Where is it worth diving in Gozo?

In these troubled times, the Maltese archipelago has become a good alternative to destinations in Muslim countries. Many Poles nowadays take advantage of the charms of the small country in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. There are many attractions for divers, regardless of their qualifications. The waters surrounding the islands will satisfy both technical and recreational divers.

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It is commonly said that if you want to dive on wrecks – do it off the island of Malta; if you want to swim in caves – dive off Comino; and if you want to commune with animate and inanimate nature – choose Gozo. There is a lot of truth in this, but on each island you will find different types of diving, because everywhere there are wrecks and everywhere there are fish swimming, and everywhere there are majestic rock chains, often forming arches or caves.

We present to you our TOP 5 suggestions for the island of Gozo. These include the Blue Hole, Inland Sea, Wrecks, Raz il Hobz and Marsalforn. There are several dives in each of the above-mentioned places, but each of you can choose a different dive site, as there are many of them on Gozo, from all sides.

Blue Hole

Location: the western part of the island of Gozo, Dwejra Point, where you will find what is probably the islands most famous Azure Window – a natural rock arch under which the sea flows.
Access: By car or bus. Free parking without shade. It’s worth getting here as early as possible, as parking is difficult in high season, and certainly as close as possible to the start of the path to the water. Place your car as close to the front of the car park as possible.
Entry: One of the more difficult ones. After putting on your wetsuit and throwing your gear on your back, you have to walk about 200m on the rocks. Partially at the beginning of the path there are now stairs, but most of it is a dangerous balancing act and you have to be careful not to slip. When there is a bigger wave, diving here is impossible. We continue into the water, put on our fins and masks, and begin our adventure.
Diving: You can do several dives here. You can swim under the arch and explore the bottom, do a reconnaissance to the so called coral garden, you can finally swim to the second location. In any case, diving here, we enter a wide well which gives the place its name. We swim at a depth of 6 metres out to the high sea. We admire marine life and rocks. We can encounter groupers, gillnets, polychaetes and all the typical fish of the Mediterranean. The visibility is usually very good, around 30 m. The maximum depth is more or less 45 m, but usually it does not exceed 35 m. The return and ascent in the blue hole can be difficult due to the large number of divers during the season. Please note that if you swim under a rock arch, it will take you about 20 minutes to swim back. Remember to check the amount of air in the cylinder and the safety stop.

Inland Sea

Location: the western part of the island of Gozo, Dwejra Point, where you will find what is probably the most famous Azure Window for the islands – a natural rock arch under which the sea flows, with a natural tunnel below. This is what interests us in this destination.
Directions: When you get to the main car park, turn very slowly and carefully to the right and drive down. Place your car as close to the water as possible. Please note that there are very few parking spaces. In high season, we usually leave the car at the top and unfortunately we have to cover the distance on foot. It is about 50-100 m
Entrance: If we park the car near the water, we enter with all the equipment practically immediately. We have to be careful on very slippery stones at the very beginning. We stick to the left side of the tunnel outlet because the right side is reserved for boat operators taking tourists.
Dive: We dive into the entrance of the tunnel. We go right down to the bottom and remember that there are boats floating above us. The initial depth is 3 m. The tunnel is 80 m long. At the end the depth is 26 m. It is good to have a torch because more or less in the middle it gets very dark. We also remember not to hit the bottom with our flippers so as not to stir up the sediment. We can swim to the rock arch, but we can also look to the right or left after the tunnel to the high seas. Note that the sand visible below us is at a depth of 50 m. There are vertical walls, rock shelves and large boulders. Visibility in the “lake” itself, from where we start our dive, can be poor at a few metres. This is mainly due to the number of people bathing here and the frequent for local teenagers to jump into the water from the edge of the tunnel, which they climb. After swimming away literally a bit, the visibility momentarily increases and is usually about 30 metres. Here we can see whole colonies of Astroides calycularis and quite big fish Phycis phycis, which likes darker places, as well as other typical for the Mediterranean Sea

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Wrecks

Location: South-eastern part of the island. The village of Ghanjsielem is located between Victoria and Mgarr. Here there are, practically next to each other, 3 wrecks.
Directions: From the main road leading from Mgarr to Victoria, at the height of the “Gozo Press”, turn left and from there it is about 800m to the car parks.
Diving: There are 3 wrecks here looking from the car park on the right side: MV XLENDI, built by the Danes used as a cargo ferry, now lies upside down at a depth of 36 to 42 metres. Sunk in 1999 as an artificial reef and attraction for divers. After entering the water we have about 60 metres to swim. On the way there are shelves at different depths. The ship’s displacement is 1123 tonnes, length 77 m. MV KARWELA built in 1957 by West Germany worked as a passenger ferry. Sunk in 2006 as an artificial reef and attraction for divers. It lies on a keel on the sand at a depth of 31 to 42 metres. The wreck is not far from the entrance to the water. The wreck is located not far from the entrance to the water. For a while we swim through a meadow, gently descending to a depth of 10 m, and then there is a cut that descends to 34 m. The length of the wreck is 48 m. MV COMINOLAND built in England in 1942 as a passenger ship was sunk together with Karwela on the same day in 2006. It rested on its keel and is located at a depth between 35 and 42 metres. Approximately 45 minutes is required for each of the wreck dives.

Raz Il Hobz

Location: South-eastern part of the island. Between Victoria and Mgarr.
Directions: From the main road leading from Mgarr to Victoria, after the village of Ghanjsielem turn left heading for Dahla Ta Mgarr Ix-Xini Street, which will lead you to a very bumpy road. It is best to drive with someone who has been there before or ask about access. You need a good off-road vehicle, an ordinary car may not survive.
Diving: Access over the rocks is a few dozen metres. Caution – slippery. There is usually very good visibility of about 40 m and not as many divers as at previous sites. At first it is shallow and rocky, but after a while the bottom goes down to more than 50 m (100 m) depth. The dive consists in descending to the planned depth and “corkscrewing” to the safety stop. The possibility of meeting large Jack Fish, Dentex, as well as moray eels. A lot of fish, which accompany the divers in shoals.

Marsalforn

Location: Northern part of the island. There are 3 different dive sites here.
Directions: From the ferry we drive through Xaghar (more scenic) or faster through Victoria. We reach the town of Marsalforn and follow the coast to the left through Xwejni Bay to Reqqa Point.
Diving: Different bottom than in the west and south of the island. Especially in Xwejni Bay where Double Arch is located there is soft rock and also a mini canyon. Much more vegetation, and above us, on the surface, there are salt basins for salt extraction. Here there is a double natural rock arch at a depth of 24m and 28m respectively. A little further on is Anchor Reef, rich in walls and protruding rock shelves, where the maximum depth reaches 50 m. The destination closes with Reqqa Point with mostly very good visibility and depths reaching 50 m. Cliffs, overhanging shelves and caves at 20 and 35 m. Marine life is abundant with polychaetes, schools of Sarpa salpa fish, slivers, nudibranchs, spicules and more. If you are lucky, you may encounter cuttlefish and octopus.