Golden Bay, Malta
Waking up to the sun brought so much joy. I exclaimed that we are going to the beach! Before we left for this trip Fierce said he would like to go horseback riding. I told him, that probably wasn't going to happen. However, the other night, I remembered his request and googled if there was anything available in Malta. My search result brought up Golden Bay Horseback Riding. It was two streets from the exact beach I had wanted to see! So, surprised Fierce and told him we were going to do a sunset ride after exploring the beach...we were both excited.
Plans decided, we stopped at an adorable donut shop for breakfast and then made our way to the bus station. I am not a fan of trying to figure out public transportation, but this has to be one of the easiest systems and it was only 2 Euro to go across to the other side of Malta. The forty five minute ride brought us to Golden Bay Beach. We stepped out to the most beautiful view. A dune stretches downward to your left with rock cliffs just beyond them. The beach is right in front of you and the rocky coast stretches out again to your right.
The first thing we noticed as we walked along the beach are hundreds of jellyfish washed ashore. The Mauve Jellyfish must make a habit of this because there were layers of relatively healthy ones just washed up all the way to a band of dried up ones that look more like crisps about to become one with the sand.
Soon, the beach sand ended and we came to some rocks. If you walk across these, there is a sort of path so we decided to climb up the hill for a while and at one small clearing Fierce got me to Baku battle again. I did better this time, but I still need direction. Fierce also made a movie as if he were Bear Grylles in Man v. Wild.
This adventure film brought us back to the beach and he played, while I soaked up the rays and took in the view of that gorgeous, aqua sea. There is a little beach cafe and later, we got a coffee and he was all excited about plain potato chips from the cafe. I had read that there was another beach close by and asked the waiter how to get there. He said that you just climb the rocks and go all the way to the top and it's just beyond. Fierce was all about it and we set off to climb the rocks again.
This time, we went further and upwards along the very stony path. It was worth the climb. The views of the beach are incredible and as we walked along, we came to an old tower and then the other beach which was beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures. We even found a little peace garden full of olive trees. The smiles on our faces couldn't have been bigger. Fierce wanted to keep climbing up and down, but I reminded him that we still have horseback riding to look forward to. We also explored the right side of the beach just for a few moments and I was glad we did because, the water had come up on the rocks making a pool so you could see the jellyfish swimming very clearly. So fun!
As we took to the road to find the horseback riding place, Fierce shouted "Best Day Ever!"
We walked a bit, which Fierce says that if I say that it is not just a bit...lol. Anyways, he found M.C. written on the road and said it stood for Mine Craft. Definitly got a pic of that. Then we arrived about an hour early actually and it turned out to be nice because we were able to meet the owner, the horses, the cats and birds and get a general feel of the place before any other tourists arrived.
There was a couple from Ireland, a girl from the UK celebrating her birthday and two guys from Korea. All of us, but the three men were put on horses with guide ropes. My horse's name was Brandy and Fierce rode Bailey. We took a road where cars were passing us slowly on the right, but then we came to the trails. These trails are very rocky, but the horses are obviously used to it and we rode for an hour and a half from 3:30pm until sunset and it was amazing. The countryside was beautiful and dotted with little farms and ruins. We passed a falconer as well as mountain bikers showing off their skills. There was also a lone hiker taking in the very views we were enjoying. Once we reached the cliffs, we could see the island of Gozo in the distance. This felt like one of those times you are afraid you aren't taking it all in and when it's over you want to turn right back around and do it again.
Today was my favorite day of this trip.
