During the holidays, people were giving up hope waiting in the queue, ditching their cars on the outskirts of Mellieħa and walking to the ferry terminal and then walking up the hill from Mġarr to visit Bethlehem-in-Għajnsielem. Yes, walking. As one of my neighbours observed: “It truly has become a place for pilgrimage.”

By noon on Sunday the queue to Ċirkewwa was already three kilometres long and growing. Even running a shuttle service, the current number of ferries could not cope, not even with the vehicles that had successfully woven their way to Ċirkewwa. There must have been many more than 1,000 vehicles (so, how many people?) determined to make the crossing. And, later, there would be four lanes of traffic trying to squeeze into the bottleneck at Mġarr and pause to pay for the return journey. That means too many cars for Gozo. (If the knee-jerk response is that a ‘the tunnel’ would solve the problem, you are missing the point, and the problem, which is that Gozo has too many cars already.)

Last weekend, the ones that made it were double-parked all over the island. They were abandoned at road junctions and bus stops, on roundabouts and pedestrian crossings, with not a warden in sight.

The success of Bethlehem-in-Għajnsielem is a wondrous thing. But there are lessons to be learnt. One is that the current fleet of ferries is inadequate to cope (not only at Christmas, but often at ‘normal’ weekends, and the next ‘abnormal’ one will be carnival, next month). Another is that a surprisingly large number of Maltese are willing to walk, so a pedestrian-only ferry, with bus links unimpeded by other traffic, could be of real benefit. Finally, the cost of bringing a car to Gozo (more accurately, of taking one back) is far too low.

It will climax this weekend when the ‘three kings’ arrive, on horseback, for the final event of the tableau. Let’s hope there is room for them on the last stage of their Biblical pilgrimage... and that they can get on the ferry.