Friday, November 01, 2013

Gozo Sea Kayaking

After a couple of kayaking visits to Gozo I still hadn't managed to paddle the south west corner of the island, from Xlendi around to the Azure Window.  It just seemed that whenever we were on the island the wind was just a bit to strong from the wrong direction so we were pretty pleased when a window in the weather appeared on one of the final days that we were there.
We weren't disappointed.
Dramatic vertical cliffs, with virtually no places to get off the water.  The nearest land to out left is Algeria whilst straight ahead is Tunisia.  It is easy forget just how far south Malta and Gozo are.

 The Inland Sea, access to the open water is through the obvious cave.  We popped in for a an ice cream and a quick swim.
 Paddling under the Azure Window, not a totally relaxing experience because since a previous visit a fairly substantial area of rock had fallen into the sea and we hoping that there wasn't a repeat performance.
 Lunch was on the rocks close to Fungus Rock.  Malta Fungus was discovered growing on the rock and believed that it had medicinal properties.  The rock was decreed out of bounds in 1746, with a guard posted there to protect the plant.
At the back of the bay close to Fungus Rock there is cave with two entrances.  The tunnel joining the two is particularly tight but there are some superb deposits on the rocks.
Heading back to Xlendi, it was only a short paddle but was full of contrasts.

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