Malta without diving – money for wind

Someone goes here to learn English, someone crazy about the Arab, European and Turkic cultures "In one bottle", and someone sealed Local holidays with fireworks. Almost everything you can see in Malta is unique, but what is hiding here, under the azure stroke of the Mediterranean Sea, is unique doubly.

Mark insistently dragged me in the depths. Ask – why there was no possibility, and what questions? He is an instructor, which means he knows what makes. I can only look at the depthioner, the arrow is crawling to the right: 12 meters, 14. Hands burned cold, icy water began to cook under the wet cuff. Mark slowly, but inexorably sails all deeper. Finally, my underwater guide hangs in a meter over the bottom and shows a finger on a small hole in the rock – they say, looked. But I first squinted a look at the depthroom – CSO, 19 meters! I look in the hole, – and the surprise almost losing a ruined. I look at a huge, intelligent and sad, like a cow, eyes. In front of him, on the thick tentacle, – suckers. Octopus. Large octopus. Lord, how long did I go to this meeting! I watched in the winter in the dive center, I felt an experienced underwater swimmer. Before the cherished license "Open Water" lacked the smallest – four dives on the open (then do not mean in the pool) water. Because Malta was very by the way, especially since the local diving rules are barely not the most stringent in the world. The rigor is manifested mainly in the selection of instructors – they are invited to work only asces, no exceptions. Accordingly, licenses "Maltese sample", Formally, no different from others are quoted in any dive center of the world very high. When I guessed the certificates about Malta from the Moscow divers, the people have been wrote into two main positions.

The first is to these islands lying between Sicily and Africa, only when the Red Sea is hot and disgusting. In all other cases, Malta loses the same Hurghada.

And the second – if you have to go to Malta, then for the license, let him be more expensive than in Turkey or Thailand, but it will not be any questions, and you can be sure – you have taught you how it follows. On the second item, I have no objection, but with the statement that the Red Sea is better – ready to argue. The local Mediterranean Sea is generally difficult to compare with anything. And if nature "Upper" Malta differs little from the usual on the Mediterranean Islands, "Nizhny", underwater, part of it is something unique. But let’s not get ahead. While our path lies on the Gozo, the second largest island of the Maltese archipelago. Dive centers and in Malta itself, and in fair amounts, but the Gozo is a special article. On the map where the best places for dives are indicated, all its coast looks like beads, – point at point, where neither dive – everywhere interesting. Dive centers here as much as exchange points on Tverskaya, and all good. But it is necessary to start from somewhere, so we trusted to the Maltese representative on tourism. So found themselves in the tiny village of Schlendi, in "Sant Andrew Daivers Cove". Our group is quite diverse: two submariner-professional, three never diving with scuba and I, receipt. Intimidated by strictness of local instructors, I am a little roblast – suddenly everything was taught in the pool "Olympic", It turns out wrong and you have to start first. Fortunately, it turned out – in Moscow taught conscience.

With all the exercises, I coped without difficulty. Remove and wear under water mask, go to the spare breathing apparatus, maintain buoyancy at a given level and other wishes of the instructor were performed easily, and I remembered the good word of my Moscow teachers. Ten minutes brand was enough to understand – I will not risk life in local waters. And we went swimming. I hope that Mark Jackson, divers from the English county Dorsett and the dive instructor for the summer, if it sees these lines, it is unlikely to translate them. And then he may be offended by the fact that under the water reminded me not shark, not a dolphin and not even seal – a cow. Not to the view, but phlegmatic behavior. Barely shehel flush, occasionally putting up liquid borders of air bubbles, he slowly moving into the thickness of water. Even pens on the chest folded. The first mine sailing passed over the fields of algae and among the ropes stretching from the concrete blocks lying on the bottom of the concrete blocks. Mark introduced me to a little green fish that allowed himself to stroke himself on the ridge and scratching. Showed two other fish and gestures commented on what they do. Fish understood and blushed. However, their classes did not stop. I had to drag the English sustainer from them away, the good turned up a small, as chups, octopus. He clogged under the stone in full confidence that no one sees him. My outstretched finger caused hysterics from the baby – he described the big ink klyax and, as a rocket, bent in algae. Going to the surface, we compared the testimony of the manometers. I, as it should be after 40 minutes of underwater travel, 50 atmospheres. Mark who has done the same path on the same depths – as well as 120! Wow, "Cow Style". How many months (if not years) should be done under water to learn how to save air so economically!

There is no path

In the same place, in Schland, I first found myself in an underground cave. More precisely, in a tunnel, a cutting cape at a depth of 10-12 meters. A huge Dark Arch swallowed us with Marka, and underwater photographers Misha and Grisha. I raised my head and saw that the cave arch was covered with brilliant and movable, like mercury, cakes – it "Pillet to the ceiling" Exhaled by divers air. Happen that you will not pop up. With unusual, it’s not that scary, but it annoys a little. But here ahead is beginning to light and still ten meters clearly marked the arch of the exit. As a reward for the fact that I defeated the first in life underwater cave, I got a star. Huge and red, she sat (lying? crawled?) at the exit. However, she is now there.

A place, the picture of which is in each (!) Guide to Malta, – Azure Window, Huge Arch. Rock looks like a span of a giant bridge leading to the open sea. But hundred meters – and the bridge ends. However, much more interesting what is hidden under water. On a small platform – dozens of cars and buses, and at least half of them – with emblems of various dive centers. From the shore you see only a small fill, drizzled from the sea stone Grocery. Outside beat ha-arousa such waves, and in the filling quietly, as in the pond. Only leaving under the water, you know why non-zealous creeper is called "Blue hole" Blue Hole). To the bottom – 18 meters, and when this distance is passed, it makes sense to look around. On the one hand – a huge grotto, on the other – the huge arch. As if the scene, where the scenery is all Mediterranean Sea. And above your head – a small circle in which the sun beats. As if you sit at the bottom of a huge bidon. People – man 20. Who dives, who floods, who crawls in a cave, looking at indifferent to all fish. Misha, like a shipping pavilion photographer, laid out his cameras and outbreaks on a huge stone, got on his knees and began to fill the frame. And I regretted that the cameras were not from me: two healthy fish stared at the yellow mushings flippers and frozen. Why do they need flippers? Thermoclin, the boundary of warm surface and cold depth water, is located at different depths, from 12 to 25 meters. When you pass this border, the surrounding suddenly loses sharp contours, as in the summer chain. And to get to the grouper, you have to take a little bit. But I already warm – we swim back, we will soon pass under the familiar underwater arch and we will be in the usual hole. Blue. But Mark changes the course. That he was conceived? Some kind of cleft. We go inside, she narrows everything. Suddenly, I understand that the beggar vertically climbing up. I need the light – there! The width of this pipe – God forbid the meter, so you have to maneuvering very carefully, so as not to fight the balloon about the rock. Tunnel displays us into a big light (and warm!) bath between cliffs. Above us, literally in four or five meters, boil waves. I saw this place from above, from the shore. We are in the middle of the rocky reef. I could not see – I did not believe that under a mad foaming interhesion (and wave today be healthy!) Maybe so quiet and calm. Fish float, algae slightly shake.

One of the main raisins for amateur submariners – sunken ships. It is a pity that they are not sinking there and not the way you would like divers. Most often – too deep. And those courts that are available for amateur dives, known will be known. Frequency, shorter. Concerned about the problems of divers, local authorities decided not to wait for the crash near Malta near Malta. Received easier – they took and drowned on a 30-meter depth to serve their tug "Rosie". So he, quietly dug out of the blue. Redhead, not terrible. You can swim into the cut, you can go down in the trum. "Rosie" – From those points to which customers of almost all local dive clubs are driving, both from Malta and with Gozo. Therefore, a whole dance of swimmers constantly goes around the tug, and the instructors have to be on guard to not lose their.

The most exotic and most "Fish-saturated" Place of Archipelago – Komino Island. If you do not take into account the staff and the guests of a four-star hotel for fans of silence and water sports, two policemen and old women with two delicate delicate sons, the island can be considered uninhabited. Hundreds of boats with tourists are spinning around him. The shores of a small island (nearby – even smaller, Cominotto) almost completely cut by caves. An even more cave is completely hidden under water. But before you go to the caves, the boat on which we came from Slandi, for a couple of hours I stopped at the very visited place in the most tourists on the Comino – in the Blue Lagoon. The space between the comoino and the small island of Cominotto was covered with diverse shipy. People sunbathe, swim – and from the boat to the category there is a delusito move, circling swimsters, floating kiosk with ice cream. The most interesting thing in the blue lagoon is, of course, the bottom. It’s only five-six meters to it, and it can be seen through the transparent water, as in the sand from one grove of algae to the other breaking heads are mollusks. The depth is small, even an unprepared diver with a mask tube may well suck them close and look at the exotic sinks of their owners. But you can not take alive clams. It is categorically impossible. Yes, it is not worth it – to clear the sink from the owner, the ability to which few of the tourists have. And precious trophies, smuggling mined from the seabed, then rot and stink on the backyards of hotels. Live they look much more pleasant.

But here we are removed from the anchor and go around the island. The next batch is packed with surfers, between which the couples on the hydrocycles are deliver. On the shore – the same hotel for water sports lovers. On the water, it is necessary to believe, lovers themselves. Another cape – and the anchor rumbles next to a huge cavity in a rock. Sailed. On the bot is a man 20 – Germans, Italians, the British. To the parking lot, everyone had to do, only flippers and a mask to wear – and abroad. Russian Trinity is bile around the brand, the rest of the divers also pushed to their instructors. In the last minutes on the bot, our instructor has stuffed in a lingerie pocket package with bread. He eats, of course, as follows – the round, like most divers. But to take "Top blink" under water – this is the above my understanding. However, barely reaching the bottom, Mark has taken out and raised above his head. Have you ever fed pigeons? The picture is similar – the fish rushed to the package from everywhere, and soon the instructor disappeared in a dense bowl of scales and fins. I pull out fish with my hands, get to the brand and get a piece of sprawling bread out of his hands. Squeeze the mess in the fist, but the fish have already realized what. They gnaw my hand, damasses are very not even tangible. And I break me with a laugh: suddenly thought it was better to feed fish than pigeons, – the fish at least do not make a head. And then, when the bread ended and from thousands of fish, only a dozen two late optimists remained, we went to the caves. The lanterns were almost not included – the cape-eaten Cape turned into a bright and very interesting maze. Moves two ways, troop, but nowhere do not end up a dead end – always ahead blue light. Divers, as the guys on the playground, are smoothly worn over his boyfriend, hide behind the stones, confusedly look around in search of lost nanny instructors. And those in turn barely catching "His", Immediately look at the client’s pressure gauge – you will not stop slightly, and the air can end. Really, what, to hell, pressure gauge – among this beauty you can frolic!

Why do you need Malta?

The season in Malta continues until October, because those who are planning to devote the nearest daiving vacation, quite have time to get there without fuss. Personally, I have time to visit the Red and Black Sea, the Persian Bay and the Indian Ocean, having threw out in Turkey and in Cyprus, from Malta was delighted. That I not only got the lined license "Open Water", but also defeated the next step, "Advance", This delight took not the last role. But you can’t argue – livestock in Maltese waters less than in Hurghada or in Maldives. Entered me the only Russian dive instructor, whom we managed to find in Malta. Pasha is "Maltaqua" (Saint-Paul Bay – Bay of St. Paul) formulated the thought, to which I myself had already selected: in "dense fish supe" Of the Red Sea is simply impossible to see the life of individual underwater inhabitants. And here the living nature is enough to not look for it, and you can observe how the fish build a house or how the octopus brings its territory. Sometimes it seems that all these grottoes are made artificially – so they correspond to the proportions of the body closed in the wet. The weather, as always on the islands, changes quickly, because anywhere water can be stormy and muddy. But in the same time, a dozen-one and a half (oh, understate) other points for immersion, where conditions are perfect. What else pleases many – almost complete absence of dangerous animals. Sea hedgehog do not count – these spines settled all the shallow water of the Mediterranean Sea, and they just need to remember. And still – Malta is not only diving. However, O "Non-water" Malta Our magazine wrote a lot and in detail – here are full of pleasure and for those who have no flip on her legs.