The Azure Window
THE AZURE WINDOW, GOZO.
On the 7th. March 2017 Suzanne and I along with two friends, Bob and Pat, took a bus from our hotel near Valetta in Malta. Our adventure that day was to visit Gozo and to see the much advertised and photographed ‘Azure Bridge’. After crossing a small part of the Mediterranean sea we made our way to the famous rock outcrop jutting into the blue waters of the Med. A climb up the cliff path took us to the view of this beautiful phenomenon.
Pat and Bob decided to stay on top while we descended down the other side where we found, waiting for us a fisherman with a small boat ready to take allcomers on a very small passageway beneath the nearby rocks and to the base of the ‘window’.
The rocks on either side of this extremely narrow passageway were very beautiful and the fisherman, thank heavens, very skilful. 
On emerging into the sunlight the boatman turned sharp left and we were faced with the collosal sight of the Azure we made our way close to the base and I took the photo below. Pat took the photo at the top of the page and although Suzanne and I are in that little boat below it is nigh impossible to make us out.
That night we slept well in spite of the dreadful storm outside. In the morning the eighth of March 2017 we put on the TV in the bedroom, as you do, and to our horror at the top of the news, disaster, the ‘Azure Window’ was no more! It had totally collapsed, there was no pillar, no arch they had completely disappeared into the sea. All future leaflets, and advertising material for Malta and Gozo would have to be devoid of its glory and our first thoughts were for the fishermen who had supplemented their income by taking tourists like Suzanne and me through the grottos to see the ‘Azure Window’. 
We felt grateful, however that we had witnessed it before it sank below the waves never to be seen again.
geoff wilde 21.09.2020
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