WEB EXCLUSIVE: Never play scrabble with a Gozitan

Following an early morning flight to the Maltese mainland, we boarded the Gozo ferry in the dark, grabbed a coffee and headed for the bow to watch the sun rise. Once on the island we sank another coffee while waiting for our host for the week to arrive. Enter Mr Pete Bullen, he of much competition-winning underwater photography ability. We had not booked a photo course but had booked Pete as our personal dive guide. Chauffeur and chief bottle washer for the week was his much better half, Sue.

No diving was planned for day one - we were a little jaded after the journey and were left to our own devices - some gentle sight seeing, mainly St Georges basilica {yes, that St George} and the Citadel.

It's not all about the underwater sites...

The history of Gozo is a rich and varied tapestry of invasion and defence; everyone has had a chunk of these islands, given their location they could not be better placed for military strategy and commercial trading between Asia, North Africa and Europe. The people are of an extremely religious nature, Catholic, not surprising as the knights of St John {off St Johns ambulance fame} occupied and defended the islands for a long time, seeing off the Ottomans and generally providing a benevolent leadership for the inhabitants. The oldest known man-built structure in the world is on Gozo. Pre-dating Stonehenge and the pyramids the temple of giants (Ggantija Temples) are a UNESCO world heritage site, or as Sue put it: the oldest pile of rocks in the world.

Tuesday saw our first day’s diving. Seventy percent of the island’s dive sites were off the table due to the north-westerly winds. No matter, it is an island so there is always somewhere to dive. Pete decided a spot known as Ris il Hobs, now forever known as Russell Hobbs, would be a good introduction. As with most diving it is a shore dive. The main attraction is a stone column known amusingly as Middle Finger about 20 metres from the shore sitting in a depth of around 50m and rising to about 10m below the surface - a pick-your-own-depth dive.

Marine life is varied off Gozo

The water was warm, blue and clear. A short swim put us on the pinnacle and what an introduction to Gozitan diving. Shoals of bream and damsel fish swirled around dodging the attentions of barracuda, dentex and jacks. Scorpionfish hid in crevices, fireworms made their way around the rock, cleaning up any and all rotting animal and vegetable. Sat at 25m you could look up and see the surface, look down and see the seabed.

For lunch we headed to a small cove, Mgarr ix Xini. Don't play scrabble with a Gozitan, they can use all the letters...

At Mgarr ix Xini we hit a maximum depth of 12m. Along the way we played in a cavern, saw blonde rays, flounders, octopus, Mediterranean moray and seahorses. The bay also serves as a nursery. Shoals of baby barracuda, bream and nameless others played in the shallows.

Planning the wreck dives

The wrecks of the Cominoland, the Karwela and the Xlendi (yup, there is one of those Xs again), were on the menu for dive day two. The Cominoland and the Karwela are both sat upright, the Xlendi, however, turned turtle on the way down and rests pretty much belly-up on the seabed. Oddly this makes it look more like a real wreck than the other two and was our choice for the first dive. The usual suspects were hanging around - morays, a huge scorpionfish, and on the wall on the ascent we found octopus. I don't ever remember a week of diving where I saw octopus on pretty much every dive.

The Karwela is the twin of the more famous Porlwela and sits bolt upright on the bottom a touch over 40m. This and the Cominoland are part of an experiment in artificial reefs. All the paint was removed form the Cominoland but left on the Karwela to see what differences in growth would occur. It seems nature has other ideas and is removing the paint itself. Both are atmospheric wrecks.

Pete had been making a lot of noise about the Comino caves. Eventually we took the hint. Travelling just under the speed of light we arrived at the caves and were delighted to have the place to ourselves. We kitted up and dropped into crystal clear waters once again. The plan was to do the swim-through and return around the rock where we would meet with the resident shoal of saddled bream. Max depth was to be about 12m. To be honest I wasn't overly enthused about the dive. I have done many shallow 'cave' dives in various locations - you swim in, it gets darker, you head out, it gets lighter. But this was different. The light shining through from the far end was a stunning azure blue, the silhouettes of Pete and Lou sharp against the backdrop. We fed the bream with bread towards the end of the dive. I was bombarded by the whole shoal. It was one of the standout experiences of my diving life.

Our final dive was to be Ta' Cenc. The access is not for the weak of heart and flabby of thigh... The site’s highlight is the population of seahorses. In total we found six of them. All the usual suspects were also present.

It's a long way back to the dive truck at Ta' Cenc 

So there you have it, diving in Gozo. Given the three hour flight time, the reasonable prices, the great deals on baggage, the beautiful conditions and the abundance and variety of life I am only gutted I had not been there sooner. Will we go back? You better believe it!

Cheers Pete and Sue. Thanks for making the trip extra special.

Text by Paul Mason

Photos by Paul Mason and Pete Bullen

Trip run by Moby Dives.

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