Gozo Travel Guide – Gozo a Go Go

Indeed, you should go to Gozo, especially if planning a trip to Malta. Naturally it depends what you want out of a holiday. If you want busy roads, cheezy chips and all-night clubbing then the main island of Malta is your best bet. If you want something a little more sedate then this island, just four miles north of Malta, is a more of a sleepy snoozeville.

Gozo is quite small, only the size of Manhattan Island, so everything that’s worth seeing is only a few Euros away in an Uber. We only stayed on Gozo for one night, out of seven, on a recent Malta holiday, but I think we should have done more nights on Gozo. It is more what I thought Malta would be, as opposed to what Malta is now in the days of Bargain-Loving Brits in The Sun.

Enjoy Gozo whilst it remains relatively Brit-free. You have to get a ferry there at the moment, so for most of the all-inclusive and ex-pat community it is a bit of an arse-ache. That may change, as they’ve been talking about a tunnel or road-bridge to connect it to Malta for decades.

Fortunately, common sense has prevailed and some wise voices have said it might destroy the character of the island. Still, such sentiment hasn’t stopped bonkers tourist development elsewhere in the world. There’s even talk about building a Universal Studios theme park just north of Luton. What this will do to Luton’s scenic views, thatched cottages and rural farming community will be devastating.

Oh, hang on a minute, I’ve made a mistake, on Google I’m looking at the hamlet of Luton in East Devon. Apparently, it’s the one in Bedfordshire that’s getting the theme park. That’s okay then, it’s a shithole already.

We stayed at a lovely little guesthouse, in Gozo, not Luton (no such thing), close by to Dwejra Bay on the west coast. Dwejra Bay is famous for its rock formations and sunsets, it is also famous for a natural sea-arch called The Azure Window…or so every postcard and website would have you believe, it actually collapsed in 2017. Here’s what it looks like now.

Despite being told not to, folks were still walking across the top of the arch just days before it collapsed. Silly arses. The only reference to it now in the bay, apart from the faded postcards still on sale (which shows you how many folks send postcards these days) is The Azure Window Restaurant.

I would normally be wittering on about how the restaurant is trading on a past glory, but the food is historic and the local wine very sup-able. We were staying in the owner’s lovely guest house too (The Azure W in San Lawrenz), so top marks to him.

As you may be aware I’m not one for actually giving any useful information in my travel guides, let alone bigging up particular establishments, but you can take these as recommendations (unpaid…or paid, should the owner wish me to stretch to two paragraphs).

Another fact about Dwejra Bay is that it was a filming location for the Game of Thrones TV series. Apparently, it served as the backdrop for the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo. I have never watched the show, and I couldn’t tell you who they are, or how to say them, or even who was the bride or who was the groom. They both sound like rare medical conditions.

I gather it is a very popular show though, so no doubt plenty of nerds turn up dressed as a Daenerys or a Drogo, thankfully not whilst we were there. They can get very slippery those rocks, especially after a hefty arse-kick.

Also at Dwejra Bay is The Inland Sea. This is not so much a sea but more a pond. Perhaps the name is meant to mean ‘this is the place where the sea comes inland’, rather than any grandiose claim on its scale. However, size disappointment aside, from there you can take a small boat ride through the long natural tunnel that links the inland ‘sea’ to the open sea.

Given the unstable nature of the rocks around here, re the recently collapsing Azure Window, I’d take an umbrella with you just in case the tunnel roof collapses on your boat ride.

Another thing to see on Gozo, on the east coast, is the salt pans at Xwenji (nothing to do with Game of Thrones, although it sounds like he could have been the best man at the wedding).

These are hundreds of man-made reservoirs that collect seawater at very high tides. The water then dries up, leaving the salt behind. This is then harvested throughout the summer by scraping it all up. The method goes back to Phoenician and Roman times. These particular pans have been here since the 1600s.

I met a lady who manages the pans and does the harvesting, she also runs the little giftshop close by. She said her family had been working the pans for hundreds of years, and it is very hard labour to undertake.

All of which got me thinking, it’s a bit of a faff and wouldn’t it be easier just to go to Lidl?

For more rambling thoughts on my rambles through Malta click here.