The Island of Comino, The Maltese Archipelago

Comino, formerly called Ephaestia is a small island of the Maltese archipelago between the islands of Malta and Gozo in the Mediterranean Sea, measuring 3.5 square kilometers in area.

To reach this stunning little island you must take a boat from either Malta or Gozo that takes less than half an hour. It is breathtakingly beautiful, with craggy rocks reaching down to the most stunning coastline licked by calm, clear waters in every shade of turquoise, blue and green. There is an amazing blue lagoon where, when the sun shines, which it almost always does, the little boats appear to be hovering above the surface, it is a surreal and glorious observation.

I took these photographs in early October, after a blazingly hot and dry summer. Almost all the vegetation had dried out, revealing a new, spectacular kind of beauty, dried grassy hummocks, majestic seed heads and exposed thorny branches of small shrubs.

The boats, ladened with tourists descend throughout the day, arriving at the small jetty of the Blue Lagoon. This is a busy little area; it makes me feel happy! There is a small beach with ageing parasols and a little track jammed full of street food and drink vendors, there are also lockers to rent for the day. Some of the bigger boats moor away from the coastline, where shrieks of delight can be heard as the revelers use the slide into the water. However, walk for 5 minutes in any direction, and it is a quiet, spectacular, glorious little haven.