Gozo walking 2: Mgarr to Ta’ Sannat
11th April 2026
On our second day’s walking it was time to figure out the buses. Our hotel was very near the bus station and from there we each purchased a 12 journey ticket – and at the end of the holiday we had made exactly 12 journeys. Apart from a glitch on this day the buses were reliable, though not terribly frequent, and on Gozo not so busy that you couldn’t get a seat. (The main island was a different story.)
Our route started by taking the bus back down to Mgarr where we had disembarked from the ferry a couple of days earlier. After a look round the harbour and marina we headed uphill towards Ghajnsielem, passing Our Lady of Lourdes (1888) on the way. You can just about make out a statue of the Virgin Mary in the rocks below.
As is inevitable in Malta, within two minutes we spotted another large church, that of Ghajnsielem, then, just before we left the road, two sculptures.
The walk proper now began as we approached the sea, a glorious path along the south coast of the island. We passed more saltpans and a small watch tower guarding the entrance to Mgarr ix-Xini cove.
The cove was our destination for lunch – we had a steep descent to the beach café which was followed, inevitably, by a steep ascent to the other side of the cove.
The walk continued to be beautifully scenic with views across to Comino and Malta, gorgeous wildflowers, and towering cliffs.
As we approached what we thought was our final destination, Ta’ Sannat, the rotunda of Xewkija came into view, a church which we would visit a few days later and which seemed to be visible from almost everywhere on the island.
Our bus left from a roundabout with an interesting sculpture on the outskirts of town. On checking the bus-stop we saw a notice warning that there would be no buses that day until after 15:00. Fine, our bus was not due until 15:45 – time to repair to the café across the road! However, the bus did not arrive and a man walking up the road told us he had just got off it, the way up to our stop was still blocked by roadworks, and the bus was on its way back to Victoria. Grrr! Why could the notice not have been altered?
Undaunted, we walked further into town to the next stop, passing Sannat Parish Church on the way. However, given we still had almost an hour to wait we decided just to walk back to Victoria. It was only another 35 minutes or so – no more pictures though, it was along fairly uninteresting roads.
This was a lovely coastal walk which we really enjoyed, despite the hiccup with the buses at the end. They didn’t let us down again! The next day’s walk was less enticingly titled Fungus Rock – coming soon.
Linked to Jo’s Monday Walk.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
This coastline is so lovely to see… the water looks so inviting.
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The waters look so enticing. Does no one snorkel? Too cold?
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We did see a few people in the water swimming and snorkelling, but this was April so the water was probably still quite cold. I didn’t try it!
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I’m sitting in the winter sun and thinking that I could easily see myself wandering around there. Yes, it passes as a reasonable substitute for NZ. No surprise regarding the churches.
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Yes, it was very pleasant wandering about. It was a good choice as a substitute.
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Best of all, you were together creating good memories no matter where you went😊
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It really does look gorgeous, Anabel. Why so many churches, I wonder? Thanks for the link, hon, and sorry I’m a bit late here xx
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No worries, I haven’t got to any blogs today yet! It seems to be a very religious society. Lots more churches to come.
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Gosh it looks fantastic! What a wonderful place to visit.
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Given we didn’t get to NZ I think it was an acceptable substitute!
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Yes!
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Such a sunny and interesting day out with a wonderful coastline to enjoy, plus flora and fauna and good food and wine! The day seems to have ticked all boxes for a great holiday where language isn’t a problem either! Unusual cacti and sculpture …apparently it’s called Three Farmers Talking…!
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A lot of the roundabouts had sculptures on them, but this was the most interesting. They do look as if they are having a good old chinwag!
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A lovely stretch of coastline for a walk with a bit of everything – scenery, old churches, modern sculpture and a beach café. A shame about the bus but it doesn’t seem to have spoiled your day too much.
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Yes, you’re right, there was a bit of everything. I was dismayed bout the bus until I realised we weren’t actually that far from the hotel. Nothing is very far from anywhere on Gozo!
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Brilliant colours in the sky and sea. Looks a walkers dream as long as it’s not too warm. I love the different accents and cultures on local buses anywhere, Even Dundee or Edinburgh, as they are all different. Bob. BSS.
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It was quite warm, but not unbearably so. We only had one slightly cloudy day.
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What a lovely hike, shame about the unreliable bus but I guess we will notice that it was okay after that!
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Yes, it was fine after this. The buses mostly seems did turn up, it just didn’t come all the way up to the stop we were at – a communication problem. We weren’t the only ones waiting!
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😳
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Your bus experience is rather reminiscent of rural services over here!
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Most days the buses turned up when they were supposed to – I think their communication was rather lax on this day.
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Better than over here, then.
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😂
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Gozo is gorgeous. It’s paradise, in its own way.
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It’s certainly a little slice of paradise.
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What a beauté hike. I see that Gozo is as beautiful as ever…sorry to hear the problem with the bus. I do remember they were vert infrequent. (Suzanne)
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Yes, Gozo is still beautiful! The buses mainly seemed to be hourly, and most days we were much quite luckier with timing.
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More up and downs, not only the walk! Looks lovely though. Lunch looks delicious and John well pleased with his coffee. And I remember well the prickly pears, I took several photos of them! As previously mentioned I have only visited Gozo by car way back in 1979 and by a coach trip from Valetta in 2006 as we realised the buses were infrequent and I didn’t want to hire a car. We stopped in Xlendi for lunch, but David and I had a stroll along the promenade. And we were lucky to see the Azure Window before its collapse in 2017. For such a small island there are a LOT of churches!
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Sounds like you packed a lot in! We were lucky at lunch to get the last table. It was delicious, but we didn’t linger because a) it was busy and b) we knew we had that long climb back up onto the cliffs.
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It looks so beautiful Anabel. Sorry about the bus, not informing people that the road was blocked was unhelpful, but im glad you survived.
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The extra walk wasn’t too far but it would have been more helpful if they’d just said the road was closed all day. When we passed the roadworks we could see there was no way they’d have been finished by 3pm.
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Hopefully the heatwave hitting Europe hasn’t touched you too much?
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Ah, this was April so it was hot but not that hot!
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A shame you missed the bus, I hope it didn’t spoil what was otherwise a lovely walk. The little cove where you had lunch looks lovely and I like the views along the coast path.
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It didn’t spoil the walk, we just went a bit further expected and the last bit wasn’t terribly interesting. We made up for it another day when instead of walking all the way back as we were meant to we hopped on a bus that passed at just the right time.
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This looks such a tempting destination. I’ll have to catch up with your previous Gozo posts. I read nobody’s posts at all whilst away. Nope. Not even yours!
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We really loved it there, Margaret. And I shall forgive you your lapses of course! I’m sure you had MUCH better things to do than a read other people’s blogs.
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Well, actually …. but now I can catch up!
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