This year my wife and I went for a holiday to Gozo, the smaller island neighbour of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. The holiday had been arranged by www.divefun.co.uk and in the end there were 20 of us meeting at Gatwick Airport on Friday evening for the check in for the flight. Most of these people had not met their buddies on the trip previously. As the meeting place was one of the bars in the departure area, liberal helpings of alchoholic beverage soon helped to get people to know each other a little better before the trollies were wheeled off to the checking in point. Group leaders Steve and Scott soon had us under starters orders and there was a short time to get some essential duty free purchases before heading off to the Gozo flight.
The flight took off on time at around 20:30 and landed in Gozo at 23:45 where we collected the bags and started to look for the helicopter terminal. There were 16 of us already pre-booked on the 01:00 helicopter to Gozo while the others had to take a ferry across to the island. By the time we had got ourselves organised there were only a few minutes to spare before the helicopter was due to leave. The operators also announced that there would not be room for our baggage so it would be sent on another flight. Again Steve and Scott took charge of organising this and we set off for another departure area. The helicopter service seems to be operated by Russian personnel. The helicopter itself is also Russian built and all the cockpit signs and dials are in Russian. A quick check of our travel insurance documents and off we went into the night sky for a really excellent flight. For a lot of the people on the trip, this was their first experience of helicopter travel and it was well worth it as we drifted in to land in Gozo. The flight was quick, around 15 minutes from start to finish, and we stepped off to find the transport from the Heliport to our hotel rooms.
We bundled ourselves and the few bags that actually made it onto the final flight into a couple of minibusses and headed off across the island to Xlendi Bay where we would be based for the next week. The island is quite small and there are no main roads by UK standards. The vehicles twisted and turned through the night for about twenty minutes until we finally drove into Xlendi Bay. We arrived at around 4:00 and were met by Mark from Moby Dives who had also arranged the rooms for the week. Once the rooms had been allocated, we agreed when and where we would be meeting in the morning for breakfast, we finally and thankfully fell into bed . The rooms themselves were quite basic but we had not come here to sit indoors all day, we were here to dive ourselves stupid, so this was not going to be such a problem. There was also no sign of the welcome packs of basic provisions but Steve and Scott would be onto this the following day. There was half a toilet roll in our apartment which we were also sharing with Neville and Neil so this would be a priority in the morning as well.
Overnight the rest of the baggage duly turned up and so after a shower we had a fresh change of clothes for the next day. The breakfast was taken on the waters edge at St Andrews Hotel. The sun was shining and even though we had had little sleep, plans for the day started to develop. Maltese law needs all divers to take a medical before being allowed to rent scuba cylinders and to dive. A diving doctor was due to arrive in the hotel midday and we waited and waited for him to show up. Malta has some quaint customs and timekeeping has not quite made it onto the island. Eventually the doctor arrived and we tripped into the room one at a time for a detailed medical exam. I am glad to say that Sue passed her exam, as did all the others on the trip except for me. Despite the fact that I had letters from my heart surgeon and a PADI medical form with me, I only managed to convince the doctor to allow me to dive with a certified instructor. This does show the limits that the Maltese medical system will allow. I have passed a full HSE medical subsequent to this trip, but you do need the Maltese doctor to grant his own medical before you can legally dive in Malta. Anyhow he did say that I was allowed to dive so the next stage would be a check out dive in Xlendi Bay after lunch.
It did appear that despite Steve and Scott being quite specific regarding meeting times that the divers in our group could not be kept together for more than a few moments before drifting apart again. By the time we had all got together at the dive centre and had cylinders and storage areas allocated it was late afternoon. The dive itself in the bay was fine with visibility 15 to 20 metres. The bay was shaped like a long sausage, more than 100m wide with rocky reefs on both sides to aid navigation. Depths in the bay seldom got more than 10m deep although once outside the features fell to 30 to 35 metres at the extremes. It was possible do have a nice dive lasting over an hour and still keep within 15 to 20 metres maximum depth however. There was some boat traffic in and out of the bay but provided you kept down to the bottom contours or used an SMB to mark your position this proved not to be a problem. A lot of holidaymakers use the shallow area and small beach during the daytime and the quayside bars stay open all day for food and drinks. In the evenings there was also a large choice of restaurants available and the food choice was excellent.
When we booked the holiday, I also took the opportunity book Sue on the adventures in diving course so that she would be able to expand her enjoyment. The PADI Adventures in Diving programme consists of two specific dives, deep and underwater navigation plus an additional three adventure dives. During the week, Sue and Mark both took this course with Scott, his first course since qualifying as an instructor. He took them in the evenings for the formal training and their knowledge reviews. The dives themselves were spread out over the week's activities. They had both had the manuals for the course prior to the holiday so had managed to complete most of the knowledge reviews before we left. This meant they still had plenty of time to enjoy the holiday and also had the chance to complete this higher level of certification at their own pace.Sue was wary of spending too much of her precious holiday time studying, but they both enjoyed the course and were delighted towards the end of the week, when Scott announced that they had both passed with flying colours.
Moby Dives
During the week we were in Gozo, all our diving needs were supplied by Moby Dives. This excellent dive centre is within 100m of the beach and is run by Mark Cassar and his family. They have a website at www.mobydivesgozo.com for further information. Scott had last been here during November 2001 when he studied, took and passed his PADI OWSI exams on a course organised at Moby Dives. For the week of our stay they just could not be more helpful. Although we were able to organise our own diving schedule, they were always on hand to ensure that we had everything we needed to make the holiday more enjoyable. The cylinders were refilled as soon as we got them back to base and there was no limit to the number of dives we could do. They also organised the logisitics of transport to and from the airport and all accomodation for our party.
All the divesite maps which follow are taken from their own information which is available at the dive shop. If you are going to Gozo on your own then we would have no hesitation recommending them as a truly first class diving outfit.
The Diving Schedule
Dive No. | Date | Location | Time | Depth | |
| 1 | 10-Aug | Xlendi Bay | 49 | 8 | |
| 2 | 10-Aug | Xlendi Bay | 51 | 8 | |
| 3 | 11-Aug | Xatt L'Ahmar Bay | 46 | 32 | |
| 4 | 11-Aug | Xatt L'Ahmar Bay | 49 | 32 | |
| 5 | 12-Aug | Xlendi Bay | 44 | 18 | |
| 6 | 13-Aug | Comino Bay | 54 | 11 | |
| 7 | 13-Aug | Comino Caves | 58 | 12 | |
| 8 | 13-Aug | Xlendi Bay - night | 27 | 10 | |
| 9 | 14-Aug | Dwerja Inland Sea | 29 | 34 | |
| 10 | 15-Aug | Billinghurst Cave | 48 | 25 | |
| 11 | 15-Aug | Xlendi Bay | 60 | 12 | |
| 12 | 15-Aug | Xlendi Bay - night | 56 | 16 | |
| 13 | 16-Aug | Dwerja Inland Sea | 44 | 39 | |
| 14 | 16-Aug | Blue Hole | 55 | 27 |
Xlendi Bay
As stated above Xlendi Bay has a sausage shape with rocks on either side. The bay runs roughly east to west and navigation is quite straightforward. There are three dives schools based in Xlendi Bay and a number of visiting schools from other parts of the island regularly dive here. The conditions generally are ideal for novice divers and around 300 m of the bay has 10 m or less depth. On the north side of the bay at a depth of around 4 m is a cave which allows a swim through to the reef on the other side. It pays to study the map before diving to get a mental picture of way to look for the cave entrance. This swim through is around 50 m long and fairly straight. It does pay to have a torch to be able to see on the way in but at least half the cave has good visible light. After swimming through the caves it is possible to continue to follow the reef around to the west and back around inside the bay itself. At the deeper area there are a lot of rocks and large boulders and plenty of chance to see fish life around these. The entry & exit points are from the north side of the shore by the harbour wall and also on the southern side of the long jetty there are some 3m+ jump in points with ladders for exit in good conditions or a longer swim back to the shore for an easier exit. We did a couple of night dives from these jump in points and follwed the southern reef line. A couple of octopus came out to play and these were very relaxing dives.
Xatt L'Ahmar Bay
Situated on the south east coast of the island, Xatt L'Ahmar Bay is reached below the village of Ghanjnsielem down twisting farm roads that drop steeply down to the coastal area. It is a natural bay sheltered by the curving headland of Mellieha Point. We did two dives here, the first one was also used for the adventures in diving students as their first deep dive. There are a number of entry points and we used the one on the inland side and took a gentle surface swim to the outer area of Mellieha Point. We descended down past reef edge and using reef wall as a guide we continued the descent to 30 m. Some of us looked up and at this point them to see a school of six eagle rays circling above us in the shallows. We continued up and over the edge of the reef and followed the grassy reef top of back along to the exit point. This area inside the bay gently slopes from 10m and makes an ideal 'off gassing' end to the dive and provides a natural safety stop. After lunch we took a drive to the southern side of the area and tried to find the wreck of the Xlendi ferry which was sitting upside down in 28m. Despite visibility of over 30m we did not find the wreck, due entirely to a lack of accurate navigation when taking direction from the entry point. Despite this omission it was a very good dive enjoyed by all. The other high point of this particular afternoon was that it also Tom's 100th dive. He thought we had forgotten about it until after the dive he was helped out of his clothes and dropped into the water from the 4m dive bridge.
Dwerja Inland Sea
There is no doubt about the fact that this was one of my favourite dives for the whole holiday. The inland sea is a very popular destination for many holidaymakers to Gozo. It consists of a small bay with a couple of concrete jetties, there are also a couple of boats which take a regular sightseers through the caves and out into the open sea. The maximum depth in the bay is around 4 m and most divers surface swim to the cave entrance before descending. Following the descent into the cave there are some large boulders to navigate past and then the bottom gives way rapidly as the sheer size of the cave gradually comes into view. It pays to make a gradual descent here and exit the cave around 15 to 20 m and continue to descend further along the reef wall. The view through the cave is absolutely astonishing and gives a pure blue vertical fissure which gradually opens out with divers silhouettes outlined against the beautiful blue background. outside the cave it's possible to descends to around 40 m in the rocks of the reef below. There are plenty of swim throughs and hiding holes and there is a great deal to see here. Towards the end of the dive it is possible to retrace your steps back through the cave being wary to stay down if the sightseeing boats are on the move. Alternatively, it is possible to continue around the coast and exit near the blue hole. This does mean a long surface walk carrying gear back to the start point.
Comino Bay/Comino Caves
Between Gozo and Malta is the small island of Comino which can easily be reached by boat. We took a trip on the hardboat for dives on the tugboat Rozi and Comino Caves. Unfortunately the sea condition was too bad for the Rozi so we had a very good dive along the sheltered eastern side of Comino before lunch. This reef was an ideal location for a long dive at maximum 10-12 m depth. Several other dayboats moored here and it was a good opportunity for Sue and Mark to show some of their newly accquired navigation skills. We headed to the Blue Lagoon for lunch and also had the time to try some extreme diving/jumping/falling off the boat skills. The colour of the Blue Lagoon has to be seen to be believed an absolutely bright cobalt blue. A lot of tourists and diving dayboats come here for a sheltered position to do some swimming, sunbathing and relaxing. The afternoon had us heading back to the north of the island for the Comino Caves dive. We had managed to keep back a lot of the bread from lunctime for the fish feeding at the start of the dive. The large shoals of saddled bream are used to the attention and we simply disappeared into a big area of fish and breadcrumbs. The dive was a very nice way to end the afternoon and we all headed back to the port area after the dive for a couple of drinks and a lot of pizza.
Bilingshurst Cave
This dive is situated at the north of the island and reached to the west from Reqqa Point. It is possible to do a 3-4m entry jump down to the mouth of the cave and descend from here into the cave itself. There can be a reasonable swell at the mouth but the effects are reduced as you descend. This is a true overhead environment and only experienced divers should attempt the dive. Moby Dives have put safety lines into the cave with markers clearly showing exit direction and distances. The cave floor is covered in large boulders and rocks but visibility can deteriorate depending on the number of divers and how well they behave. The cave floor descends to around 28m before turning upwards into a passage which finishes at a large air pocket at the far end. After a few moments in the air pocket after checking air supplies it is time to head back down to the entrance again. Back at the mouth of the cave as there is no exit here the wall is followed back to Reqqa point where it is possible to make an exit by careful timing of the incoming waves. Once the first diver has exited successfully it is possible to assist those who follow.
Blue Hole
Also situated at the Dwerja Point the blue hole is the name of the entry/exit point which is accessed after a longish walk across the rocks. There is a well trodden path that leads down here and the water is very refreshing to help cool off after the trudge down. There are a number of dive profiles which can be made from here. The first one heads north through the large arch known as the Azure Window, the second one heads south down to the coral cave. We took the southern route for our last dive in Gozo. This was very relaxing and a lot of fish can be seen along the reef wall. There are a very large number of divers who make the trip to this area on a daily basis from all over the island so you do need to be aware of your buddies and stay together throughout the dive. I took several pictures of large groups of divers on safety stops at the end of this dive to find that two of my neighbours who were also staying in Gozo in another area were also on several of these pictures - small world or what?
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Copyright © Graham Curran 2001-2002, Changes last made to this page on: Monday December 23, 2002 17:42 GMT
