Diving Gozo & Comino The Essential Guide to an Underwater Playground

About this book

In Diving Gozo & Comino, local dive guide and instructor Richard Salter shares his maps, experience and advice for 71 sites. Photos above and below water, depths, durations and grades are given – Easy, Advanced or Technical – to help you choose where to dive. Put a copy in your glovebox and go!

Gozo, Malta, has a multitude of underwater attractions to explore from the shore or by boat. Divers can see breathtaking caves, tunnels, wrecks, reefs and bays. If you consider the profusion of marine life and good visibility it is not hard to understand why the diving here is consistently voted amongst the best in Europe. Richard Salter's Diving Gozo & Comino covers a huge 57 dives on Gozo and 14 on Comino, including (to name a few) the Blue Hole, Inland Sea and Tunnel, Santa Maria Caves, Double Arch, Reqqa Point, Billinghurst Cave and the wrecks Cominoland, Karwela, Xlendi Ferry and P31.

Original site maps include suggested routes, the location of underwater caves and swim-throughs, depth and features. Photographs from a variety of contributors show both Gozo's underwater scenery and the topside landscape. Written by a vastly experienced resident instructor and guide, Diving Gozo & Comino features both shore and boat dives, including some sites which are very rarely explored. Whether researching a self-guided trip or diving with one of Gozo's many professional centres this book will help you to pick and plan safe and fun dives.

But not only that – Diving Gozo & Comino also contains information about the island's rich history, fascinating tourist sites, celebratory village festas and delicious original food.

Diving Gozo & Comino includes changes caused by the collapse of the Azure Window at Dwejra. Although an incredibly sad loss, this natural event was just one of an infinite number which have sculpted the coastline of the Maltese islands over the millennia, as divers can see better than most. Underwater the layout of the dive site was altered with the landscape containing new swim-throughs and shallower parts, making it accessible to more divers. The adjacent Blue Hole was unaffected.

Contents

INTRODUCTION:
- The Beautiful Island of Gozo
- Acknowledgements
- Using this Book
- Glossary

DIVING INFORMATION
- Dive Conduct
- Dive Centres
- Maltese Diving Regulations
- Wind & Temperature

TOURIST INFORMATION
- Commonly Used Words and Phrases
- Timeline
- Tourist Sites
- Village Festas
- Gozitan Food and Drink to Try

DIVE SITES
NORTH
1. Punta Ta' Kap Camma, San Dimitri
2. Moffit's Cave (Ta-Mahsel)
3. Wied ir-Raheb
4. Gudja Cave (Ta Camma caves)
5. Hekka Cave (near Hekka Point)
6. Wied il-Meilah
7. Pinu Point (Ghar Tal-Margun)
8. Forna Point
9. Wied-il-Ghasri to Cave Of Wind/Cathedral Cave (Ghar il-Rih)
10. Cave of Wheat (Ghar il-Qamh)
11. Billingshurst Cave (Ghar ix-Xih)
12. Shrimp Cave
13. Reqqa Point
14. Reqqa Point: The Bottle
15. Anchor Reef or Landslide Reef
16. The Washing Machine (Ta Bughas)
17. Double Arch
18. Xwejni Bay
19. Triple Arch/Calypso Cave
20. Qbajjar Bay
21. Santa Marija Breakwater
22. Ghar Qawqla/Marsalforn Bay

SOUTH-EAST
23. Dalhet Qorrot
24. Qala Anchors/The Old Quarry
25. Qala Point
26. The Oath Isle (il-Gebla tal-Halfa)
27. Hondoq Bay
28. Tac-Cawla Rocks (il-Gebla tac-Cawla)
29. By the Harbour Reef
30. Red Bay (ix-Xatt l-Ahmar)
31. Xatt l-Ahmar Reef
32. MV Cominoland
33. MV Karwela
34. Xlendi Ferry
35. Middle Finger (Ras il-Hobz)
36. Fessej/Black Rock (Skoll tal-Fessej)
37. Mgarr ix-Xini
38. Ta' Cenc
39. Ras in-Newwiela

SOUTH-WEST
40. Ta' Cenc Reef
41. Sannat Cliffs
42. Bajjada Point
43. Dawra Tas-Sanap
Xlendi Bay
44. Xlendi Bay, Reef & Tunnel
45. Xlendi Tunnel & Reef / Luzzu
46. Ulysses Cave / Zurzieb Cave & Reef

WEST
47. Wardija Point (Il-Ponta tal-Wardija)
48. Punic Temple (Ras il-Wardija)
49. Fungus Rock (Il-Gebla tal-General)
50. Crocodile Rock
51. Rogers Cave & Crocodile Rock
52. Coral Garden & Coral Cave
53. The Blue Hole
54. Inland Sea to the Blue Hole
55. Inland Sea to Whale Cave
56. The Beard (Tal-Barba)
57. Ta' Tejtu

COMINO ISLAND
A Short History
Getting There
58. The Canyon, San Niklaw Bay
59. Santa Marija Reef
60. Santa Marija/Comino Caves
61. Elephant Rock/The Molar (Id-Darsa)
62. Sultan Rock
63. Popi FV/Ostmark/Balje
64. Lantern Point (Ras L-Irqieqa)
65. Inner Lantern Point
66. Crystal Lagoon
67. P31, Kondor Class Minesweeper
68. Alex's Cave
69. Inner Cominotto Reef
70. Anchor Reef, Cominotto
71. Outer Cominotto Reef

NATURE OF GOZO
- Diver Guidance for Seahorse Safety
- Jellyfish and Alien Fish Species
- Posidonia Oceanica
- Geology of the Maltese Islands

FIRST AID/EMERGENCIES
INDEX

Customer Reviews

Biography

Richard Salter is an instructor and dive guide who started diving the Maltese islands in 2004, where he has amassed over 5000 dives, mostly on Gozo and Comino. After finding accurate information hard to come by and existing publications lacking he started to draw his own dive site maps. He also learned some local history so that he could show divers the best places, depending on the kind of diving they wished to pursue. Now he shares his knowledge so that divers can safely enjoy all that Gozo and Comino have to offer.