Saturday 28^th February – Cagliari (Sardinia – North East Coast)

39:12.064N 9:07.510E

After a good night’s sleep, we were up early and, after breakfast and a tour of the hotel complex, we were on the road again, this time to explore the North-east coast.  Once again it was bright and sunny J

Hotel complex:  Hotel room straight ahead on the right, top floor

We left Olbia and headed to the coast to Golfo Aranci.  Although ‘Aranci’ means oranges, apparently it owes its name to a mistaken interpretation of the local place name ‘di li ranci’ meaning ‘some crabs’.

Golfo Aranci: Fishing harbour at Golfo Aranci

After this we took the coast road, calling in at a couple of attractive marinas one the way; Porto Rotondo and Marina di Portisco (Richard is ever inquisitive).

Golfo di Marinella; Porto Rotundo

Marina Portisco; View from coast road

We then headed for Porto Cervo, a place we had earmarked for a visit as it is in the heart of the Costa Smeralda with yachting marinas, luxury hotels, villas and restaurants; the consortium for this exclusive tourist development was founded in 1962 and headed by the Aga Khan.  In summer, it is full of luxury yachts and luxury designer shops for the jet-set, and the base for some large yacht races.  For us, out of season, it was less impressive; very quiet, very empty and mostly closed.  We had thought it would have been less seasonal.  We asked about berthing charges in the summer – ouch !

Porto Cervo

We had a picnic at the marina, and then headed on north and discovered some really beautiful spots on the way.

Baia Sardinia

At Palau we had a lovely view of the Maddelena islands, a short sail away – they looked ideal for anchoring off in fine weather and warm seas.

Palau:  View to the Maddelenas

We didn’t go into the town of Palau as there was a parade starting and the roads were closed.  Instead we headed up a side road to turn round and found a fort before exploring one of the coast roads.

Palau: Fort; Coastal road views

From Palau we continued straight up to the top of the island and Santa Teresa di Gallura where we experienced a fabulous one way grid system, with practically vertical hills.  From this point at the tip of Sardinia we could clearly see the white cliffs enclosing the city of Bonifacio in Corsica only 7.5 miles away, and a lone yacht sailing across.  We also visited the marina; it was the only marina we saw today with plenty of boats in it.

Santa Teresa Di Gallura; Town; Beach; Marina

Santa Teresa Di Gallura:  Across the straits to Corsica

From Santa Teresa Di Gallura, we started the drive back down to Olbia.  On the way we drove through Palau to pick up the coast road past Cap d’Orso (Bear Cape).  As we arrived in Palau we caught the end of the parade that had been starting when we came through earlier in the day; we stayed to watch and although we are not sure what the parade was about, it seemed to be food and beer centric as they were handing out both to everyone.

Palau: parade

We took the narrow coast road out past Cap d’Orso (Bear Cape) as dusk fell; the route included crossing a sandy causeway.  As darkness fell we headed onto the main roads to make driving easier and wound our way back to Olbia.

Causeway we crossed on the way back; Ferries crossing to the Maddelenas

Once again we arrived back at the hotel exhausted and were soon collapsed asleep – the bed is so big we feel as if we are sleeping alone after the berth on Pyxis; there is also no swell from passing fishing boats in the night.

© Pyxis 2009