We walked down to a little bar for our breakfast, and on the way back to our accommodation we picked up some yoghurt at the little grocery store to eat on our balcony. A gentle start to the day.
We’ve been finding the navigation on this island quite entertaining, to say the least. It’s a real rabbit’s warren of little roads that seems to even confuse Google Maps from time to time. This of course makes it even more interesting for us! Frustrating for Annemarie and a great opportunity for me to practice three point turns!🙂
Annemarie figured out a plan to visit the nine main beach areas around the island. I think we might’ve seen and walked into about six of them. Even with a breeze blowing and a bit of cloud each stop was very beautiful.
The road kept climbing and descending with wonderful views from the highest spots. There were usually places where we could pull out to see the views, something that was missing most of the time on the main island.
Everywhere we looked there were lovely little beaches tucked in with little trails leading down from the road.
The geology on the islands is quite fascinating. Very distinctive, round in shapes and areas hollowed out by the wind in the rain. Much of the stone is a reddish crystalline metamorphic rock. Almost a granite.
After completing our circumnavigation of the island we stopped at a Conad grocery store to pick up lunch stuff which we brought back to our place to enjoy in our terrace.
Now fed and rested it’s 15:30 and we are going to cross over to the southern island and hike into a beach we’ve been told about by our server at lunch yesterday. I will report back shortly before we leave for dinner.
Later:
Well, that was very interesting. We drove out to the place where we’d been directed and on arriving, we found out that you needed to have a guided tour to go down to the beach. I had earlier looked at my hiking app and the trail seemed pretty straightforward. So we thought that this was unfortunate, but we found some magnificent views!
The spine of the south island was very rugged, and there were good hiking trails indicated. It would’ve been fun to cross them. The views would’ve been spectacular. It seems odd that you require a guide to walk an easy trail to a beach, but you don’t require a guide to go on a more difficult trail, right?
In case you were wondering, these islands are a national park and the whole archipelago has been given a World Heritage designation because there are over 750 different flora on the islands and the sea waters within the park are essentially untouched. It’s been basically maintained in the same condition as assessed in the early 19th century. Except for the core of the main island where we are staying no development is permitted on any of the many islands situated in the archipelago. It’s truly a delightful experience to visit. Perhaps even better if one had their own sailboat and could anchor in the many bays throughout the marine park. Rob, kayaking here would be quite brilliant!
Tomorrow we leave the islands and travel westward along Sardinia’s north coast. We have Bear for 2 more days and are on Sardinia for another 2 days after we return the vehicle late Saturday.
Cheers!
Geoff 🍷
Distance Walker - Wandering & Wondering! 