Ramla Bay in Gozo is another one of my favourite bays. I remember fondly the days I spent there when I was a small kid during our frequent trips to Gozo. Ramla Bay is located at the bottom of another rich and fertile valley on the northern side of the island of Gozo. The village of Xaghra, located on one of the hills of Gozo, overlooks this valley. The Bay can be reached from the village of Nadur, Gozo's largest village. Terraced farmers fields blanket the whole valley in a green carpet with the field-rock walls built by the farmers giving the valley an appearance of a quilt when viewed from the high ridges surrounding this valley.

The beach is quite wide and is very sandy. It is a particularly golden-reddish sand which makes this beach different from all other beaches in Gozo and Malta. Maltese people often refer to this beach as the "Ramla il-Hamra" - the Red Sandy Beach. The are around the beach is quite interesting and provides some very rich historical treasures. Amongst these are the Roman remains close to the beach as well as the famous Calypso's Cave at the top of the cliffs on the Western side of the beach.

You can rent beach chairs and umbrellas from trailers located at the edge of the beach. These places also sell drinks, ice cream, and snacks. During our last visit I noticed that one can also rent sea-doos. The sun here can get quite hot and protection is definitely recommended.

Getting to the water is sometimes tricky since there are many rocks covering the sand between the edge of the water and a few feet away before you reach water deep enough to swim in. Many of these rocks were part of a wall built during the time of the Knights of Malta. The wall was built to prevent unfriendly ships from reaching the shore, a sort of underwater trap!.

Situated in the middle of the sandy beach, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary. This was built as thanksgiving from an escape from a shipwreck many years ago.

According to tradition, this is the cave referred to by Homer in The Odyssey, where the nymph Calypso lived. The nymph entertained Ulysses, who was shipwrecked on the island of Ogygia (Gozo), for seven years before he resumed his journey. Calypso's Cave, is in fact a series of caves extending, some say, right down to the sea. The view from the cave's entrance, is magnificent. The valley, the golden beach and Ramla Bay lie spread beneath it.

Click here for a picture of Ramla Bay. This picture was taken from the site of the Roman remains located on the eastern side of the beach.

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