Saturday 24 December 2016

Gozo Winter Snorkelling



This is the view from the balcony this morning! By 11am the thermometer was reading 22degrees and the UK was feeling a very long way away. We didn't fancy rushing off from the land of luxury, so enjoyed a full English breakfast, followed by a full Maltese one, followed by a fresh omelette and several coffees. I'm such a sucker when 'breakfast included' is handed to me on a booking form. 
Was way to full for a swim at the hotel pool afterwards.

 

So relaxed and caught up on yesterday's local airport news...
 

When I could eat no more, and we'd (eventually) checked out, our first call was at the supermarket, where we loaded up our tiny car with supplies to see us through the rigours of rock climbing and snorkelling through the remainder of the year. It just fitted in.
 
Then it was off to catch a ferry to the island of Gozo - our home for Christmas! We made the ferry with seconds to spare and were the last car on. The door closed up before I'd even got my seat belt off. It was a quick and scenic trip, past the island of Comino to Gozo that took about half an hour.
 

Gozo is a pretty small island, so it only took about 20minutes to drive to the far north coast where we were due to stay. Once we'd checked out our new neighborhood by the sea, we wasted no time in heading along the coast to one of the island's best snorkelling spots. 
 
It was a sheltered little bay, with lovely coloured water. Initially, we were just going to jump straight in, but decided that we'd last a little longer with a wetsuit on. The sun was also low in the sky, so soon the beach would be shaded too. Clare was in first (and glad of the wetsuit!). I gingerly followed into the world of stripey fish and we had a brilliant explore around the bay until we were too cold. 
 
We got changed quickly in the shade and had to drive around the coast as fast as we could to get back into the sunshine and warm up!
 
After warming up and having some food, we explorered a little further to a deep zawn that would have been a really cool snorkelling zone, had it been a bit more in the sun. 
 
Then stopped off on the way home to check out some old Roman salt pans. 
 
The rock here is really soft and erodible. The rough road along the coast looks like it has sort of been carved out by water and wind.
 
And there are fossils everywhere! Its's an interesting place...
 

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