Short break: Malta

Malta’s tiny island of Gozo is a wilder prospect than the more cultured mainland, but few take the time to really see it. Gareth Clark explores this slow-travel gem

Malta’s sister island of Gozo is quiet, wild and a world apart, yet very few take the time to really discover it

Having scrambled down the rough garrigue of Mgarr ix-Xini gorge, I sank to my knees. My guide pointed to a low tunnel of thorns and I followed him inside. Quickly we emerged into a dark stone room in the belly of an old pumping station, abandoned since 1960. Inside, its walls ached with the longings of teen graffiti and it felt like a forgotten world.

From the moment I’d stepped off the ferry on to Malta’s sleepy sister island, I’d had that feeling. Most visit Gozo on swift day trips from the mainland, but they miss a lot. Gozitans pride themselves on being different – even from each other. Villages have their own dialects and long memories: capital Rabat (locals never use Victoria, its colonial name) even has two opera houses because of a rivalry between a pair of local churches dating back centuries. It’s the sort of thing that you only see when you slow down.

We basked a while in the cool of the station before crawling back into the gorge and walking to the coast. Stately carob and arches of tall, bamboo-like reeds unlike anything on Malta lined our path to the pretty inlet of Mgarr ix-Xini.

Earlier, I’d cycled this beautiful stretch of shore, lugging my bike up steps to bump past blue-clay walls and emerald waters, a far cry from the north of the island where tall chalk-white cliffs fall wildly into the sea. Later, I came back to dive its shallows; this area is ideal for beginners looking to earn their flippers, searching for fierce-looking moray eels and darting wrasse in the clear waters. Most visitors just stop for a photo.

Inland, I made my way to the Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary, one of 46 places of worship on an island of 37,000 people. I’d heard it was special. A local woman claimed to hear the Virgin here in the late 1800s, so it became a pilgrim site with wall after wall of votive offerings left by believers: clippings, photos, casts. I stood and read its tales of survival for an hour, enthralled

It’s hard not to be charmed by Gozo. While mainlanders often visit for a week, foreigners just flit in and out. But stay and you’ll find a forgotten side to an island that rewards those who take it slow. ⊲

Wall flowers The Citadel, in Gozo’s capital of Rabat (Victoria), was restored to its full glory in 2016