Sunsets, owls and dark sky nights: Summer at Dwejra Tower in Gozo - Simon Wallace

SUNSETS, OWLS AND DARK SKY NIGHTS

A ‘typical’ Summer at Dwejra Tower in Gozo

by Simon Wallace

It has been a very long, hot summer and the impact of both Covid and the reality of climate change is clearly visible to anyone visiting Gozo.

Add in 152 days or so without any rain, peak daytime temperatures nudging 40 degrees, and it was obvious why our visitor numbers were perhaps lower than usual.

Here at Dwejra, we changed the ways we connected with our visitors and community partners. This meant having more of an online/ social media presence, increased video, photo and mobile-friendly content, and by hosting small scale, Covid-compliant events later in the day or evenings, when temperatures were less fierce.

The magic hour

One of the many things Dwejra continues to offer our visitors are amazing sunsets, so we began hiring out the tower’s roof-top space for a single group of up to six people per evening. We provide chairs and cushions and visitors bring along their own refreshments to enjoy the ‘magic hour’ and the panoramic views of Fungus Rock, the Inland Sea and Gozo’s dramatic West coast. These sessions have proved very successful at raising much needed donations and visitor feedback has been very positive.

And to prove there’s nothing like a Dwejra sunset to ‘Lift You Up’ we teamed up with VisitGozo.com and Gozitan DJ Micimago who performed his aptly named video atop Dwejra’s 17th century tower as the colours of Sunset from inside Dwejra Tower sunset lit up the sky. Watch and listen at https://www.facebook.com/Micimago/ or https://www.facebook.com/VisitGozo/videos/2985654565014087

Above: A parliament of owls at Dwejra Tower. Above right: quote from seabird crochet art work on the tower flagpole. Right: crochet owls detail and quote.

Below: Ta' Sopu Tower under the stars August 2021. Photo by Alessio Sultana.

Craft-tastic!

In early July we welcomed #GozoCraftyLadiesKercemBranch, who installed two specially created examples of their amazing multi-coloured crochet work on the tower’s flag pole and roof space. Both art works featured a short poem to accompany flagpole-flying seabirds and a ‘parliament’ of owls – the works have been much enjoyed by our visitors. Learn more about this fantastic community crafting project via their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ groups/264218021132758

Dark Sky evenings

Dwejra Tower Volunteers also helped out at two highly successful Dark Sky evenings held in partnership with Din l-Art Ħelwa Għawdex – one at Ta’ Sopu Tower in August for visitors to enjoy the Perseid meteor showers, and a second one at Dwejra Tower in early September to see the magical Milky Way. For photos of Ta’ Sopu tower, please check out the album of images by Alessio Sultana at https://www.facebook.com/ alessio.sultana.56

Simon Wallace is retired and lives in Gozo. He is an active Din l-Art Ħelwa volunteer at Dwejra Tower.