I had also done most of Gozo yesterday but wanted to check out a couple more places before I leave.
So I headed over to the Ta’ Kola Windmill, before heading over to the nearest town to the jetty, where there was a church and also to check out the "Fort" which was closed off for maintenance when I was there. Then off to the jetty, and I managed to board the 10am ferry.
This time, I was the 1st car on the ferry. Not much people going to the mainland in the morning. I heard the evening ferries back are always crowded - the car rental staff mentioned he had to wait about 3hrs just to get a space on the return ferry back to Malta Mainland.
Another 20 mins ride and I was back on mainland.
A few mins drive away was St. Agatha Tower or also known as Red Tower. This was where they had kept the gun powder to the nearby Fort back in the day.
Views of Mellieha beach and town can be seen from one side and the other was the view of Paradise Bay and the ferry terminal.
Another few mins away was the Coral Lagoon, essentially a hole that had formed in the rocks with water on the inside (lagoon), located next to the sea.
The winds were picking up really strongly and so I didn't stay too long and drove to Dingli Cliffs, Malta highest point at 250m above sea level.
On the way to Dingli Cliffs, I came across a few of these signs - are there a lot of hedgehogs on the island?
I haven't spotted any. There were also a few signs I had seen of cats crossing! 😂
Not far from Dingli Cliffs is the Blue Grotto. This cave is famous for its intense blue water - not very visible from this pic unfortunately.
The next stop was Marsaxlokk Fishing Village. It's said that on Sundays, a huge market is set up in this town. I had missed it as I had chosen to go into Gozo instead. Then again I don't mind missing the market, since it's highly likely I won't be buying anything anyway.
I really love this cute little town, with the colourful fishing boats dotting along the waters next to the town.
There were also a few men repairing some fishing nets when I was there, and it was interesting to see how they used both their feet and hands to repair them!
Marsaxlokk also became my lunch spot since it was already past 1pm when I got in.
There were a number of restaurants with tables along the water and I chose one based on the menu that was available - Fish soup and mussels. The food was average.
One thing I have noticed is that food quality isn't as good as Greece and the price is often double in Malta as compared to Greece.
Not far from Marsaxlokk was the infamous St. Peter's Pool.
I also walked to the other side of St. Peter's Pool to Il-Ħofra ż-Żgħira, where there were amazing cliff views.
Driving further along, I reached the town of Marsaskala. There were also some fishing boats here, though not as much as seen in Marsaxlokk.
It was also another pleasant looking town, and worth popping over for a quick look.
It was getting late and I wanted to reach Sliema before it gets dark. I've also covered most of the things I wanted to see in this side of Malta and so made my way to Sliema where I had 3 nights stay booked in.
On my way to Sliema, the oil tank meter on the car suddenly started making noise indicating it was low on fuel. I had hoped that I could at least get another 50km in before it gets dangerously low as that was all I needed to get to the car rental tomorrow.
There was also no indicator to show how much distance I could cover with the balance petrol I have in the tank, and I have noticed that petrol kiosks aren't that easily found in Malta. Not wanting to take a risk of the car stalling mid way, I looked for the nearest petrol kiosk.
A number of them were indicated closed at that hour (5.30pm) on Google maps - I found one which was opened 24hrs nearby and headed to it.
It appears to be under construction from outside, though there was a sign which indicated it was still open for petrol.
I turned in and found a number of motorbikes in the queue for just 1 petrol terminal that was available for use.
When it came to my turn, I noticed the dispenser only accepted dollar bills - no cards and no coins.
The smallest denomination I had in my wallet at that time was €10, which was more than I needed, but I didn't have much of a choice and so I put €10 in.
When I tried to pull the petrol dispenser to the car, I noticed it was way too short, since the fuel tank on my car was on the other side where the dispenser was located.
So I put back the hose and went to get an empty bottle to fill it up instead and to then pour into the fuel tank. Alas, when I did so, it seemed to signal to the fuel dispenser that I was done with my 1st fuel dispensing (even though nothing was even dispensed) and I could no longer dispense any fuel unless I put more money in.
The guys on motorbikes in the queue behind me suggested I go to the office and ask for a refund, but the office was already closed for the day.
The motorbike guys then suggested I come back the next day with the receipt, and in the meantime go to another petrol kiosk down the road, which will have people on hand to help me at the kiosk with fuel dispensing.
So I drove to the next nearest petrol kiosk. When it came to my turn, I tried to unlock the cannister to the fuel tank of the car but it wouldn't budge.
Thinking I may have done something wrong, and also because a long queue was starting to form behind me, I asked another guy on a motorbike (who was also getting fuel pumped into his bike) for help.
There was nothing wrong with what I was doing earlier, as that was exactly what he did too, but the cannister cap refused to unlock.
The guy from the car behind me also came out of his car to see how he could help, but none of us could seem to unlock it and no one wanted to use brute force to open it, in the event it gets damaged.
I decided to jiggle the canister cap to see if it may budge and suddenly it decided to open for me. What drama!!!
I then was given some help with getting it filled with a prepayment on the card terminal and finally I managed to get some fuel in! Phew!
I can now make my way to Sliema, where my next challenge was trying to find my way to where I needed to go among all the numerous one way streets in the city (Google maps doesn't always know which ones were one way only), with another challenge of finding a parking lot as close to where I will be staying as possible.
After a number of turns, I finally found a lot and checked into Two Pillows Boutique Hostel.
I was so exhausted after the entire day, that I decided to take away a Poké bowl from a nearby food court and call it a night. I have to admit this is one of the better Poké bowls I have had on this trip.
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