“A day out in GOZO” ~ walk through 4 different locations on the island of GOZO, Malta 🇲🇹

Hi all 👋🏻

Xlendi bay

With this post I’m joining in at the Wednesday Walk challenge and Make me Smile challenge. That are hosted by @tattoodjay and @elizacheng every week on Wednesday.

‼️Have a look: Here in the Wednesday Walk Community if you want to join in! or at @tattoodjay ’s Post here!

I will guide you through my photographs and my walk on the island of Gozo, Malta. One of it’s archipelago’s in the Mediterranean Sea.

I will follow the time stamps of my photographs.
So you can walk along with me and look at all the details and surroundings I show you 😎 and tell you a bit about this bit of the world… as if you would be right there with me. 😉

Photos are taken with my iPhone on 15 August 2020.
At that time we were living in Malta for a year and about to move back to Spain. Our belongings were already picked up to be shipped and we decided to island hop and see the things we wanted to see before we left Malta. So we had a few Airbnb’s in different areas.
Today we are visiting 4 locations on Gozo.

The island(s)of Malta:

We are visiting today Gozo, the top left Island.

Locations we visit are: Iż-Żebbuġ, Wied il-Għasri, Dwerja inland sea and Xlendi.
See the yellow stars ⭐️ on Google map:

We go from the top right yellow star ⭐️ left around the island until the bottom left, to see some beautiful areas.

Let’s start our walk in Iż-Żebbuġ

We drove there with our car and parked it in a large parking lot.
To our right we see the bay of Zebbug, with its build up apartment buildings.

It is early in the day; 09:58am so not to busy yet.

Here you see a little bit more of the bay.

We walk towards the end of the bay.
We see here the Batterija tal-Qolla l-Bajda.

Let’s walk further and take a closer look.

It looks deserted and the stonework is falling apart.

More information about this artillery battery you can Find in this website!

It states: ”Qolla l-Bajda Battery (Maltese: Batterija tal-Qolla l-Bajda or Fortina tal-Qolla l-Bajda) is an artillery battery in Żebbuġ, Gozo, Malta. It was built by the Order of Saint John between 1715 and 1716 as one of a series of coastal fortifications around the coasts of the Maltese Islands. It retained its original layout until the late 1970s, when it was converted into a discothèque and snack bar known as Rook (after the chess piece) and major alterations were made to the battery. The building is now abandoned and in a dilapidated state, being in the midst of a legal battle between the government and a private company.

Qolla l-Bajda Battery is one of only two surviving batteries on Gozo.”

Sad to see that it was turned into a discotheque and abandoned now… 🫣

Let’s walk around it to the right, and see more views.

We see now Salt flats.

They are also not in use anymore, but a little bit further to the left they are. Which we will visit next.
Let’s take in the wide open views of the Mediterranean Sea. How lovely this is… 🌊☀️

We walk a little bit to the left of the artillery battery and see more Salt flats.

A closer look…

The whitish rock you see is Xwejni Rock. It stands out a lot as you can see it is made out of different material than its surroundings.

We walk back now to get the car. One more look at the left side of the artillery battery.

And the front of the building.

After we got the car we drove until we reached the salt flats that are in use towards the left, parked our car and got out.
We see the Xwejni Rock again, now from another side, and in the foreground the Salt flats.

Let’s have a closer look at the Salt flats. 😎

Time is now 10:14am so it’s still early.

You see the people build little walls to keep the seawater in so it can evaporate by the sun. What leaves the Salt behind, until they come to collect it.

Some areas look different than others. Some are older and some are used by different families that use different techniques to capture the sea water.

Shall I go a little bit closer by?
Yes… let’s have a look 😊

The salt…

We look up one more time before we head back to the car. Hope you are enjoying our views.

Our next journey takes us to Wied il-Għasri.
We drive some very narrow paths until we can’t drive further. We park our car and go on by foot. It is a hot and sunny day. And this island has not much shade to provide to us… pppfffff
But… Let’s walk with us a little bit further.

What you see here is a secluded sea canyon. It is deep and people are swimming in the cooler water.

More information about it you find In this website!
It states: “Għasri Valley, also Wied il-Għasri, is a sea canyon on the Maltese island of Gozo. The gorge continues on the land towards the village of Għasri. The valley is known for its quit sandy beach, which is 300 metres (980 ft) inland from the sea. The sea is only accessible via a narrow cove with high cliffs on both sides. On the edge of the valley, next to an underwater cave, it is commonly believed that classic Maltese salt pans were built and maintained. It contains a secluded beach which is popular with tourists, locals and divers alike.”

These photographs are seen from the top of the cliff.
We walked down these little steps.

As we were not dressed to go swimming and just wanted to see it we walk back to our car. Are you coming? No, we don’t go swimming… come come 😁😉

On our way further around the island, we did stop at some other places, but I will show those to you another time. 😉

Next we drive to the inland sea.
You must be thinking, an inland sea?
Yep… let me show it to you. 😎😁

After parking our car, and figuring out how to get there… hahaha 🤣 we walked passed some fisherman’s huts and onto a little pier. And have a look around!

View to the left looking back.

View to the right looking back. It even has a little restaurant. We will go there in a moment to get some cold drinks… hope you like a little refreshment now 🍹🍺 out in the sun ☀️

It so looks like a little bay, right?
But it isn’t.
It is totally surrounded by high rocks with only a sea cave in the middle.
See…

Our view in the other direction:

The water is clear.

The cave that gives you access to the sea.

A closer look…

More information about this inland sea you Can find here in this website!
It states: “The Inland Sea, sometimes called Qawra in Maltese and also known as Dwejra, is a lagoon of seawater on the island of Gozo linked to the Mediterranean Sea through an opening formed by a narrow natural arch.
It was probably formed where a geological fault in the limestone had created a sea cave and the roof then collapsed.
On one side there is a stony beach with several fishermen's huts. The boats are often pulled up on to the stony beach. The bottom of the lagoon is also mostly pebbles and rocks and is fairly shallow. Exiting through the tunnel towards open sea, the floor drops away in a series of shelves to a depth of up to 35 meters on the outside. Jacques Cousteau said the Inland Sea was among his top ten dives.”

Very interesting.

On our walk back to the car we decide to have a look over the cliffs…
And see more and higher cliffs.

The high cliffs of Gozo.

Zoomed in we see this stunning scenery. I post more cliff photographs another time… when we drove along the cliffs and stopped at some really beautiful locations. 😎

Let’s go further now towards our last location.
Let’s jump back in the car… 🚗 it has aircon 😎

We drive to Xlendi bay, a stunning bay in my opinion 😎

After parking the car, we get out and walk to the boulevard along the bay.
We did have a nice lunch here, before our walk.

We see little fishing boats and other boats in the bay. Remember the Luzzu boats from my other Malta posts?
The bright colored ones with the eyes are the traditional fishing/ LUZZU boats.

View back.

View next to us as we walk along…

You see they roped off an area so swimmers can swim safely next to the boats.

Our stunning view back.

One more…
And with this last photograph I want to finish my post today and our walk together 😊 it was so nice that you joined me!
Malta is beautiful and really worth discovering on a visit and don’t forget about the island of Gozo and Comino. It has lots of hidden treasures to discover…

Until next time 😎
Hope you enjoyed my photos of this walk and going along with me. Thank you for looking and reading 😊 🙏🏻 Really much appreciated!

Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.

Have a great Wednesday all 😎
Grtz Jackie

The divider is Created by SilverFish / @ mondoshawan

Unless stated otherwise: All art and photos used in my posts are taken, created and owned by me. If you wish to use any of my photographs, please contact me first. As I have used some commercially myself. We don’t want that you or somebody else gets into trouble 😉 So please don’t use them without my consent.