When we were on our around Malta cruise, the Hera II stopped for two hours at the Blue Lagoon on Comino. It was such a beautiful spot, but we did not partake of the wonderful water and swim, nor did we explore the island. So, Christine suggested we do just that and spend a whole day on Comino.
Comino is the smallest of the 3 Maltese Islands and there are only 4 fulltime inhabitants now. It’s a pretty desolate place and has been used for prisoners, housing for quarantined people, where misbehaving knights were sent, a place where monks lived, and a hiding place for corsairs. There are many caves both on the island and around the coastline, so it was a good place for anyone who wanted to hide. The land is pretty barren, but there was an attempt at agriculture, and up until the 1950s, there were upwards of 800 fulltime residents. Now, it is a tourist destination and daily, large numbers of tour boats land at the Blue Lagoon, like we did, and hundreds of people swarm onto the island. We did discover that there is one hotel on the island, the Comino Hotel and Bungalows, and apparently it is only open a few months out of the year when temperatures are warmer and the sea is swimmable.
We took the #222 to Cirkewwa, which is now a very familiar route and we named all the places we have visited as we went up the coast. We went all the way to the Gozo ferry terminal, but went off to a side quay where we bought tickets for a roundtrip boat ride to the Blue Lagoon. We thought we knew which little ferry boat we would be on, but shortly a different boat arrived. This one was a large, open-air boat with seats around both sides. About 20 or so people, including two young families, one with a toddler, boarded And we were off. As soon as we passed around the Gozo Channel Ferry coming into the terminal, our boat roared away, bouncing over the swells in the channel. We zoomed across the water and big sprays of water were soaking everyone along the sides and on the back of the boat. One really big spray hit this young man right in the face and he let out a big scream. I think the guy driving the boat was having a really good time getting us all wet. Christine was hanging on and trying to give herself some support so that her bottom didn’t smack the bench every time we slapped down from a swell. While we were hanging on for dear life, the little toddler on her daddy’s lap was shrieking in delight, clapping her hands and loving the bouncing up and down and water spraying. Before we knew it, we were rounding the point and slowing down to enter the Blue Lagoon.
Once off the boat, we wandered around looking for a good spot to park ourselves. What I knew from walking around when I did a little exploring when Hera stopped at the lagoon is that, other than the very crowded umbrella and chair areas, one had to find a spot on the rocks well above the lagoon, not a very comfortable thing to have to do, and then there was the problem of how to get down to the water when swimming beckoned.
After wandering around for quite a while, we decided to descend down this circular set of stairs cut into the limestone to check out the “beach” area, as it is known. The hand railing had recently, like maybe a few hours ago, been painted bright blue, and so we got paint on our hands. We got down the stairs, talked with the guy taking money for the umbrella and chairs (20 euros for 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day), and then debated the expense.
We walked and tripped up and down the “beach” for a while trying to decide which chairs would be ours and finally parked ourselves at water’s edge.
Christine had done a little researching about going to the Blue Lagoon and learned that going early in the day is best, before the crowds start arriving with the tour boats at around 11:00. So, we were in our beach chairs by 9:45 and practically had the place to ourselves. It was beautiful! Before long, the Blue Lagoon beckoned and into the cold water we went, but once in, it was wonderful. We swam to the other side, thinking that maybe we would get out onto the “beach” on the other side, but the stones in the water made that not terribly attractive. So, we paddled back across the lagoon.
We had fun watching people arrive and doing just what we did, walking up and down the rows of chairs trying to decide where to park. For the morning, everything was in the shade. By mid afternoon, though, there would be no shade, even under most of the umbrellas. These chairs were on a small strip of limestone set at the base of a cliff, not the smooth kind of limestone, rather the porous, sharp-edged kind that made walking quite challenging, and absolute torture barefooted on one’s way from chair to water. And all the chairs were crammed together to maximize every inch of useable space. The umbrellas were set in square stones with a hole in the middle and a rope from the edge of the stone was tied to a prong in the umbrella to prevent it from collapsing in windy conditions. I must say, they had all this very well organized.
We were really glad we rented the chairs and umbrella (we avoided sunburn!) and we kicked back and relaxed and did essentially nothing, other than people watch. As it got more and more crowded, we had lots of people to watch. We particularly found humor in the various reactions people had to the cold water. We saw a myriad of facial expressions. Little kids are a delight to watch in the water and we enjoyed them immensely.
For lunch we walked up the stairs and across the cliff to the area of food trucks. We had chicken BBQ on a baguette and chips. After lunch, we went back to our chairs and continued our people watching. By now, all the chairs had been rented and the lagoon was full of people.
One of the things we had planned to do was go exploring on Comino. But, we had a hard time getting motivated to do that because we were so enjoying being at water’s edge and being mesmerized by the sounds of the water and the lovely colors as the light swells rolled on to the beach. Eventually, we climbed back up the stairs and went for a walk. We were interested in finding the hotel and checking it out. We walked along some paths and then got on a dirt road. We met up with 2 women who were also looking for the hotel because they wanted a good cup of coffee, not the food truck variety. We walked with them for a while and learned they were Dutch from Holland, and that they were staying in a hotel about 4 doors down the street from us.
We walked by a road that indicated a dive center, but kept going. There was no hotel sign there, so we kept walking. After a bit farther, I turned around and saw the Comino Hotel down the hill on the road we had passed. We all turned around and walked to the hotel. This place was in a lovely setting. There are two parts to the hotel, one being some bungalows which were a 10 minute walk to the next bay. But the hotel had a very large outdoor restaurant, a pool, a tiny little beach and all this was on a beautiful little bay.
We picked up some literature on the hotel (Christine really wants to stay at the hotel!) and she got a cappuccino to go. The time task master (guess who) wanted to get back to the lagoon for a swim before we had to start packing up. So back to the lagoon we went.
After another lovely swim, we dried off in the sun and then packed up. The last ferry from Comino departed at 5:00. I thought we’d better get to the dock a little early because I figured there would be a rather long line to get on the boat. And there was, but we boarded the boat with no problem. Others were going to have to wait for the ferry company to send another boat to pick up the remaining ticketholders.
As part of the return trip to Cirkewwa, the ferry boat motored close to some of the caves around Comino, and we even went half way in to one of them. We also motored into Crystal Cove, where the Hera had also stopped. Again, we both said how fun it would be to kayak around Comino. We will kayak, I just don’t know when and where yet.
We arrived back at the Cirkewwa ferry terminal after a much nicer boat ride on the return trip. Our arrival was in between Gozo ferries, so I was hoping that the bus stop wouldn’t be jammed packed. It wasn’t, but the digital time display showing arrival times of the various buses, changed the time of our bus 4 times in about 5 minutes, so we were fearful that it would be another long wait at a bus stop. During our wait, we chatted with a couple from Serbia. Malta is quite the tourist destination from all over Europe. Happily, it wasn’t a long wait, and a #222 came along. We got seats on the bus and enjoyed the ride home.
When we got home, we decided to drop our stuff in the apartment and get some takeaway from Mr. Maxim’s Café next door, and go sit at water’s edge for dinner to conclude our wonderful day at the beach. It was lovely hearing the water lapping on the rocks and we basked in the glow from our luxurious day on Comino.
What a wonderful day that sounds like. When Virginia and I were there it was early November, there were plenty of people there, but, I think not as crowded. I was able to find a spot on the beach for my things as I went swimming in the pleasant temperature water. I guess it was still warm from the summer. I loved being there. Tanks for rekindled doing the experience.
Lots of love.
De Luna
Every day an adventure! I’m really enjoying your posts, currently sitting on my deck in the early morning listening to the birds and glad it’s Friday , long weekend coming up. Love you, sisters!