The white cliffs of Dingli

When you travel around Malta you will find many impressive cliffs. But down at the southern coast you find some of the most impressive cliffs on the island. Today tourist come to look at the impressive cliffs but in the old days when the knights of the order of St. John ruled the cliffs were a natural protection against pirates who would have trouble landing below the cliffs and then launching a surprise attack on the nearby Dingli village.

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I am not sure what Dingli village actually looks like since we don’t really stop in the village we head straight down for the cliffs. We drive along a road called Triq Panoramika – I am not very familiar with the Maltese language – but I think I kind of guessed the translation of this panoramic road. The view of the sea is pretty spectacular but you have to stop and walk a bit over some rocks to reach the edge of the cliff and really enjoy the view. I guess this isn’t the famous part of the cliffs so we continue driving along the road.

We reach pass a little radar station and a small church which seems to attract a lot of visitors – the small parking lot in front is full for the moment so we continue the drive a bit. Then we see the spot which is the really spectacular part of the coast where you really can see a dramatic cliff stretching out to the ocean. Parking is terribly short in this area but we manage to find a little spot where we can get the car off the road and walk out to have a closer look at the cliff. The cliff is pretty dramatic and when we walk up to the higher spots on the cliff there are some great views of the white cliffs of the coast line.

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We walk back from the cliff and can enjoy the flowers – the temperature down here is a lot warmer than at home so it is really spring and the flowers and birds enjoy the sun. We reach the car and drive back along the road. And now there is a parking spot for us at the small church so we can go out and have a closer look at the building and the view of the cliffs from here which are also pretty spectacular.

It is about time for lunch – but there isn’t a lot to choose from out here at the cliffs. Fortunately there is a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere. They do serve pretty good Maltese food – it is always good to have a bite of rabbit which is so rare to come by at home. The restaurant have some posters of all they do to help conserve the area and do small ecologically based walking trips and the like across the land next to the restaurant.