I'll be in Malta for a week or more from September 10th and then heading to Gozo and I'm looking for anyone: travelers, expats, locals, language students etc. that will be in Malta during the upcoming weeks. Besides some of the historical and cultural sites I'm mainly interested in checking out the diving (currently hold divemaster cert. and will be renting a set of gear) around the islands and looking for any other divers to share the cost of transport to the different shore dive sites. I'll be staying in the NSTS hostel and looking to meet any other travelers etc.
vincentblackshadow37
1
smartcookiee
hi there, wont be there in Sept, but can recommend my favourite divesites to you:
1. Um el Faroud - scuttled oil tanker lying in 36m off the Blue Lagoon, south coast - probably the biggest wreck you will ever dive on! Penetration is easy and relatively safe. It will take seveal dives to fully explore this wreck.. and I advise to use a local DM.. as its a surprisingly hard wreck to find! Currents can be strong here to.. a local DM will know how to handle this dive
2. Blenheim bomber - lying in 42m - recently discovered plane wreck from WWII, a boat dive
3. HMS Stubborn - submarine wreck lying in 55m (about) off the north coast by boat near to Buggiba
4. Coral cave/Blue hole combination at the Azure Window, Gozo.... try and combine both sites on one dive
5. Billinghurst Cave, Gozo - teh deepest cave penetration possible in the Maltese Islands.. but its not a tight squeeze and fully lined
Some of the above sites are advanced, bordering onto technical.. but you state that you are a DM and shoudl have the experience to dive 30m plus. If you able to dive 60m as a bounce dive.. the Stubborn dive is recoommended. Probably the best dive shop and source of knowledge is Maltaqua in St. Paul's. For the boat dives, you will need use their services anyways
most of the dives in Malta/Gozo can be done off the beach/shore... the hugely popular mainstream divesites (but in my opinion not as good as the above list) are HMS Maori, Cirkewwa (where the ferry leaves for Gozo from Malta) - both simple divesites but do be careful of car theives entering your parked car as you dive..especially at HMS Maori and Anchor Bay divesites .. best not to take anything unneccessary in the car to the divesite. this is a big problem... i use to work as a scuba instructor in Malta.. and this was happening on an almost daily basis... we resorted to taking nothing to the divesite that wasnt going into the water and leaving the car wide open during the dive as a clear signal to the theives that nothing was inside
Car hire in Malta is very cheap relative to other European countries (I used to pay about 10 Maltese pounds a day)
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