Homepage of Branch 263 of the British Sub Aqua Club

Trip Report

Malta, October & November 2006

Introduction

I visited the tiny island state of Malta in October 2006. The original purpose of my visit was to complete a PADI IDC and IE and do a few fun dives before going home spending about 2 weeks there. Eventually i ended up doing the PADI courses, some technical courses and some fun diving meaning i stayed for just under a month.

The weather at the time of year was fairly nice, most days sunny with air temperature in the mid 20s. Some days a strong wind appeared which limited dive sites but generally it was short sleeves weather the whole time which is very nice for November. It rained once.

I stayed in the busy town of Sliema just across the bay from the capital Valletta and the dive centre i used was also located in the town. The hotel, booked through the dive centre cost me £8 ukp a night for an en-suite twin room with breakfast and it was good value for that. The dive centre and the main shopping area (containing plenty of british shops) were located less than 5 minutes walk from here so very convenient.

Surface attractions on the island include Valletta and the many ruins and war exhibits there along with other areas of the island with ruins dating from WWII to pre-historic. A decent bus service operates on the island in addition to water ferrys when the weather cooperates from Sliema to Valletta and back.

Malta retains a fair amount of its recent British past - large UK high street shop chains are around, English is spoken everywhere (although Maltese and Italian are also common) and in theory they drive on the left hand side of the road although at times it's difficult to tell! Food and drink weren't too expensive typically costing about £5 ukp for a meal. Malta however enters the Euro in 2008 and most people there are expecting prices to rise following this as they did everywhere else.

I flew out using Ryanair from London Stanstead. Although cheap, care needs to be taken due to Ryanair's somewhat limiting baggage policy - 15kg TOTAL allowance with 10kg allowed as hand luggage and excess fees in the range of £6 per kg. They do offer a sporting good allowance although they don't specifically mention diving gear. The call centre advice was to book it, not tell them what it was and just go through as sport. Not being aware of this before i went meant i had to leave both my 3 piece 11mm semidry and my drysuit at home - something i regretted later on.
Due to the islands small size taxi and bus transfers from the airport are fairly cheap and frequent even at night.

The return flight was with Thomson Fly with what first appeared to be a cheap flight. They offered 20kg luggage allowance, 5kg hand luggage and an extra 10kg for diving equipment. One thing i was not told by them that caught me out on check in is that the price of the flight does NOT include the maltese exit tax of Lm35 (about £50ukp) which nearly doubled the price of my flight. I had to pay it before being allowed to check in. Some airlines and all package holidays already include it in the price, other airlines do not so its worth checking before you fly to avoid surprises like that.

More photos of Malta above the water can be found here.

Diving outline

Due to the small size of the island and the proximity of most of the sites to shore a lot of the diving is shore diving typically involving a 4x4 transfer to the site, the dive then either lunch and a 2nd site or just a return to the centre. Malta is fully aware of the revenue diving generates and despite its size there are over 40 centres on the island. The result of this is a lot of the sites have properly designed entry and exit points for divers including concrete platforms, ladders and so on. As there are no natural sandy beaches (and only a couple of artificial imported ones) the entire coastline is rock so the ladders to help exit are very useful.

Some sites however are boat dives only and centres offer these as well. A lot of diving is also to be found on the sister island of Gozo and daily regular ferries connect the two islands across the mile or so of water. Sadly, due to the courses and lack of time i didn't have time to get to Gozo or Comino at all on this trip so missed all the dive sites they have to offer.

As i was there late in the season several days experienced a strong north or north westerly wind meaning the dive sites on the north of the island weren't diveable. Again though, due to the islands size its possible to quickly dive to the sheltered side so even in strong winds its possible to find somewhere to dive.

Water temperature was in the region of 20-21c at all depths and i found myself VERY cold in a rented 5mm suit and if i did it again i'd take my drysuit.

Visibility was never less than 20m and on a lot of sites was in excess of 30m and hard to judge exactly. Although its the Mediterranean the island appears to have a lot more in the way of fish life than other countries in the eastern med. Its not the red sea but its not bad !

On to the dives....