Húsavík is a community with both great patriotism and great optimism. After the city became known through the ESC film ‘The Story of Fire Saga‘, they have invested heavily in an ESC boom.
A fake bus stop was constructed for the Fire Saga movie, and was taken down afterwards. But now it is rebuilt as a sightseeing spot (the buses don’t pass here).
Now it is possible to book a ‘Fire Saga Guided Tour‘, a ‘Ja Ja Ding Dong Pub‘ has opened, and when the song ‘My Hometown‘ (Húsavík) was nominated for an Oscar as the best soundtrack in 2020, it really escalated. Several funny commercials with the theme ‘Oscar for Húsavík‘ were posted, and when the award evening approached, they even painted 50 meters of the main street red – to have the red carpet ready for Oscar.
Idun on the red carpet in Húsavík.
Icelandic TV followed up and filmed a version of the song at Húsavík harbour, with the church in the background. Girls from Húsavík school were backing vocals, each of them wearing a beautiful Icelandic ‘Peysa‘ (knitted sweater). The song was broadcasted again and again during the Oscar’s commercial breaks.
From the ESC exhibition in Húsavík Höfði Hótel.
There was no Oscar for Húsavík. But the Húsavík children were given a public holiday the next day – everyone knew that they would be awake on this dramatic night anyway.
PCC BakkiSilicon.
After a Fire Saga Guided Tour, a refreshing bath is just right. Drive north to the PCC BakkiSilicon factory, then towards the shore and park below the site.
Skjálfandi Bay – incredibly beautiful.
Walk towards the sea but not right down to the shore, stay on the grass. Follow the coast, and you will find an unknown gem at the very edge: The Húsavík’s mammoth!
Bakkastakkur/Gatanöf, Húsavík’s mammoth.
If you want to stand under the mammoth’s belly – choose low tide. If you want to swim between its legs – choose high tide. The mammoth is just as beautiful as Hvítserkur – and almost completely unknown. If low tide (as at both our visits), there will be no swimming under the mammoth. A good alternative would then be Sundlaugin á Húsavík. An unpretentious, classic public Icelandic bathing facility with a couple of hot tubs and everything you possibly need. One of us went there while the other stayed at home with a cold. But we don’t have pictures, grown up single men with cameras at a pool aren’t always very popular, so the camera also stayed home.
Húsavík is a beautiful place! A rounded mountain behind the town (Húsavíkurfjall) is not so exciting, you might think, but on the other side of the bay of Skjálfandi you can enjoy a spectacular row of mountains starting with Kinnarfjöll, which likes to express itself in winter clothing, all year round. Skjálfandi means trembling and comes from the many earthquakes in the area.
Húsavík harbour, with the characteristic church and the mountain in the background.
The conquest period in Iceland started with a Swede – Garðar Svavarsson, who built a farm in Húsavík. He had heard about the land in the west from the Norwegian Naddoð, who had found it but not wintered there. Garðar left Iceland after only one winter, after having completed an entire round trip and thus being able to establish that Iceland is an island. To honor himself, he named it Garðarshólmur. When Garðar left, one of his men, Náttfari, stayed behind with a slave and a maid. They moved to Reykjadal, where they took up land and lived for many years. Later, a man called Eyvindr appeared in Reykjadal, and gave Náttfari the annoying choice: That he should have Náttfaravík, or no land at all. Náttfari saw no other option, and moved from Reykjadalur. Náttfaravík lies vis a vis Húsavík, in a very hostile environment.
The west side of Skjálfandi is not a warm and friendly place to live.
Finally, in the summer of 1970, Náttfari got his restoration, when they celebrated his conquest 1100 years earlier. This event happend in Húsavík, 4 years before the rest of Iceland honored Ingólfur Arnarson’s conquest.
Check out the blue whale sceleton in the Húsavík whale museum!
Husavik got it’s income from trade, fishing and whaling for many years. Today (2021), Húsavík has switched from whaling to whale watching, and it works very well! There are different whale watching concepts, including by sailboat, where the focus is silence. Before the cruise: Take a trip to the whale museum, where you will find, among other things, an entire skeleton of a blue whale. Yes! That’s impressive stuff! We did a standard whale watching tour, during winter time, although that is not the best time to see whales. The name of the boat? ‘Náttfari‘, of course. Skjálfandi is a large bay, more like a fjord, and we cruised around for over an hour before we saw anything. But finally, a sperm whale (physeter) did appear – to the guide’s great surprise. You don’t come across sperm whales very often, because their dives are deep and long lasting. Our boat crossed behind and to the side of the whale, and we saw it breathe quite closely a few times before it disappeared into the deep. Then we stopped for a while, hoping to see the whale again. And indeed, it did reappear. A great experience!
Sun, mountains and whales – a splendid day!
After an ice cold whale watching trip, a warm bath is the perfect thing to do. In Húsavík there is a wonderful spa, GeoSea, located on the cliffs just north of the town.
Close neighbours: Húsavík lighthouse and GeoSea spa.
Here you will find beautiful design both outside and inside. The site is partially submerged in the terrain. When you arrive, you can see straight through the building and out to the sea. An absolutely fantastic view from the spa (when there is no fog). Lovely!
From time to time some of us start wondering about simple questions such as: ‘What is the direction of a valley?‘ The direction of a river is easier to determine, since it flows a certain way. But the valley? It turns out that the early Norwegians set the direction of a valley as the natural way to enter it. As the glaciers retreated after the last ice age and Norway reappeared, the land (and the valleys) were conquered from the sea, and the direction was from the lowest point upwards. This explains the name of the river Vinstra (The Left River), after which the Vinstradalen in Oppdal municipality is named. When you walk up the valley, you have the river on your left side, plain and simple as that.
View north towards Drivdalen and Oppdal.
Vinstradalen runs southwards from Drivdalen, south of Oppdal center. Standing at the bottom of the valley looking north, you will be able to see the farm ‘Lo’ (meaning lowland fields close to water and forests) on the right side of Drivdalen, where king Håkon Håkonsson built a church and a royal farm around 1250. Nearby is also the farm ‘Rise’ (meaning bushland), where a number of archaeological finds have been made. It is assumed that the permanent settlement in Drivdalen has lasted 2000 years. The large burial ground at Rise (some of the tombs date from the 3rd century A.D.) was located by a track, as was the custom at the time. A bronze angel has been found here, which may have been attached to a reliquary shrine. This figure represents the archangel St. Michael, and was probably made in Ireland in the 6th-7th centuries. A wooden version is to be found in St. Michael’s Chapel in Vinstradalen.
St. Michael from Ireland, wood version.
Vinstradalen is lush, and the soil is rich in nutrients. There are several summer farms in the valley. When you park your car at the Trengen farm, you quickly see that sheep are a source of income here, with sheep sorting facilities (in Icelandic called ‘réttir’), and a cattle grid. But one can wonder how stupid the sheep really are, when you see this one:
Useless cattle grid, it seems.
The summer road up Vinstradalen is an excellent skiing track during winter, which can certainly be recommended (even if we didn’t have skis with us this time). However, at Easter 2024 the snow was hard and quite fine for shoes as well
On the way upwards (direction south) Vinstradalen. And yes, the river was to the left.
A short kilometer into the valley you will find St. Mikael’s Chapel, named after the ‘Rise Angel’. The chapel was inaugurated in 2012 as part of the ‘Pilgrimsleden’. The road through Vinstradalen is one of three old traffic routes northwards from Oslo.
St. Michael’s chapel – exterior.
St. Michael’s Chapel is a gem, built like an amphitheatre, with the Oppdal nature itself as an altarpiece. It was designed by Yngvild Norigard from Drivdalen. Awesome!
St. Michael’s chapel – the interior is characterized by Oppdal slate and wood.
… and if you need some extra help from above, there is a charming Jesus figure in the chapel as well.
We had read in the newspaper ‘Opp‘ about some ladies taking winter baths in Vinstradalen, and our aim for this trip was to find the waterfall where they had their Christmas bath. In the article, the walk from Trengen is described as ‘long and steep’, and we must say that it was quite a good description. Especially the word ‘steep’! Starting from the chapel, we slid down on last year’s half-rotten birch leaves. It was so steep that Idun occasionally sat on her bum and let the back of her trousers take the brunt.
Idun really felt that it was steep enough in the Vinstra riverdale. There were bruises, too.
Despite all difficulties (or maybe even because of?) it turned out to be a really nice visit. Vinstradalen is a canyon, i.e. a steep valley dug out of the river. Here (in the summer, if you’re lucky) you can enjoy the sight of the endangered species Black Curlew (don’t pick it!). In winter, there are other beautiful phenomena to see – made of ice. The sides of the canyon were decorated with an impressive amount of icy waterfalls – both impressive and beautiful!
Cool and gorgious ‘icefalls’ in Vinstradalen canyon.
We’re guessing that these are tiny streams in the summer, not sure if you even notice them at all. But in the winter, when the ice builds up, it’s a magnificent sight!
Rough nature in Vinstradalen. Knut is checking the occurrence of puddles.
Once at the bottom of the valley, we wondered whether we should go up or down to find the bathing pool, but as the valley seemed to be more steep upwards, the choice fell to the right, and it was indeed the correct idea. A bath in Vinstradalen is just right!
After many great experiences with swimming in Iceland, we have suddenly begun to understand that we never ever sought such places around us in the same way. And we didn’t have to look far! Suddenly we saw a post from a friend on Facebook about Storfossen (The Big Waterfall) in Malvik municipality. We took the trip the next day.
It was late before we left home, after a rainy day in Malvik. That gave us the advantage of being alone in the forest , if you don’t count the sheep… We saw one car only in the car park when we arrived, but the owner came walking towards us early in the trip, and thereafter we didn’t see a single person. It was a special feeling to walk alone in a Norwegian ‘rainforest’, the entire forest floor was green and the trees very tall.
Storfossen is located in a narrow gorge caused by a fault in the earth’s crust a long, long time ago. It is very steep close to the river, but there is a path all the way from Hommelvik by the Trondheimsfjord and up to Storfossen (about 6 km to walk from Hommelvik to Storfossen). By parking at the Kringelmyra car park, you enter the path directly above Storfossen and then it is only 0.6 km to walk.
There is a small detour from the main path to a platform where you can see the waterfall in all its glory.
Then it’s just a matter of taking the stairs down to the river itself and rigging the camera.
Before jumping into the fresh water…
Storfossen, here we come!
Fantastic, it was probably 15-16 degrees. It was a bit slippery to get in because of big rocks where we got out. But then there was a nice gravel bottom further out and more than deep enough to swim properly. If you wanted a training session, there is natural swimming against the current when you approach the waterfall.
We had visited both Molovika and Storvika, and were wondering what more fun we could come up with in Stjørdal, since it had already been proven that the beaches in this municipality are top swimming spots. After searching here and there, we noticed that by Gråbrekk there should be both a waterfall and a pond, both excellent targets for swimming adventures. We thought.
The river Gråelva is running fast, but it is both too shallow and too narrow for swimming in our taste.
Gråbrekk has been inhabited since the Stone Age. There is a burial mound on the farm, and stone tools have also been found. In recent times, the place is known for industry, including a mill. The name Gråelva does not come from the colour grå (grey), but from Norse ‘groðr’ = to grow, i.e. a river that sometimes floods, in combination with the word ‘brekka’ for hill.
The first known user of Gråbrekk was Nils Graderbrek in 1520. A modern mill was set up in 1860, and eventually a dam for a water reservoir, called Gråbrekkdammen. In addition to the mill, various industries were started: bone meal and guano factory, machine production, bicycle production and indeed – a puffery! The puffery produced puffed rice (Ping) and puffed wheat (Pang). The puffing took place with a ‘cannon’ that could shoot out 6-8 kilos of rice or wheat every 15 minutes. That explains the brand name ‘Ping and Pang’, which some of us remember from the 70’s. The silos at Gråbrek and Hegra are currently operated by ‘Felleskjøpet’.
Gråbrekk.
There was no bath this afternoon. Gråbrekkdammen is a private area, so we cannot recommend swimming there, even though there is a floating jetty and otherwise fine conditions.
Almost 2 years went before aiming for the next bathing adventure in Stjørdal. What to come up with this time? It is very steep many places in the Trondheimsfjorden area – ‘Perhaps we should try to find a waterfall?‘
So we checked the map for the word ‘waterfall’ (foss), and one of the first to appear was Skuldbørstadfoss.
Skuldbørstadfoss was piped as early as in 1910.
Skuldbørstadfoss power plant utilizes a drop of 23 meters in the river Mælaselva. It is so steep there that it is a bit scary to drive a normal car all the way. The power plant came into operation in 1910, but burnt down in 1972. Operation resumed with a new power plant in 1985.
Skuldbørstadfoss is now a power plant, not a waterfall (quote smaakraft.no).
It’s no good to bathe without neither water or waterfall, so this bath was a definite a ‘not‘.
The day was still not ended, and Tobatheornottbathe had several more names on the list. The trip continued – not too far – to Mælafossen waterfall. This time, aware of possible trouble, Knut checked first, to see if there was a power plant in the waterfall, and yes, Mælafossen has also been developed. But – due to maintenance – the Mælaselva river was supposed to run the overflow channel this summer (2023). It was an exciting project to see how that looked!
Mælafossen power plant.
The Mælafossen hydroelectric power plant utilizes a drop of 38 meters in the Mælaselva. The plant was commissioned in 1918, but shut down in 1979, after a (generator) fire. Following reconstructions, new operation began in 1985.
In the beginning it looked OK, a little magic, like a rainforest.
It turned ut to be a long and difficult wade up the Mælaselva river. Walking in half-rotten matter, over and under fallen trees, wading in mud, surrounded by a strong H2S stench. What a day!
More impractical and muddy further up.
Idun became more and more skeptical, while Knut tried to keep our spirits up: ‘Around the next bend there’s probably a waterfall…‘, ‘…just a little further…‘, etc. We found no waterfall, and finally Idun decided this was it and turned around. That was certainly a good decision, but unfortunately Knut, on the way back, stepped on a rusty tool and had to go to the doctor for a tetanus shot.
The closest we got to a waterfall bath on this trip.
Half a year later, a new Stjørdal trip was under way. We had got hold on tickets for the ‘Skatvalsrevyen’ (local revue in Skatval), and of course it had to be combined with a bath! Holsfossen sounded as an interesting place for us, and this time we couldn’t find any power plant mentioned by that name in Stjørdal. Maybe we could have our waterfall bath this time?
Can you imagine – there is a dam in Holselva too?
Holselva river is located below Forbordfjellet mountain. We found a (fenced) dam there too, but it was empty and we saw water in the river below, so we made an attempt to find a pool below the dam. It was a bit steep, but not too difficult. And we experienced the fun trick of having to climb over a partially demobilized fence to get out of a fenced area (without climbing any fence to get in).
Knut climbs over a fence to get out of the forbidden area.
We didn’t find no pool. No waterfall either. This concluded our attempts for waterfall bathing in Stjørdal this time. But we have received a tip about Strukhauet/Strukfossen, so we will be back!
The waterfalls are somewhat nicer when they are not piped.
When there is no swimming, why not go to a revue instead? We can really recommend the Skatvalsrevy. Great fun even for outsiders! In Norwegian of course.
Stjørdal is Trøndelag’s most densely populated municipality after Trondheim. The name comes from Old Norse ‘Stjórn’ = steering, from the name of the river. The municipal center (Stjørdals-) Halsen is located between the two rivers Gråelva and Stjørdalselva, hence the name (“The neck of Stjørdal”).
Lindworm (Norse name for dragonlike creature) of ice in Stjørdalselva river. Stjørdal’s municipal’s coat of arms is a yellow lindworm on a red background. The motif is found in a letter of praise from 1344, where Saint Margaret of Antioch defeats the devil in the form of a lindworm.
We were on our way north to the ‘Skatvals revue‘ when we saw something fabulous in Stjørdalselva: A number of larger and smaller icebergs/iceflakes were floating in the river. It reminded us of a somewhat problematic bath in Iceland, in Jökulsárlón. This is a lake in front of a glacier where the icebergs are caught and drift around for years before they melt so much that they are able to reach the sea and it is one of Icelands biggest tourist attractions. Check out the post ‘Jökulsárlón‘, Iceland -> Austurland for more info.
And talking about bridges in the area: the old Hell railroad bridge is now a research project, where they are trying to make it brake down over 10 years to find out how much old bridges can handle!
Stjørdalselva with Hell bridge from 1959 in the background.
Stjørdalselva is one of the 10 best salmon rivers in Norway, with a catch of 1,590 salmons in 2023. It is a large and wide river, but it is a river and not a lake, and the mentioned icebergs are made of river water and not glaciers, but anyway. We just had to swim there, in Trøndelags own version of ‘Jökulsárlón‘!
‘Someone’ has fenced off the river bank at Sandfærhus.
We drove past the Sandfærhus car park and walked back along the river bank. Is it ok to fence the river bank, and exclude the access to the river because you have a parking business within? Tobatheornottobathe aren’t completely sure about that.
Varied paths during a walk along the Stjørdalselva river bank.
It was a somehow tedious walk down the river, over ice flakes and between bushes and trees at the river bank. A lot of alder (or ‘ørder‘ as you can hear it pronounced in Trøndelag), with the result that Idun sneezed days afterwards. It turned out to become a kickstart of the pollen season. Alder thrives by streams and rivers and blooms in March. Big mistake!
Always fun to be allergic at springtime!
Small shoes instead of (mountain) boots and bags instead of rucksacks, impractical, to be honest. Our learning is slow, Tobatheornottobathe continues as before.
There might have been some nice pictures from the camera used during the bath, if the photographer had used a setting that made it actually take pictures!
We had a really nice bath in Stjørdalselva. Quite chilly (not unexpected, considering all the ice). The river was shallow, perhaps you should take the tide into account, this close to the Trondheimsfjord outlet, as we didn’t do for this spontaneous swim. The sand was perfect (not so fine that it sticks everywhere), and there was no bad taste in the water. A bath in Stjørdalselva can certainly be recommended.
Alder cones everywhere. We can’t say we weren’t warned….
On the way back we found a route between 2 rows of fences. We were also filmed by CCTV, suddenly feeling simular to Valborg and Kjell (in the ‘Olsenbanden‘ movies), even without trespassing forbidden territory. Maybe, that is.
Parts of Olsenbanden on a bathing trip. More breaking out than breaking in.
However, as always, time was just right for a bath!
In search of new and exciting experiences, we had checked a couple of times in Verdal, whether there could be anything spectacular in the mountains near the Swedish border. And yes, there are lots of things to discover! In Verdal, the ground is made of limestone, making up a typical ‘karst‘ landscape.
Knut hunting for a new bathing adventure.
At Ramstad, there are several gorges, waterfalls and caves, and we were aiming for Svartfossen (The Black Waterfall).
What’s hided in the gill?
It is only a few hundred meters from the car park to the waterfall, and the path is nice. What could go wrong this time? Not much, it turned out – except for lack of water! It was winter and everything was frozen. Correction: Everything was not frozen solid, we heard the water beneath us as we walked on the ice into the gill. But bathing? The conclusion is that Svartfossen does not provide a bathing environment during winter time.
Svartfossen is marvellous in winter clothing. However, it wasn’t possible to have a bath there!
We were disappointed, but tried again six months later.
The entrance looked more promising this time.
Summertime is just the right time for a bath in Svartfossen!
You don’t need a large river to have an impressive waterfall. Ramsåa river is big enough. In summer time, that is!
After a refreshing bath, time was just perfect for an excursion. Knut wanted to see if there was anything to explore upstream the waterfall, and a beautiful path has been made to get there.
Well done, Verdal!
There were several nice pools in the river above Svartfossen. But Idun thought it looked dangerous, so no more bathing this time.
Knut is checking the conditions upstream Svartfossen.
And that was it, you think? Both yes and no. We were a bit curious about the caves, if we could find one of them. A short distance below Svartfossen, after the Ramsåa has split, you will find a small cave entrance to the left of the river, by a 20-year-old logging field.
We did find the entrance to Svartfossgrotta!
No cave exploration was done, even though we found one of the two entrances. We weren’t equipped for that. Wrong clothes, wrong shoes, no light, and no rope. But the Svartfoss bath was so nice, that our mood was still high.
We had moved into a small apartment in Buġibba by Saint Paul’s Bay in the north of Malta, and were looking forward to swimming a lot. But it turned out not to be simple. In winter, the wind blows from the west, day in and day out. Bathing from rocky cliffs was not very tempting, and we checked alternatives instead. Farthest out on the south side of the fjord there is a district and a headland called Qawra (pronounced with a silent Q and means Crow). Maybe there could be an opportunity there?
A mysterius pool at the Qawra Headland.
‘Business before pleasure‘ is what we often think at Tobatheornottobathe. First exploration of the place! The mysterious pool turned out to be a training target for pilots during World War II. Easily recognizable from the air. Malta, with its strategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean, was heavily bombed in the first part of the war. More than 30,000 buildings were destroyed in an island community of 250,000 inhabitants at the time.
How do you swim in here?
At the far end of the Qawra headland, we found a collapsed cave. Could we swim in there? The answer was an unconditional NO. There is a direct entrance from the sea to the cave, but it is so low that the waves hit the ceiling, so you would be crushed there. The alternative could be to scuba dive in – if it’s deep enough, but we don’t know how deep it is.
We chose to stay outside.
After the exploration of the Qawra headland, a bath was just right, and the bay east of the headland is actually a bathing paradise! It’s warm and nice here in both summer and winter, you just have to jump in. The bottom is varied with alternating rocks and sand, and many nice fish to see.
Lush spring in Malta in February. The Qawra headland at the back right and Saint Paul’s Island with the statue of Saint Paul in the middle of the picture.
A few days later, when we were searching to find information about Saint Paul’s Island on the other side of the bay, we read that Pope John Paul II had visited the island in 1990, and in memory of this visit a statue of Jesus was lowered later that year in the sea off Saint Paul’s Island. As a diving target!
Numerous diving targets in the north of Malta Island.
Diving destinations in Malta can be: – Caves and arches, above or below water – Coral reefs – Shipwrecks, often moved to suitable depths and good diving spots – Plane wrecks – Statues
Due to detoriating visibility and declining interest in diving, the Jesus statue was moved to Qawra headland 10 years later. This suited us very well, we would like to dive down to a statue! After some pondering, we realized that Jesus was too complicated for us, 500 meters out from the Qawra headland (in which direction?), and at a depth of 35 meters (would it be visible during freediving?). To find Jesus we needed diving equipment (which we could have rented), diving certificates (Idun doesn’t have it) and good backs (nobody in Tobatheornottobathe had that during this holiday).
But now that the idea was born – could there be other diving statues in Malta? This country is said to be the most Catholic of all Catholic countries in Europe, maybe they have made other religious diving destinations? The answer turned out to be YES. There is an abyss Madonna too!
A few days later we took the bus to Ċirkewwa in the far north of the island of Malta, where the ferries go to Gozo and Comino. The name Ċirkewwa comes from the word circle, and refers to the rounded bay.
Where the map should actually have been mounted.
It was another non-bath. Again, we just had to accept that the winter wind was not on our side.
The pier and ferry port, Ċirkewwa. The circular bay is on the other side of the harbour.
Fresh breeze from the west and seas far too rough for freedivers without a wetsuit.
Easy access to the sea, but…No bathing in these charming environment.
Ċirkewwa did not appear at its most attractive in February 2024, but very few ferry terminals are. However, a little more maintenance could nice, for us to be able to enter the view point.
We did catch a glimpse of a Madonna, though.
Anyway, we actually had a nice break from bathing, to the beautiful sight of splashing waves. Next time!
At the north of the Malta island, one can find the municipality of Saint Paul’s Bay, including several connected villages, one after the other: Xemcija in the innermost part of the bay, and further out on the south side: St. Paul’s Bay, Buġibba and at the far end; Cape Qawra. This is the most densely populated area in Malta after the capital Valletta. Around 30,000 souls live here in winter, and the double during summer.
Saint Paul’s Bay. Small houses are getting fewer.
The area is described as follows in our guidebook: ‘This large and beautiful bay, which was a quiet fishing area until the 20th century, is sadly now surrounded by ugly modern apartments and mass-tourism hotels. Buġibba and Qawra on the southern side are particularly unattractive‘. Here, from the 60s, one large ugly concrete block hotel after another popped up, hotels that are now being demolished to be replaced by new, better ones. Where do you bathe in such a place?
Bugibba. You exploit the width you have.
The beach in the innermost part of the bay, by Xemcija, is not allowed for swimming, and the town of St. Paul’s Bay has no swimming facilities, so there the choice was basically easy.
Yes, there are swimming opportunities in Buġibba.
Much of the coast in Malta consists of pointed cliffs that are not easy to swim from, but occasionally there are beaches, and we found a small one in Buġibba, not far from the apartment.
Small, sheltered beach at sunset.
Tobatheornottobathe had for a long time accumulated points through a house exchange website, and decided to use some of them to travel south in the winter of 2024. When you get an offer of free accommodation for 3 weeks, you can’t fuss about such details as bad reviews in the guidebook, can you? We wanted to escape from an icy Trondheim to a warmer climate, in the hope of getting our backs in order. The both of us struggled with back pain this winter, and what can possibly be better for your back than swimming?
Always keep your back against the waves! Or was it the other way around?
Saint Paul’s Bay has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and traces of people have been found 6,000 years back.
Roman Milestone, Saint Paul’s Bay.
Here you find remains of temples several thousand years old, baths from Roman times and forts built by the Order of Saint John. Between the new houses, that is.
Wignacourt tower, Buġibba.
Living in South Trøndelag, Norway, we know Dolmsundet by the Hitra island well, and we are big fans of ‘Knutsen and Ludvigsen‘, so we have to admit that we were very surprised when we saw ‘Dolmen‘ as a place name, and also Dolmen Hotel on the map. What on earth could that be?
There was no connection. ‘Dolmen‘ in ‘Trønder dialect‘ means ‘less wind‘, i.e. shallow waters, and it fits well with the place Dolmsundet, which is a rather narrow channel. A dolmen from prehistoric times, however, is a tomb consisting of a horizontal, flat stone lying on top of two vertical, flat stones. A bit like a small (stone) henge, but a burial place and not a temple.
A modern dolmen in Buġibba.
So where was this dolmen in Saint Paul’s Bay situated? We wanted to see it! It turned out that the Dolmen that Dolmen Hotel is named after is located in the hotel’s garden. And the hotel was closed due to renovations, so we couldn’t get in to see. Big disappointment! The closest we got was this new dolmen – made by concrete – in a roundabout two blocks from the apartment. The Buġibba dolmen is from the Tarxian period, a prehistoric phase in Malta (3000-2500 BC), where a lot of temple building took place. However, the term ‘dolmen‘ comes from Gaelic and means ‘stone with a hole‘.
Rough seas for bathing in Buġibba. Saint Paul’s Islands far far away.
The house book in Buġibba suggested the rocky cliffs below the promenade as a bathing place, only a few minutes away from the apartment. It was not a good recommendation – in winter time! During 18 days there were no days with flat seas. And Saint Paul’s Bay is so wide that it is too harsch when the wind is blowing from the west. But a short distance into the fjord we found a small bay with calm water, and we got to bathe from the rocks in Buġibba at least once. And at the same time could follow the doctor’s advice of walking in uneven terrain.
There were some fish, but not quite the aquarium feeling.Walking in barefoot wouldn’t have been a good idea right here.
It was quite OK to swim in Buġibba, but generally speaking, this is probably not the best bathing spot during wintertime.
Nice evening in Buġibba bathing bay.
Ref: Rix, Juliet: ‘Malta and Gozo‘, Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, 2019, ISBN 978 1 78477 070 9
The Maltese Islands lie as an archipelago of limestone on the African tectonic plate. The limestone was deposited in the sea between 8 and 20 million years ago, so this is a very young landscape.
Limestone with remains of shells (Buġibba).
At the end of the last ice age, Malta was landlocked with Sicily due to the low sea level, and they are considered one unit geologically (even though Malta doesn’t have any vulcanos). When the waves break against the limestone, the most beautiful formations are formed, so here you just have to grab your snorkel and start exploring!
Armier Bay looks boring, but there’s fun around the next corner! In the background: Comino island, the smallest of the three inhabited Maltese islands (less then 10 people live there). Behind that is then Gozo, the middle sized iceland.
We had read about 2 great snorkeling attractions in the far north of the island of Malta, and they had to be checked out: The Blue Hole and Coral Lagoon.
Cairns everywhere. Is this really necessary?
We dare not think about the reactions these stone towers would have caused in Iceland, where cairn building is strictly prohibited. But we agree with the Icelanders: It should be possible to go for a walk without leaving a trace!
No doubt, there is a hole here somewhere.
It was only a few hundred meters to walk from the car park before we reached the blue hole, no problem with that. But the opening? Knut had read somewhere that you could swim into it. We went back and forth a few times, and also did some googling, before we looked down into the hole from the other side. There was an arch!
Happy bathers did find the arch.
This was the start of a climbing hell. It turned out that the Blue Hole and the Coral Lagoon are the same spot (or actually, the “Blue Hole” tag in Google Maps is probably wrong, placed by someone who has mixed this up with the “Blue Hole” on Gozo). Both names are comprehensive, and when you climb on corals… Well, it’s ok with your shoes on, but we didn’t have wet socks or wet shoes. Warning: Do not walk barefoot on rocks that look like coral!
Not nice to walk barefoot here. This reminded us of a Dimmu Borgir in miniature (check the non-bath ‘Grjótagjá of Thrones‘).
The next problem was the waves. A fresh breeze from the west was somewhat worrying, but we got into the sea, to the east of the opening, without any major problem. This is a great snorkeling spot!
Time to enter the quiet water inside
Lagoon or hole? It doesn’t matter, we loved snorkeling there. We spotted fewer fish (and people) than expected, but the light was beautiful both above and below water. But of course, ‘lagoon‘ seams to be more extraordinary than ‘hole‘.
On the way in.
Well inside, as expected, the water was calm.
View of the entrance from inside.
There where also caves to explore inside. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring any lights.
View from inside a cave, same direction as previous picture.
The return trip? Apart from the fact that we had forgotten to take notice of where our stuff was placed, it went almost completely well. We swam a hundred meters too far before going up, the dwellings were quite big, with bleeding hands and feet as a result.
You have to cope with some hazzle.
But we didn’t regret it! We have never regretted a bath. Not yet!
