Gozo has everything to offer the individual who is prepared to walk for it, and the island is undoubtedly at its best in spring. from the hilltops there are some wonderful panoramic views of this delightful island. the fields are a chessboard of red and green: in the red from the clover and the green from the young corn, with deeper patches from the fields of potatoes and artichokes.
The coastline is unsurpassed, with the huge vertical cliffs of Ta' Cenc and Ras il-Wardija rising sheer from the sea to well over 100 metres. The most spectacular are the former, reached through the village of Sannat; the latter are past the village of Santa Lucija.
Gozo has fertile valleys and cultivated slopes, like Lunzjata Valley just outside the town of Rabat on the way to the villlage of Kercem. there are marvellously-terraced fields at Tal-Bardan on the outskirts of Sannat.
It is equally difficult to find a natural phenomenon like the inland sea of Il-Qawra at Dwejra, or a beach covered with golden sand as Ir-Ramla l-Hamra on the eastern tip of Gozo.
The island sustains a vegetation typical of most Mediterranean countries, vegetation that has to live through teh heat and dryness of summer and to be strong enough to resist the windy gusts through most of the year.
The most common trees are the carob, the prickly pear, the fig, the almond, the olive and the palm.
The carob is still the most dominant species of hte island's flora, dotting the countryside with its dark green colour, hugging the sides of hills and valleys, and sheltering the rustic Gozitan farmyards. its fruit and green seedpods turn to a chocolate colour when they ripen in August.
Wild flowers are at their best at this time of the year. From San Blas to Dahlet Qorrot on the outskirts of Nadur there are over 50 different varieties of wild flowers.
The typical rubble walls that enclose the fields and the little wasteland of Gozo support a very abundant flora. Suffice it to say that in spite of having only around one thousandth of the area of the British Isles, the Maltese Islands possess roughly the same number of flowering plants, around one thousand.
Very common at this time are the small yellow flowers of the African Oxalis, axalis pes-caprae; the bright yellow flowers of the Woody Marigold, calendula fulgida; and the violet flowers of the Snapdragon, antirrhinum majus, known in Gozo as Papocci tal-Madonna, that is, slippers of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A walk along the coast in the limits of the village of Nadur is certainly among the most picturesque as well as one of the most challenging. The The valley of San Blas, easily reached by car, is one big orchard. At this time of the year the fruit trees are covered with blossom and provide a delightful relief to the eye as one comes upon mass after mass of colour by some little isolated farmhouse.
Several bountiful springs flowing down the slopes are redirected into reservoirs and from there into a network of stone canals that reach every cultivated corner. A number of fields are protected on the seaward by bamboo windbreakers - they slow down the force of the winds and shield the trees and products from the erosive saline showers.
The road ends at the bay that has a sandy and pebbly beach. A path on the right seaward leads to the rugged gradeur of Il-Gebel tal-Mistra, literally the Rocks of the Hidden or Mysterious Place. The spot is mysterious indeed, and it has to be seen to be believed.
It consists of a mass of jumbled rocks of all shapes and sizes, from a few metres across to rocks larger than five-storey apartment, all thrown together as if some gargantuan giant, in a fit of very bad temper, had cast them wholesale around this fraction of the coast.
The place is seemingly impassable, or almost. It is possible that a fisherman from Nadur or one of the former tillers of the couple of fields that remain there knows a way through.
It is certainly advisable to retrace one's steps up the valley, and proceed towards the left on l-QortinI to Wied ir-Rihan, and the tiny bay of Dahlet Qorrot. In springtime, the top of Il-Qortin between San Blas and Wied ir-Rihan, literally the Myrtle Valley, is carpeted with different coloured rock roses. From its top, Il-Qortin offers some of the finest scenery in Gozo.
At one point along the craggy precipice leading to Dahlet Qorrot there once stood a chapel dedicated to San Filep. Saint Philip was born at Bethsaida in Galilee and was a disciple of hte Baptist before becoming an apostle of Jesus. It is possible that he preached the gospel in Phrygia and died at Hierapolis, which claims to have the grave of the saint and his daughters.
His cult spread rapidly from East to West and it was not long before it also became rooted in Gozo, where a chapel dedicated to his honour was raised on this lip of high ground overlooking the Mediterranean. The chapel was still flourishing at the beginning of the 17th century and it was well looked after, but one day something terrible happened.
According to a tradition recorded as far back as 1644, the chapel was all of a sudden engulfed into nothingness. The story adds to the mystery of the spot. Due to its location, it is very possible that when the strong wintry winds whipped up the sea, the showers of salty water soaked its walls and caused its slow dilapidation. Or, maybe, it was na earthquake or a hurricane that had swept away the chapel onto the equally-enigmatic Il-Gebel tal-Mistra.
The fertile and picturesque valleys of San Blas and Ir-Rihan, the ruggedness of Il-Gebel tal-Mistra, the mysterious disappearance of San Filep, together with incomparable views across the blue Mediterranean, make this an outstanding walk that should not be missed on any account.
Some of it is heavy going, but it is definitely worthwhile.