Once I regained the main piste from my park up spot, it was smooth driving up and down hills until I came to the third river crossing.
I'd woken to some thin grey clouds interferring with the sunrise, which would explain why it wasn't as cold as I expected during the night. Packing up and sorting breakfast still left me with numb fingers and cold feet though, but hey, it was up high.
At that river crossing, I took a peek and thought it would be fine, but as I dropped into it, some stones moved and I ended up resting my front diff against an unpleasantly sharp rock.
So I reversed back out. Built up some flat rocks to raise the wheels up a bit higher and tried again. This time, I also steered further towards the left bank. The diff cleared the rock, but the right rear tyre dropped into the same hole though so I had to reverse again, sort out a straighter line and try again. All wheels turning, the diffs cleared the rock and I was now in the river bed. Some serious water flow had loosened a lot of stones, so it took a couple of go's to get the Landy back on firm ground. Once there, I had to do a 180 degree turn to go up the next bit of trail. This turned out to be washed out from a blocked bit of drainage further up. So for about 1.5km, it was 1st gear, diff lock in and try to avoid the troughs and big rocks whilst not driving off the edge of the narrow trail.
Once it all flattened out, it was smooth piste again through a load of cork trees, past a few farms and some kind of camping ground. Eventually I got back to tarmac. But this included having to chase some cows back up the trail and disturbing a small work gang clearing drainage.
Once in a town, it was shopping time again, including wine this time and then follow the GPX for a bit.
Next up was traversing some ragged sea cliffs on a rough piste. They were white, the sea and sky blue and the purple orchids just set it all off. It started with a white beach, made up of polished stones and shells.
After a few km's, the trail turned inland and I got bored travelling through the flat farmland in the valley bottom.
My attention wandered back to the Nuragic Bronze Age forts, so I did a quick bit of research and found Santu Antine was an hour away, so off I went.
Not much is known about the Nuragic culture. They have left around 7000 ruins across Sardinia. Some of them are hill forts, some are water channels. It is believed that worshipped water and each of their buildings has a fountain. They built huge waterways from the mountains to the coast and a whole group of forts from valley bottom to 1500m. Their architecture is way ahead of its time, with huge stone blocks cut, then built into their structures. Their military forts occupy viewpoints and can be seen from their nearest neighbours. Something the Genoese did as well. A fascinating and rarely heard of civilisation.
Santu Antine is a triangular 3 story high structure. It is believed to have been a centre point. Each tower is the same distance and circumference. The central tower is the same as all the others around the island, but two more add to this. There is a central fountain fed by a waterfall and each layer has a walkway with stairs to the upper floor. Around its base are other buildings that have been excavated. The Romans occupied it in the 2nd AD and built their own bits around it.
