I am sitting in here in a nice hotel lobby overlooking mountainous terrain, villages, green scenery and clouds, the sun is making some attempts to warm up, but its early. its Monday morning and all is peaceful in Sardinia.
I left Cleveland on a Saturday noon, the Delta counter had trouble finding my reservation at first , giving me few moments of dread, i gave them my ticket and then they found two invites for me, i booked via Vayama so no sure what happened there, but soon i was at the gate where this oversold flight had 5 to many people... they offered 800$ to delay. i was intrigued but would miss my connection so passed on what would pay for most of my stay.
reached JFK with plenty of time, but you have to switch terminals, go trough security again with long lines. prices here are higher then I recalled and i settled in on a hotdog,
soon we were off to Rome and i spent my time with Keeping up with Jonses - entertaining, Jack reacher 2 movie- decent - but the books are better, he (Tom Cruise) is to short for the role and played some trivia. slept only an hour. we reached rome 20 minutes a head of time, my connection was decent, but it did take a while to load on the busses and a long transit line for security, a long walk to the other terminal and then passport control. each by itself was not too bad, but i was pushing it to make my flight and had to run. Breathlessly i reached the gate with a few minutes to spare, joined with my dad and brother as we took the short last leg to Cagliari.
My bag wasn't there! here is there is a separate carrousel for domestic and international, sigh... it was in the other one with a ripped stepped, back pack becomes a shoulder carry.
we got the car and quickly began navigating the cagliary roads. the sun shone, a lovely warm day with clear skies. perfect start.
we stopped at a super marketo for some supplies, water, bread , local cheeses and snacks and headed for the SS125 going north east. the road passes salt lakes and fields of various kinds and then slopes up the mountain range. the granite mountains are striking, there are lops of spurs going up from the top of the mountains creating interesting shapes. the scenery is lovely with assorted trees of oak, pine, olive and others and the sea is visible every now and then for contrast. we took a little detour in the village of bureci and took a road to the top of a mountain. this was a dirt road and we stopped on the sides to examine the newly blooming flowers.
the road was not meant for a regular car and we decided to avoid a flat tire and returned back and continued east and north on the SS125. we reached the village of Arbatax and stopped at the marina for beautiful rocky shores view.. here we found a little booking mishap. our hotel was an hour south so we waived our booking and booked Dorgali which was an hour to the north- to avoid the need to double back. this village arbatx is a happening place in summer, but now in the off season it is off. no one in sight, this is a sunday and the roads are virtually empty. we decided to keep going to pedra delonga. after driving up the mountain, the roads goes steeply down towards the sea. we spot some goats and our expert zoologist guide declares they are feral goats. i do notice that these feral goats have bells on them. i did manage to get a nice photo of these feral bell goats gazing at me with the sea behind. photo of the day.
we reach the end of the road to the restaurant which is closed!!! at this point i get a 911 call from nature... and i leave my mark on the ground 20 meters from a locked toilet. this is becoming a bad habit.
the short path descends to the shore for views of sea and rock formations, including the long rock or Pedra De longa. i also take the paphto the other side, each path is perhaps 200 meters both ways, but a bit steep, the beach on this end is completely deserted.
we continue north. the roads here all pass in the towns, in one of them we reach a funeral procession and must go behind the poor soul and half the town on his way to church. we continue slowly on the never ending winding road but with striking views. i fall a sleep here and there in the back, an hour after the funeral we reach a dead end! the road is blocked. I get out to see road work on the other side and a firm blockade on the road, not a gate. time to go around. these are mountain roads, not many off them, we have to drive 20k back then do a huge detour. i take over on the wheel a bit rested after my power nap. Shay is complaining on the constant turning and i laugh when i see a straight stretch of road of about a 100 meters, it is that twisty. for more than an hour we are on this U-turn of a road passing a few small towns, streams, goats and sheep and finally reach a high way, we go north to Nouro, the area capital, it is a city and it is closed! we drive in the center and all stores are closed, and also restaurants and everything. these people take Sunday seriously. we pass a cop and ask for food directions and he guides to the main pedestrian area where we find a couple of sandwich places, we are told that restaurants will open at 8 pm.. and we have a hungry child to feed so we snack on microwave heated pizza or burgers - not gourmet italian food. on the way out another store finally opened and Shay supplements with french fries. all he wants is Mcdonald...
we leave the city and head toward Dorgali the touristic town, center of all activities and we find the road closed. it is dark now and we are tired. another detour.... its a big valley with hills here, hence a few roads to chose from. 30 minutes later , groggy eyed and slapping my face to remain awake we reached the hotel to find it closed!
we called the hotel and after a few minutes they opened up, we booked this hotel today and the hotel did not get a message somehow, but they were efficient and gave us another room.
i took a shower and was fast asleep.
Day 1 ended where Sardinia makes country #63
woke up before seven and went out to check the beautiful mountain view, green hills vine yards and other fields. we had a great breakfast, with fresh orange juice, good bread, home made cake and other goodies. we went to the super market to grab lunch sandwiches and headed for our first spot. road S46 is closed... a car passes and a nice sardinian lady tells us to follow her on z daetur. it was a tiny park that seemed devastated by recent floods, i saw a bench on a rock 10-15 meters up, high flood. we saw a sign for a "short nice 20 minute walk" and we took it, the short hike goes in between interesting vegetation and our biological tour guide digs a root from one of plants and shows us its orange root, suppose to make great tea out of it.
we drove onward on a mountain road towards the hike of the day. we took the wrong path and tried and failed to make it up the mountain, steep roads, we stopped by a group of italian forest workers. they spoke no english but were very friendly, they were having lunch of bread and cheese and wine. we drank some wine, even I, just to be nice took a little sip. they drew us a map and we made it to the starting point where i left tour guide and hungry child in the car, they had lunch and i went up the mountain. 300 meters elevation change, took me 55 minutes to make it up there. the 1st part is just a path becoming steeper and steeper with occasional sounds of feral bell goats and 1 wild cat. the 2nd part of the path becomes a rocky trail, lots of stair type trail and the more you go up the rockier it becomes, with very jagged rocks, i stepped carefully on this part. at one point you have to go through a tunnel between the rocks and use your hands to climb. short of breath i reach the ancient nouraghi village under a collapsed dome. a guide waiting at the top explained bit about the sheep herding village that was discovered about 100 years ago, there is not much to see and i stayed there for a short while, enjoyed the panoramic view and made my way carefully down the mountain.
sour legged, i enjoyed picoreno cheese and bread. very good, we left the park and drove to orgoloso a town known for anti government political drawing. the streets are full of interesting gravity and quality drawing, but it is in italian ,and we don't stay here long. the way over here 18 k was once again extra twisty. as we leave the town to return to Dorgali, we go by another road , slightly faster and are told to make a right somewhere, i remark that per the onboard nav system, we are about to cross a river, when we get to the bridge. it is rock made, ancient and half demolished, mush have been broken for over 20 years. we debate if we could jump over the gorge and finally decide not to. another blocked road.. but we do find a nice orchid here before we go back to another detour which is our 4th in under 24 hours. we make it back and head for sea town of cala gonona , a happening place in the summer we reach the shore and walk a bit then hungry boy must have dinner and we begin looking for a place. there are lots of closed restaurant here, they have cruises to amazing nearby beaches but not now, not a boat in sight. we scrounge the town and see and open gelateria, finally :) we go in, and no ice cream, it will start next week the counter guy say in iris Gelateria. i Order hazel nut hot chocolate, it is very thick and and hot , hit the spot. a near by restaurant has lights, but they will open in an hour, we decide to go back to Dorgali, its a bigger place , there must be food there. we drive around for an hour, it is closed, everything.... low blood sugar shay drives around crazed. we finally find a restaurant sign and head up narrow alleyways and find a 1 star michellen place. but closed. google directs us to the garden pizzeria restaurant which was open!!! too bad.
tour guide ordred zuppa di mar, after desperately wanting soup. apparently a plate of sea food is called zuppa, he sends it back. i ask for black risotto and octopus. it is nourishing. this is our new code word for something not so good. hungry boy gets ribs, they taste like meat but stringy. the carbonara is also nourishing and the chocolate cake is as soft as dry rock.
shay asks for another fork it share the rock cake and gets another cake... we send it back to rolled eyes glares from our waitress. we hear here debating with the angry cook.
we reached the hotel for a show and fast overnight nap.
woke up around seven, another vey good breakfast, as we raised our glasses we requested open roads...
we checked out and heading north. we passed the town of orosei. the town shocked us, we saw a few open places, we checked out the beach, pretty and not empty , 2 people were sitting on the sand.
we are now going not still
cheers from sardinia
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