Sardinia is a relatively large island, so we picked a corner based upon the guidebook informing us that there was a possibility to see miniature wild donkeys! Who could resist that eh? The ferry from Corsica to Sardinia was in a fresh breeze… with surprisingly few sailing boats around until we found out that there was a weather warning with 100km hour wind expected.
We took a campsite in the lovely port town of Alghero on the westerly coast. The campsite was on the edge of the sea, so we put up our tent in deep sand underneath the pine trees. During our first apero, enjoying the sunset, the wind increased.. hmm time for storm pegs and then we could return back to enjoying the bottle of cold white wine. Alghero is a great, family friendly resort town. It has an old town with windy streets and fortified walls overlooking the sea. It is a great to enjoy the fabulous food and wine of Sardinia – sitting on the terraces in the cool breeze from the sea or enjoying the sunset. Their local vineyards produce excellent Cannonau and Vermentino, all at reasonable prices even in the restaurants. Local food is a delicious combo of fresh pasta, seafood, ham & cured meats, fish etc. WE ATE SO MUCH!!! Yummy all round. Sardinia was consistently the best food area on our trip.
In order to balance some of the eating with some exercise, we got up early to take a ferry to a deserted island called Asinara. The island is a nature reserve and named after the miniature donkeys, but also has lots of other wildlife and fish in the sea as it has not allowed any fishing for years. No cars are allowed on the island (except for the tours in their 4WD) so we took our bikes and had the one road on the island almost to ourselves all day. Fortunately it was a cloudy day following the storm that had passed, as there was no shade at all. We spent the day biking and hiking through the weird rocky landscape, with beautiful aquamarine coves and unusual succulent plants that looked like oversized onions. Saw lots of wild donkeys (yes, they really are that small!), goats, a tortoise and even the rare moufflon with their massive curled horns. Finished the afternoon with fantastic snorkelling with loads of fish, big hairy clams (like we have never seen before) in the weeds and sea cucumbers. We even went for a snorkel in the clear waters of the harbour whilst we were awaiting the ferry – lots of bigger fish in the deep waters with crabs covered in sea weed. Cannot recommend it enough – a GREAT day out.
After chilling out in Sardinia for a few days, we headed down to Cagliari to get the massive overnight ferry to Naples. Cagliari is a vibrant, busy city with lots of old buildings / roman amphitheatres and old winding backstreets full of restos. Hopped onto the ferry – again, we were going to be sleeping with our camping stuff on the deck – with a shopping bag full for our onboard picnic. Bellissimo – as our fellow travel companions exclaimed as they headed to the boring ferry café 🙂 Next stop, Napoli…
Counterclockwise around Europe 