Sardinia: Day 2

Once I'd packed, my route took me along the south coast and around to the island of Santu Antiogu. 

The various roads weave in and out of the coast and would be a dream on a motorbike. You'd never touch the centre part of the tyre except as you rolled from one bend to another. Genoese towers are dotted all along this stretch of coast. The last glimpse of a city that tried to become another Rome. 

Porto Pino is clearly a very busy place in the summer. At the moment everything is closed up, but it's set up suggests that alongside it's small fishing fleet, the main income is tourism and it's wide sandy beach and bay. At the moment, Flamingos and various water fowl occupy the salt water lakes, cut in two by the causeway road accessing the beach. 

Getting onto Santu Antiogu uses another causeway before rolling over a bridge to drop into the main town. Police has speed traps just at the entrance but don't actually seem all that bothered. 

The coastline of the island is beautiful. Hidden coves, all covered in the low vegetation, hide away properties behind it lush greenery, backed up by the odd fence or wall. Calasetta, a small port and tourism town at the north end of this tiny island has whitewashed houses set on a grid pattern. Traffic flow is up one, down another. 

Meanwhile, following tiny coastal roads took me to the WW2 gunnery emplacements on the west coast and a giants tomb. Which is a bronze age tomb made of some large stones laid to form an arched long tomb, maybe 15 foot long and 3 foot wide. There are a couple of these on Sardinia itself.

Both paved and unpaved roads are used to get around the island, mostly on tiny scooters or 3 wheel pick up trucks. Sheep and goats are all over the place, with some big dogs to protect them. 

I passed through wide valley, hidden by a horseshoe of hills. Three properties were being renovated here, one on a hilltop, one sat on a saddle and another overlooking the bay below. All three would be great places to live if you could afford them. There was also a ruined farm and a protected ruin as it was part of a series of water transfer points belonging to a water cult from a couple of hundred years ago. 

someone has renovated the genoese tower at Torre Canai, it's a lovely thing and I was blessed with a rainbow as I got there.

I finished the day backtracking above Cagliari to visit a protected area. Campus Omu is a large area protected for both flora and fauna. There is a smooth dirt road upto a forestry place that winds alongside a river. You can't camp in there, but picnic tables are everywhere and wandering around on marked trails is well set up. I drove through, but was conscious I was after permitted hours and daylight was dropping fast, so a short visit before heading uphill to find a park up for the night in the cork woodland near Is Protaxius.

Oh and I found the face of a demon in the hills today!!