Anyone heard of an Island called Comino?

What for?

Showing off your Mal-teaser

Lucky you Rob.

Fantastic place. My sister was married out in Gozo a few years ago. The waters out there are some of the best in the mediterranean.

How warm is it out there?

I dunno, perhaps 30C.  Yeah lovely spot.  All good out here, £1.10 for a glass of white.  You can see the bottom when you are swimming even when it is about ten metres deep, which is a helpful diversion, would get very boring otherwise... Ie, in Brighton where you can't see fk all in the sea.  Did first four miles in about two hours then the last mile must have taken an hour, took forever toget round this last headland into a current. Ended in the Blue Lagoon, a lovelier spot it is hard to imagine.

The blue lagoon is a paradise.

I'm getting very envious sat here!

Careful now, 3 Brits have died doing just that in the last few months. Can you just got to your local swimming baths? Oxted leisure centre near me has a wave machine and a slide.

I'm going to Gozo for the 3rd time in 4 years this summer, I seem to have really missed a trick not going to Comino. What is on the island to do or is nice just in the waters around it? Any advice because I need to move away from sitting poolside in the villa and have at least a day out!

Barry:  yes I knew all about that.  We had two canoes and two boats supporting us.  There were about thirty swimmers, all experienced including the lead swimmer who was the maltese female champion or somesuch.  We had also got permission, within a four hour time window.  As risk free as sea swimming gets.  Not much to do on comino, is basically just one big hotel and the blue lagoon.  Barry is right though, don't fk about at the blue lagoon, if they tell you not to swim in a certain area then don't.  Someone died just a couple of days ago.

Someone drowned just off Comino recently.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/british-man-drowns-off-malta-coast-where-two-others-died-in-may

There's hardly anything there paulypaul.
Except when it's really hot you might get a bloke selling slices of melon at 5 Euros a slice.

They run boat trips round the islands from Sliema.
They usually stop for a couple of hours or more at the Blue Lagoon.

Lovely day out.

cheers dr..may just get on a boat then, don't fancy drowning.

Indeed Dr Crippen. We took a boat out for an afternoon when we were there.

If I remember rightly I think we booked it for 3 hours but the lovely chap who was taking us around gave us a couple of hours for free.

There's a big boat achored in the harbour at Sliema called the  Mecklenburg.
That was used to run trips around the Island, but not for quite a while.
It was cheaper than the others, but it's still worth it as you get free food and wine.

I'd avoid going late in the season as the sea can get quite rough.
We went around the island one year and because many hadn't booked they used a smaller boat.
I thought it was going to capsize.

well done rob triathlon training

There was stuff there, like burger bars and stuff, at the blue lagoon that is.  We just got there, took a few pics, basked in the glory of our minor celebrity status then went off to another part of the island and had a cracking homemade barbecue.

Capt F... 13 of us here, 12 of us swimming and I think 10 of us have agreed to do Vichy Ironman 2016.  How many actually get to the start line is another matter.

burger bars and stuff

Is there rob?
I haven't been to Comino or Gozo for t least five years.

I was in Malta last November and they closed the airport the night that we arrived due to a cyclone.

I've always thought about moving to Malta for a few months just to see what it would be like to live there.
They nearly all speak English that's the main thing.

There were about three confectionary stalls, surely one was burgers, one was ice creams, dunno.  It was a very small area of beach we arrived back at and it was packed with people and boats.  Did seem totally safe, can see how some people would just think so and go heading off into distant waters.  Even an idiot like me has sense enough to realise you really really should respect the sea.  Especially when the locals tell you so.

Isn't it the main landing point for Africans emigrating to the EU?

No.

It was still warm enough to swim in the sea in November and I went in most days when the sun was out.
It's actually warmer in the sea than in the outdoor pools at that time of the year.
I swam in the sea one year when there was a swell on and I soon got out.
I thought there's no sense in swimming in this.

Tbh I am not sure I would like to live here.  Though the swimming is great, Gozo is very dusty and kind of run down.  Where we are is like a ghost town.  Must be hard to grow anything here.

The pub closed at three and didnt reopen until six.  Yet I managed to get a lock in on my first visit, so it ain't all bad.

A visit to the citadel in Victoria is a good day out in Gozo.

There are two great big churches within a few hundred yards of each other, one in the citadel.
And just down the street there are two opera houses. I don't think there are enough citizens on Gozo to fill them at the same time.
What do they need two for?

Refer to Victoria as Rabat to a Maltese. That's what they call it.

spotted any great whites yet?
known to patrol the med......

No sharks, loads of jellyfish.  One bloke got stung above the eye, got a big swollen lump there.  Back in blighty now, the drive down from Gatwick to Brighton through the south downs reminds you what a beautiful green and pleasant land England is.  Just a shame the south coast water is so inpenetrably brown.

Which part of Malta are you staying rob?

I am back in blighty now.  Was in Gozo, the little place to the east of the port.  Qala?  Near Hondoq beach.  It was kind of third world, dusty and sh1te roads and buildings only half built and that but it was quiet and that was what we wanted... Inbed by ten and up before six was the theme. I have been to Malta before and parts of it have the worst of the Brits abroad theme but not in Gozo.