Sunday 1^st March – Cagliari (Sardinia – West Coast)

39:12.064N 9:07.510E

This morning, we checked out after breakfast and headed off cross-country once again.  Overnight the clouds had come in and there was a light drizzle at times.

We drove west through the mountains enjoying peaceful roads and stunning views.  At times scenery was very reminiscent of Derbyshire with the green fields and dry stone walls.

We headed towards Calangiánus which is noted as the cork production centre of the Gallura region.  In the forests around the town you can see evidence of the cork harvesting where the cork oak trees have been stripped of their bark, giving their trunks a bright reddish colour until the bark grows again.  As ever we managed to end up on the back roads looking at the cork oaks and so ended up climbing up and down the hillsides on a narrow road with hairpin bends.

Dry stone walls; Hair-pin bends up the mountain

Cork oak trees with the bark harvested

From Calangiánus we carried on to Tempio Pausania, the capital of Gallura, and then picked up a larger road to head west towards Sassari, Sardinia’s second most important city.  The plan was to head straight to Alghero on the west coast rather than go into Sassari itself but we needed to drop off the motorway for a comfort break and some fuel.  Being Sunday even the commercial centres were closed, however, we now know that although the petrol stations look closed and are unmanned, you can still get petrol 24 hours a day as they have machines that take cash or credit cards; fortunately one of the locals gave us a crash course in the technology.

We then carried on to Alghero, a place we had considered as a landfall when we crossed from Menorca to Carloforte last year, and a place where we could have ended up over-wintering.  We had lunch looking out across the harbour and then wandered around the marinas.  We spotted a couple of the boats we had met over the summer; one from Lagos and another from Almerimar, but both with their owners back at home.

We then walked the short way into the old town which was picturesque with cobbled streets and Spanish influences.  We were able to visit the neo-classical Cattedrale di Santa Maria.  As we walked it started to rain; luckily I had my umbrella with me but it was struggling in the strong wind.  Fortunately it proved only a shower.

Alghero:  Marina

Alghero:  Old town

Alghero:  Cathedral

Back in the car we left Alghero and headed south on the motorway which runs from the top of the island to the bottom.  The road was fast and we were able to make good progress with barely any traffic on the road.  However, as we travelled down the weather closed in and at times we were driving through cloud and heavy rain.

As we approached Cagliari it was going dark and the traffic increased considerably so we were pleased to get back to the marina.

© Pyxis 2009