families, language students and a few brave locals, and walked up onto the northern part of the Marfa ridge. The road is quiet and bordered by scrubby trees. Clumps of wild thyme and straggly fennel bushes are everywhere and give up a delicious fragrance if you crush the leaves or seeds between you fingers. To the right of the road, dusty paths lead to low cliffs and great views of the bay. This HDR shot was taken about halfway down the ridge.

Further down the road, past Malta’s only camp site (update 28/07/10. There is more than one camp site in Malta – see comments), the trees thin out. The Immaculate Conception chapel stands at the  end of the headland.  Close by, rather close to the cliff edge is a statue of Our Lady.

After checking out the chapel I set off towards the white tower and pretty much the most northerly point of mainland Malta. On the way I passed through areas where swathes of jagged agave plants competed for space with the wild thyme bushes. If you are doing the walk with bare legs, give them a wide berth or you will find out just how prickly these plants are.

From the agave bushes I continued down the hill and eventually came to the campsite entrance. I turned right here and walked up the rocks towards a very large radio antennae. Just behind the fenced off area is a large depression where the rocks have fallen in to leave a crater that is open at one end to the sea. Here at Ahrax Point you have excellent views of Comino and Gozo. I sat on the rocks for a while and watched a variety of craft ranging from ferries to jetskis making their up and down the Comino Channel.

By now I was beginning to think of a beer and the football match so I headed back up to the ridge road by way of Little Armier Bay. The Malta Tourist Authority walk continues for a couple more hours on the southern part of the Marfa Ridge. I will save that for my next visit.

On the way to the station, I came across a fantastic derelict and crumbling public washhouse. I have seen a similar building in Gozo on the road between Victoria and Xlendi and I guess that there must have been others back in the days before mains water and automatic washing machines. A sign outside warned in English and Maltese that the building was unsafe and should not be entered. Large cracks in the walls lent credibility to this assertion but, the presence of a group of small children splashing around in the stone basins inside suggested that the locals were either fearless or unable to read.

Continuing down the hill, I came to Museum Station, totally deserted, boarded up and bearing the scars of recent vandalism. A few years ago the station building was used as a restaurant. It has a great location – perhaps one day it will reopen.

Just to the east of the station building is a fenced off compound. From here you can see (just) the arch where the tunnel exits from underneath the city of Mdina.

After mooching around Museum Staion for a bit longer and taking lots more photos I refered once again to Don’s notes and continued my exploration at Notabile station – only a kilometer away (as the train chuffs) but a stiff walk for me in the hot June sun.

The only remaining evidence of Notabile Station is the ticket office on Triq it Tigrija. Unfortunately I had some problems with my camera so photos will have to wait until my next visit. Behind the ticket office, a rubble strewn path leads towards the place where the railway line would have disappeared under Mdina. I followed it for 20 – 30 metres and got a tantalising glimpse of the fenced off tunnel entrance. Whilst I was trying to sort out my camera a couple of barking dogs started up and I decided to back off.

What sort of state is the 1000 metre tunnel under Mdina in today? If anybody knows, I would love to hear from them.

Check out Google maps to get to

Museum Station……

Museum Station

…and Notabile ticket office….

Notabile ticket office.

My Kodak Zx1 camera is weatherproof/splashproof but certainly not designed to be submerged in water. I bought a rectangular lunchbox (the sort with 0-ring type seals) which was just big enough to house my Kodak. The plastic bottom of the box was translucent but not properly transparent so I cut a hole and used Araldite epoxy resin to glue on a piece of clear plastic from the top of a Pringles snack tube. I figured that even though it was not ‘optical glass’, it would probably give me the same sort of view as peering through a steamed up snorkel mask. I was right.

I wedged the camera into the box with a dishwashing sponge, figuring that in the (highly probable) event of a leak, the sponge would absort some of the sea water and give me enough time to get the camera out of the water. As it turned out I needn’t have worried as the housing proved pretty watertight.

One of the main drawbacks of my DIY housing was the fact that I had absolutely no access to the camera controls. I had to open the housing to start and stop recording. Another difficulty was with the viewfinder which was very tricky to see underwater. As you can see in the video, my framing was rather hit and miss! Note the short example above has been compressed to get the entire clip under 10MB in size. In reality, the camera is capable of filming in 720p High Definition. As a comparison, here is a longer (yawn) version of the video in full resolution. Don’t forget to press the HD button.

A single camera exposure is usually made to show good detail in the main subject regardless of whether the highlights burn and the shadow areas block up. We don’t have any other option but to expose for the area of the scene that we are most interested in.  In real life we have the luxury of being able to widen our pupils to peer into shadows or to screw up our eyes to look at brighter parts of the scene. HDR photography mimics this real life behavior by taking separate images to capture shadow, mid tone and highlight detail before combining them into a single image. I used Photomatix software to do the clever stuff. Do some Googling to find out more about the technique. In the meantime, here are some of the images that I took.   

Starting near Mgarr, the first shot is of the Ta Hagrat Neolithic temples. They are smaller than the more famous sites at Hagar Qim, Mnajdra, Ggantija & Tarxien but are definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. They are only open to the one day a week (I think) but you can get a reasonable shot of them through the fence. Whilst you are in Mgarr, take a look at the ‘egg church’ with it’s oval dome and the bomb shelter underneath the ‘Il Barri’ restaurant.

The next shot is one of Malta’s trademark dghajsas. Literally translated dghajsa means boat in Maltese but it usually refers to the traditional narrow rowing boats that can still be seen in the Grand Harbour. Dghajsa’s are rowed standing up with the oarsman(men) facing the direction of travel. On the 31st of March each year (Freedom Day), a regatta is held with boats from the Three Cities and other towns competing  against each other. This boat was photographed in Dockyard Creek as the the limestone buildings turned gold in the setting sun         

One of the problems with combining several photos together is that you have to keep the camera AND the subject still. A tripod is very useful but not always essential as most software packages try to align the images. In this shot, taking in the evening in Kalkara, the water was calm but not 100% still so the boats did move a little between shots. I had to tidy it up a little in Photoshop to remove blurred edges and the like.

The sun had just disappeared over the hill behind Mgarr church when I took this picture from the deck of the Gozo ferry. I didn’t have my tripod handy but was able to balance the camera on one of the ships deck rails.

The moment that the rising sun appears as a tiny speck above the waves by Fort Ricasoli. I should probably have waited a few minutes until the sun was more prominent in the sky.

This tiny chapel and cemetary stands close to the entrance to the Mediterranean Film Studios. The remains of Cholera victims from nearby Kalkara were interred here. Nowadays it stands mostly forgotton between Fort Ricasoli and Fort Rinella (home of the Armstrong 100 ton gun).

Geocaching is an increasingly popular pastime. It involves hiding a small container of ‘treasure’ and then providing either the GPS coordinates directly, or (as in this example), a number of clues to enable the treasure hunter to work out the coordinates for themselves. Once found, the finder usually enters some remarks in a log book, sends the owner of the’geocache’ an e-mail, registers the find on a web site etc. Typically, the finder replaces one of the fun ‘treasure objects’ with an item of their own.

This cache was hidden in August 2009. Give it a try. Hopefully it will be fun whether you are a tourist or a local. You should plan at least ninety minutes to do the whole thing. There is bit of walking involved so if you are attempt the cache in the summer months, you might prefer to avoid the heat of the midday sun.

We start in the Upper Barraka Gardens with a fantastic view of the historic Grand Harbour. Look out over the creeks and the three cities of Vittoriosa, Senglea & Cospicua and imagine what they must have looked like crammed with British warships and merchantmen. In the closing years of the 19th Century, Britain had and Empire and, believe it or not, the tiny island of Malta had a railway! It ran from Valletta to Mdina and was known locally as Xmundifer (a delicious corruption of Chemin de Fer – in Maltese the letter X is pronounced SH). The Malta railway is going to provide the loose theme for this cache.

Directly below you as you look out over the harbour is the Saluting Battery. If you are here at mid day you will be treated to a salvo from the ceremonial canon. How many canon can you see? As this is the first question, I’ll give you a hint…. Do not be too hasty. You might need to lean over the railings a bit to make sure you don’t miss anything (be careful though).

Answer A: There are ____ canon on the saluting battery.

Once you have had your fill of views of the Grand Harbour (will you ever have enough?), leave the Upper Barraka Gardens, and cross the road so that you are in front of the ‘Auberge de Castille’. There are two canon on the steps of the Auberge. Directly in front of the building is a roundabout (a traffic circle if you are from the USA). The roundabout is a miniature botanical garden with scores of chilli pepper plants scattered amongst date palms. The second question concerns the number of palm trees that are planted around the circumference of the roundabout.

Answer B: There are ____ palm trees planted around the circumference of the roundabout.

From the ‘Auberge de Castille’, walk down the slope and pass the police station on your right hand side. In front of you are the remains of a large building that was destroyed by AXIS bombers during the second world war. The ruins remind us of the dark days when the area around the Grand Harbour was the most heavily bombed place on earth. The third question is a multiple choice. If you don’t know the answer, ask one of the locals – they are quite friendly!

If you think that the building was an indoor market, then answer C = 1

If you think that the building was the Opera House, then answer C = 2

If you think that the building was an The Malta Stock Exchange, then answer C = 3

Now make your way across the square towards Valletta City Gate and, if you are interested, make a short detour to seek out the site of the old railway station (you can skip this bit if you are in a hurry as there are no clues there). Next to the Tourist Information office you will find a flight of stairs leading down to the ‘Great Ditch’ that separates Valletta from Floriana. Ignore the faint smell of urine and make your way to the bottom where you will find a car repair workshop in tunnel that was the original station. The small steam trains crossed the ditch on a small viaduct before entering a longer underground section taking them underneath the bus terminus on their way to Floriana station. Take a deep breath and go back up the stairs. Leave Valletta via the city gate and look out across the bus terminus. In the center is the famous Triton Fountain which may or may not be working when you visit. Count the number of figures supporting the massive bowl.

Answer D: There are ____ figures supporting the bowl

On the other side of the roundabout you will see the shining gold top of the Royal Airforce Memorial. Make your way towards it but be very careful of the buses. A few meters past the memorial is a huge underground car park which I believe bisects the original railway tunnel. In front of you now you can see the church of St Publius, named after the Roman Governor of Malta who was converted to Christianity in AD60 by none other than St Paul following his well documented shipwreck (Acts. Chapter Verse) on the northern coast of Malta. In front of the church is a large square which covers a network of underground granaries (more of this later). To the right of the church from your viewpoint, is a long garden – the ??? gardens also called ‘the Mall’. Make your way to the ‘Indipenza’ statue just outside and to the north of the Mall. Check the inscription on the statue and make a note of all three parts of the date that Malta became independent.

Answer E is the day: ____

Answer F is the month (you will need to convert from Roman Numerals): ____

Answer G is the year: ____

The railway tunnel runs somewhere under the Mall gardens but there is no access (that I know of). Various prominent Maltese citizens are commemorated along the central area of the gardens. Look for the bust of Sir Hannibal Scicluna, one of Malta’s most emminent (and probably oldest) Historians. Subtract his year of birth from his year of death (which may or may not equal his age) to arrive at the answer for the next question. The inscription on the plinth is a little faint so please look carefully. I had to step into the flower beds to get a clear look.

Answer H: Death year ____ minus birth year ____ = ____

Leave the Mall gardens by one of the side exits and cross over into the square in front of St Publius’. The large stone blocks that you see are actually the covers to the grain stores. How many covers are there in all? Take care because not all rows contain equal numbers of covers. I had to count them several times before coming up with a consistent answer!

Answer I: There are ____ stone blocks covering the grain stores.

Now for the final section of our journey, it is a bit of a walk (perhaps 10 minutes) so gather your strength and walk down Sarria Street past the church (on your right) and make your way to the end. Floriana station used to be somewhere here but the building was demolished relatively recently (perhaps in the late 1990s?). Who knows what remains of the underground part. At the top of the road you will reach the very impressive Argotti Botanical Gardens. Definitely worth a visit if you are at all horticulturally inclined. There is also a reasonably presentable public toilet. For the purposes of our little adventure, let’s assume you don’t need the toilet and that you will visit the gardens another time. Sarria street makes a 90 degree turn to the left. Follow it down hill to where it meets the very busy main road (Triq Sant Anna). Turn right and walk for a few more minutes until you see the ‘Porte de Bombes’ straddling the road. Traffic in and out of Floriana passes under or around this gate. How many arches does it have.

Answer J: The Porte de Bombes has ____ arches.

So, you have answered all of the questions. Now you need to turn the answers to the questions into GPS coordinates to be able to find the cache….

N 35° [I-E-D] . [G-1960] [F-D-C] [A-B-C]

E 14° [H-I+F-D] . [F+J-B] [A-F] [D]

That’s it! If you find the cache, please replace it as you found it an please post a comment here. If you have any trouble, or find that the cache has been damaged, please also post a short message. You can read messages from people who have already found the cache at geocaching.com.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=36b79652-ce29-48f9-898d-1e3670785dbd