Dwejra

The west coast of Gozo

We worked our way slowly up the east coast of Malta and then west through the channel between Comino Island and Gozo. The skies were blue with barely a cloud in the sky and all of the anchorages we’d see the previous weekend looked even better in the golden sunlight. Turning north we tracked up the western side of Gozo with its impressive cliffs.

Approaching the entrance to Dwejra    

The western side of Gozo is only 2.5 miles long and in the middle is the narrow entrance to Dwejra.

Fungus Rock   

Guarding the entrance is Fungus Rock. The locals call it il-Gebla tal General because apparently a commander [General?] of the Order of St John discovered a shrub/fungus on the island that was believed to possess great medicinal properties. In 1744, Grandmaster Pinto placed the rock out of bounds and a guard was placed to watch over the rock. Guarding of Fungus Rock lasted unto the mid-1800s.

Tucked into the back of Dwejra, we were close to the caves so to cool off we went for a swim and an explore.

Snorkelling in the caves    

In the settled conditions it was great fun to go right into the caves; somewhere that several fish had also had decided was a good place to be.

As the sun dropped low in the sky, the cliffs above the caves turned a spectacular pink…

… followed by an excellent sunset.

In the morning there was barely a breath of wind and all was peaceful…

Hover boarding and jet boarding   

… until the crew of the motoryacht started their staff training on the yacht’s toys. They had pulled the launch, the jetski, paddleboards and skeadoos out the previous day and deep cleaned the garage. Today’s task was to familiarise the crew with all of the toys before they had guests on board. The jetski whizzed about and the caves were explored using the skeadoos but then it all got much more interesting. A long flexible pipe was bolted to the back of the jetski and at the other end the crew took it in turns to hover board or jet board. There were some spectacular wipe-outs!

The bay to ourselves   

By mid afternoon they other sailing yachts and the motor yacht had all left and we briefly had the place to ourselves. Sadly a northwesterly wind had started to blow. It was gentle but enough to make the anchorage a bit rolly and so we decided to take another look at some of the anchorages on Comino.

Gozo, Malta