Qarraba Bay at Sunset

This was the final sunset of my trip to Malta on August 31st, 2024, and honestly, it couldn't have been more perfect. I'd made the hike out to Qarraba Bay—one of those rugged spots on Malta's less-visited northern coast that feels properly untouched, far from the tourist beaches of St. Julian's and Sliema. The bay sits on the wild side of Malta, where the globigerina limestone cliffs drop straight into the Mediterranean with barely a building in sight.

Qarraba Bay is accessed by rough trails through the garigue—Malta's unique Mediterranean scrubland of wild thyme, rock roses, and hardy grasses that somehow survive in the thin soil on top of the limestone. I watched as the sun aligned right over the ridge, the kind of alignment you get at the end of August when the sun's setting position shifts noticeably south each day. The sky lit up in waves of orange, gold, and pink—the kind of color you just stand and stare at for a while.

I used my camera at a 24mm focal length, shooting exposures with a variable shutter speed to capture both the bright sunset sky and the darker foreground rocks. The trail leading up through the rocky foreground gave the whole scene this natural flow, guiding your eye from the limestone formations in the foreground toward the sun dropping into the Mediterranean horizon. The warm light was catching all the textures in the rock—millions of years of fossilized sea creatures compressed into the limestone that forms Malta's bedrock.

It was one of those rare, quiet moments where you feel totally present—and completely in awe. No crowds, no beach clubs, no jet skis—just wild Malta the way it's been for millennia, with the Mediterranean stretching endlessly toward North Africa 200 miles south. This northern coastline sees far fewer visitors than the developed south, preserving that raw, untouched quality.

When you look at this photograph, I want you to feel that wild peace—standing on Qarraba Bay's limestone cliffs at my final Malta sunset, watching golden light pour across the Mediterranean garigue, where millions of years of geological history meets the endless sea on Malta's untouched northern coast.