Day 8 – Gozo

Our final adventure around Malta saw us leave the mainland and travel to Gozo, just a bit further than Comino and much bigger. We got the ferry across in the morning and drove to Victoria, the island’s capital.

Victoria was just a smaller version of Valetta with nothing much to it, but we did get tourist tickets, letting us explore the prison, nature museum, archeological museum and visitor centre – where we saw an epic audio-visual guide about the history of Gozo. Anna even let out a little tear at the emotional bits.

Perched at the top of a hill, Victoria had an amazing view of most of the island, with most tourists and residents of Gozo getting an amazing view of Anna, whose dress was blowing fiercely in the wind.

Back on the road again, google maps navigated us through the smallest, sandiest and bumpiest roads on the island to take us to Dwejra Point, home to the most imaginative names of places on the island – Inland Sea, Blue hole and Fungus Rock. 2 years ago, the famous Azure window would also have been here, but you could only see the remnants of the stack at the bottom of the ocean (hands up if you remember your A-level Geography).

After a short swim, we were back on the road to cover the rest of the island, rallying along the sandy roads past the Wied il-Mielah window (basically just the same as the Azure window but not as famous, and still standing), Wied il-Ghasri Canyon, Big Cave (judging by the imaginative name, you can guess what it is) and finally the Marsalforn Salt Pans. We accidentally stumbled across a plaque that commemorated the world record swim of Nicky Faruggia who swam here from Sicily. Fair play indeed.

With most of the island now visited, we had one more stop to visit before we got the ferry home – Vini e Capricci. Although we thought it was a wine tasting venue, it was actually some sort of alcohol dealership with huge rooms of whiskey, gin, beer, wine and cigars.

With the price of some of the tasting sessions not matching our tastes, we chose to get a Fanta and Sprite from the shop across the road instead. In a terrifying ordeal, we also got attacked by flies in the car, who clearly wanted some of Anna’s fresh strawberries.

Flies ushered out of the window and doors locked, we safely made our way to the port. Anna couldn’t rate the ferry service between Malta and Gozo any higher, the impeccable organisation and ease of use was something we have never witnessed in a European Country. If you’re driving by the way, you get your ticket on the way back to Malta, making it even more streamlined on the way to Gozo.

After all this time, we found out that our local supermarket actually had a car park…4 stories below it. As Anna kept commending the Gozo Ferry service, I was shocked by the amount of effort that must have gone in to build a car park that deep. We were nearly at the mantle!

Our final homemade dinner on our balcony brought the day to a close. Just like the Tour de France, and to follow tradition, tomorrow is a rest day so make sure you tune in to our blog tomorrow for your Malta summary and top tips. If you follow us on Instagram (@gin.and.travel), you’ll also be in for a treat!