I qualified as a PADI open water diver nine years ago on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. It hadn't crossed my mind to dive in Malta til I saw all the groups going I'm at Dwejra and people snorkelling too. I enjoy stuff like that when I do it but my instinct is not to want to do it, it feels like so much hassle having to book a trip or rent kit and go somewhere to do it, what do I do with my valuables when I'm in the water, getting out all salty so need to go back to the hotel to shower after, it just seems like a lot of hassle and the perceived obstacles get in the way. But when I saw the divers yesterday I thought "I could do that" and that I might regret it if I didn't. My avoidance of hassle is outweighed by my fear of regret so I thought I might try to book a dive, if I could do it on Monday, so I had 2 full days afterwards for my dodgy ears to equalise before flying back to the UK.

I got up early and went to the closest dive shop when they opened before 8am. They happened to be taking a complete beginner out to do some shallow dives and said I could go with. I haven't dived for 9 years, I felt like I'd forgotten it all so this was exactly what I wanted and would include refresher of basic skills, which I also needed! We did two dives off a site called Sirens, in St Paul's Bay. It is used a lot by dive companies with people who've never dived before because it's easy to get into the water and quite shallow. The shore is rocky with some sandy bits and sea grass type stuff and algae growing on the rocks. I saw plenty of fish and a sea urchin. There were lots of other divers there, there was a bit of rubbish on the sea bed and visibility wasn't great, the guide said its normally 15m here but today it was only 8-10. This was disappointing but a risk you take, as you can't know this til you get into the water.

The dive didn't blow my mind, it wasn't a patch on the GBR, or even snorkelling off Australia. I didn't really like the guide, he'd only qualified a few years ago and was quite gung Ho, had a very cavalier attitude towards things, including saying things like "it doesn't matter if you kick the stuff on the rocks, it's already really damaged by so many tourists", which was such a contrast to Australia where the dive instructors are passionate about the wildlife and environment and protecting it and not damaging things. But I'm still glad I did it. I got to see some stuff under the water that I wouldn't otherwise have known was there, I reminded myself that I have my dive licence and I can dive! We did two dives of 35min each to maximum depths of six then nine metres. I was a bit rusty at first but soon got the hang of managing my buoyancy and checking my air / depth gauges and things. It reminded me that diving is an option and next time I go away maybe I can do a dive to see some different stuff. I'm really glad I did it.

Back to the hotel by 2pm, lunch shower change and back out. Went for a walk along the seafront, stopped and sat for a while. Am going to wander a bit more and have an ice cream before an early night.

I only have two days left, so sad! Will go back to Valletta tomorrow to visit the War Rooms and the subterranean war tunnels tour then visit the “three cities” across the harbour, if I have time i'll also get a bus down to Marsaxlokk. My last day I think I will return to Gozo because it was so lovely. I want to see some more stuff there and if possible get a boat to Comino to see the blue lagoon. I'd like to snorkel, if I can find a boat trip from Mgarr that offers this including equipment and that runs in the afternoon (a big ask but maybe I will get lucky!)

Malta has grown on me. I wasn’t so sure the first day but now I’m realising how much interesting stuff there is to do here and how much this country has to offer.