Gozo part 2 (5/10)

Holiday flats, regulated deck chairs and beach umbrellas

It was back to Gozo today, to follow up on some of Mike's suggestions of places to see. This time we decided to take the bus around the coast directly from near our accommodation. Unfortunately we just missed one so had a 20 min wait for the next one - Sunday timetable. The area around the coast from us is becoming a forest of high rise apartments with shopping malls on the lower floors. Not sure if this is to cater for the locals or the tourists, but suspect the latter. Most of Malta's beaches are on the northern coast, so this is also where the tourists tend to congregate, and where the resorts are found. Mind you, on a hot day I think you would be pushed to find somewhere to lay your towel. The beaches aren't big and at least half of the beach is taken up with umbrellas and deck chairs. Actually, thinking about it Malta is almost triangular, the north side may have the beaches, the south side has cliffs (and therefore no beaches or just a couple of really tiny ones) and the east side is too short for anything!

Trip across.  Traditionally painted boat with Gozo in
 the background.  Note the blue sky

On arrival at the ferry terminal, they ushered us straight onto the boat. Tickets were to be bought on the way back. We were going to go back to Ta Pinu church but wanted to check with TI to see if it was open. It was Sunday, and sometimes churches are only open to worshippers. All was fine, but it was only 11.00am and it was highly likely that a service was being held, so we opted to go down to Dwejra first which is on the coast. 

There are several geological features here which have become tourist attractions. There is a small bay called the Inland Sea because it's only access to the ocean is via a tunnel through the cliffs. Here, we took a short boat trip to go to Azure Cove, the Zerka Window and the Fungus Rock. We left in sunlight to first go to Azure Cove, a sea cave which has the most intense blue water in it. We think it is a combination of light and water depth which gives it its colour, but Jill would have called it lapis lazuli not azure. There were some purple and orange soft corals on the cliffs. From there we went past Zerka Window which is a natural arch formed in the limestone, and was quite impressive. 

The Zerka Arch with the storm in the background

Also impressive was a storm which seemed to come out of nowhere. We commented to the boat's skipper that it looked like we were in for a storm and he said that it was imminent. We had been on our way to Fungus Rock, which we saw it in the distance, and we think that he then cut the tour short and high-tailed it back to the boat ramp. As we approached the shore we had a look for some shelter, and noticed a covered way between two buildings on the foreshore. The boat had hardly stopped before we leapt off and ran. We just made it to the tunnel before the skies opened, the thunder and lightening started, and the first squalls hit. One boat followed us in and the people joined with us, soaked to the skin. Although the tunnel had private written on the walls, the locals were more than happy for us to shelter there. After a bit, a man appeared and spoke to the other people sheltering with us. They were from a tour group, and they just had to move. One of them braved the weather and fetched a few umbrellas, but three under an umbrella doesn't really go. Fortunately, Allan still had ours in his pack, so we decided to brave it and get closer to the bus stop. We tried a restaurant but they were full, so then went to a cafe which was shut but had a verandah, which turned out to be made of bamboo so it didn't offer much shelter. Finally a Hop On, Hop Off bus arrived which thinned the waiting crowd. Our bus eventually arrived and it was another dash through the wind and rain. Most of the people on board had been caught out, expecting a beautiful sunny day at the beach, so were totally unprepared.

Weather on the trip back - what a difference!

We decided to just catch the ferry back and return to the apartment because the weather didn't look like it was going to improve in the short term. It was another cold and wet wait for the bus to the ferry. On board the ferry this time, it was a seat down below instead of up top in sunshine. On board we had a chat with an English girl who had spent six days cycling around Gozo and loved it. She hired the bike on the island and had had a thoroughly enjoyable time cycling from village to village. She was fortunate to have been picked up, bike and all, and dropped at the ferry by a local who had seen the storm coming, so she had arrived dry. It was a very quiet bus load of people on the way back. Of course, it had stopped raining by the time we were off the bus, but it was fairly late in the afternoon and we had packing to do. We had booked a taxi for 6.30am tomorrow so we wanted to be able to just lock the cases and leave. Walking back to the apartment it looked as though Sliema had also had the storm come through. Some of the small kiosks for boat trips had blown over and a branch had blown off a tree. At least we still had power.