Juvenile dusky grouper at Cirkewwa
Paradise regained
I am welcomed by dive centre coowner Neville McLellan, who delights in bemusing young Europeans with a barrage of northern English.“ Ey-oop!” he says by way of greeting as a Gen Z dive guide saunters into the centre.“ Let’ s get a brew on, shall we?” A box of Tetley the size of a wheelie-bin is produced and we get down to business.
My first diving day takes place at Cirkewwa Marine Park. On one side of the headland there’ s the ferry terminal for Gozo; on the other are some of Malta’ s favourite dive sites. The entry points at Cirkewwa are fairly straightforward, but there’ s always scope to fall over when the concrete ramp gets slippery. Keep a tight grip on the rails, be patient with fellow divers … take your time.
Underwater, it’ s lovely: 25 metres of viz, a thick expanse of seagrass giving way to white sand and rocky topography. I was surprised by how
Cow bream on the Posidonia oceanica seagrass
quickly the reef drops off down to the seabed at 32 metres, via a series of walls and ledges.
We arrived at the Arch and took a few photos, but the third part of our buddy team was on a learning curve, so his needs took priority. We retraced our route, pausing to inspect the various tunnels and swim-throughs along the way.
Malta isn’ t exactly the fishiest place I’ ve ever dived, but you do see frequent schools of saddled seabream and their cousins, the common pandora. I saw a large dusky grouper edging warily towards a crack in the reef, only to disappear into a hole in the cliff as soon as it realised I had clocked it.
Ferries for Gozo at Cirkewwa port
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