Isola Caprera and Isola della Maddalena

We in Città della Maddalena now. We've had a nice day padddling up the east coast of Isola Caprera and back down between that and the Isola della Maddalena. We expect to find a camp site somewhere to the west of here on the mainland.


The Isola Caprera has a magnificent rocky coast, sculpted into a million different shapes, some loking like animals, some like faces and others like abstract art.

We're here:

Weird waves

If there is on theme to today it must be the many types of weird waves we've met. We started from Cala Morescoe near Golfo Aranci and headed straight into some extremely choppy waters off Capo Figaro. Waves apparently came in from two different directions and bounced off the vertical rocks, giving us quite a ride.

From Capo Morescoe we crossed north towards Piccolo Romanizzo, passing Isola Moratio on the way. We had a very brief stop there, but there was no bar and no reason to linger.

The next stop on our path was Porto Cervo. We had been told on many occasions that there was a fantastic marina there with everything we could possibly need. We had another very choppy ride up to and into Porto Cervo. We landed on a beach just besides the marina, which was full of some very expensive looking boats. We packed up everything we needed for a good and sorely need shower and some laundry, hopefully topped by some delicious food and good coffee.

As we walked towards the marina everything looked very quiet and dull. A huge building was full of closed and boarded up shops, and the only open door we could finf led to a very closed restaurant, with tables stacked and chairs covered for storage. We continued and at last we found an open place. It was a very fancy cocktail bar, and very empty, but we got something to drink and a couple of sandwiches which surely suffered from severe identity crises.

We were low on water, the cocktail bar only had one liter glass bottles and the marina supermarket wouldn't open for another two hours. We decided to paddle on, doing our shopping elsewhere, but on our way out we did manage to find a bar that could sell us some reasonably sized bottles of water.

From Porto Cervo we headed for Isola Caprera. Again we were in for an agitated ride. We had 1m waves coming in from NE and E so we were tossed here and there most of the time. We got some nice tailing waves as we turned west towards Caprera, but we continuously got splashed and pushed by the sideways waves.

Things became a bit easier when we turned west at Isola delle Bisce, since we got some following waves to play with, but we were still tosse hither and thither most of time, including our way into the bay north of Punta Rossa on Isola Caprera, where we set up camp on a secluded beach.

Cala Morescoe, Near Golfo Aranci

It's a windy day and we just walked a dirt road to Golfo Aranci where we sampled a Sardinian flatbread sandwich, spianate calde. It met with our approval:-)

We camped in a very sheltered cove near Capo Figari. The cove was a lovely place, Cala Morescoe, at the end of a winding dirt road leading to a traditional goat farm. I watched the farmer hand milk his long haired goats and then sat quietly on the beach, looking southwards towards Isola Tavolara, where we'd stopped for lunch.


We'd paddled with vigour to reach thhe island which had risen into view the previous day, towering skywards in a cathedral like way, piercing the clouds that hovered above, making it appear misty and mysterious. It rose as a long serrated spine with a rudder on the end. We'd paddled across two bays, the second, a ten kilometer crossing, stopping only to eat a banana and a granola bar. Our day had started with a cappucino and croissant at the beach bar in Budoni, Sa Capannizza. Tonino bid us farewell on our journey by presenting us a baseball cap with the bar's name on it.


Padddling again into headwinds, albeit light, has me looking forward to rounding the northern tip past the Strait of Bonifacio which separates Sardinia from Corsica, where the prevailing northwestern wind, the mistral, will be our ally we hope. We have reached the section of coast known as the Costa Smeralda, a seductive stretch of sculpted rock, hidden coves, sheltered beaches and world class yachting opportunities. I'd paddled the Costa Smeralda in August, 2003, dodging multi million dollar yachts with bronze, topless tanning beauties, always wondering who owned the yachts who had no tolerance for a recreational kayaker in its way. But the coast is quieter now, with only a handful of tourists present. The weather has been changeable and the nights are often cool enough to be snuggled in my down sleeping bag.

Last night on the miniscule crescent of beach barely wide enough for our kayaks, I erected the Hilleberg tent with little room to spare. Rene didn't trust it, fearing water seep into the tent with the rising tide, but I felt quite confident the lapping water would not enter....and I fell asleep soundly thinking of my wonderful friends.


Since fairly strong headwinds were predicted for today, we decided to sleep in, though I awoke at the crack of dawn as a fisherman checked his net in the cove with the boat's engine puttering. It was a warm, sunny morning and though the cove was out of the wind, the pine trees had the wind whistling through.

I decided to roll the Current Designs Solstice GTS with my Avatak Greenland paddle, but I had not rolled much these past few months and I had several missses, not used to rolling this kayak with a small Greenland paddle. (I usually roll my CD with my Epic wing blade.) Meanwhile goats checked out Rene who sat watching nearby and then a sex crazed Golden retriever who wouldn't stop humping Rene's leg joined the activity in the cove.


We are now eating gelato. In all likelihood, we will paddle towards the Madalena Islands tomorrow when less strong headwinds are predicted.

Tavolara

We passed the Isola di Tavolara yesterday. Tavolara has a quite extraordinary history. It is not that often you get to eat in a royal restaurant. The waitress was pretty too :-)

We're just a couple of day from the northern tip of Sardinia now.

Around the eastern corner

I guess we've only been pizza blogging recently, so today we had sandwiches :-)

Thursday morning we woke up in Cala Gonone to a dark sky. We were ready to go but up north it was thundering, just where we were supposed to go. We made everything ready and went for a cappuccino. It started raining, another cappuccino passed our way, and at around 11 the rain almost stopped, the thunder ceased and we went paddling.


It was a very quiet paddle up the coast. We passed some beautiful rocks and huge caves. We had lunch north of Marina di Orosei, frozen pizza, but as we continued the NE wind increased and so did the waves, so when we arrived at the beach of Cala Liberetto, we decided to call it a day.

It was quite a busy beach, and as there appeared to be a huge camping just behind the dunes, we decided to do the bivy thing, sleeping on top of the tarp just in case. Good thing too. About 5 in the morning it started to rain, and we scrambled under the tarp, but it was rather uncomfortable so we soon decided to get up.

It was a very cold and wet morning, but we had some breakfast, packed the boats and set off into the great unknown.


Fortunately for us it became a nice warm and sunny day. Before noon we rounded the Capo Comino, the easternmost point of our journey up the Sardinian east coast. There we stopped for a couple of hours to dry all our wet gear and recharge gps, batteries and phone with our Brunton solar panels.

In the afternoon we ran into the normal afternoon NE winds and waves, which slowed us down, and at 5 in the afternoon we landed on the beach of Sant'Anna near Budoni, circa 20 km south of Isola Tavolara.


We had our sandwiches at the local beach bar, Bar Sa Capannizza, where Wendy once again indulged in her latest addiction: the Sardinian beer Ichnusa.

Tomorrow we will paddle to Isola Tavolara for lunch and then hopefully get past Olbia in the afternoon. Sunday looks like a very windy day, so we haven't quite made our minds up about that. We should be up at the northern tip of Sardinia within a few days, though.

Pathetic Pizza Day

We're having lunch at Peppes Bar on the beach near the Marina of Orosei. The pizzas were of quite dubious quality, so we won't stay longer that it takes the GPS to recharge.

We'll be off in a minute.

Golfo di Orosei

We have had two spectacular days in the Golfo di Orosei. Most of time we have paddled in the Natural Reserve of Golfo di Orosei and Gennargentu.

Tuesday we started on a calm and sunny morning from Torre di Bari, and paddled quietly to Arbatax and Santa Maria Navarrese, where the natural reserve begins.


The coastal area of the natural reserve is very mountainous, with tall steep rock walls dropping hundreds of meters into the sea, sloping hill sides and rock gardens, all battered continuously by the waves of a constant NE wind, the Grecale. Scattered throughout all this is a myriad of little inaccessible beaches, caves and deep coves.


We paddled half the length of the reserve on tuesday, and we both agreed afterwards that it was the most fantastic paddled we had ever had. We passed the Pedro Lungo, explored numerous caves and coves, admired the beautiful birds nesting on the rock sides (which we later learned is a rare species of falcon), but failed to find the natural arch of Goloritzé. When the time of sunset approached we were forced to look for a landing spot, which wasn't easy under a tall vertical rock wall, but as we explored out options, we turned a corner, and faced an incredible arch of raw rock, the arch of Goloritzé.

We paddled throught and around the arch, and just behind it was the brightest white beach, the perfect landing site for the evening, pebble beach, smooth white rocks and a large cave. However, as we approached, we discovered that the cave was already inhabited, by a nice young man in jeans and t-shirt.

Axel, a young German Ph.d. student on a solo hiking holiday, didn't mind sharing the beach so we disembarked, and started hauling out all our gear. Poor Axed was astonished as we pulled out tent, tarp, cooking gear, food, espresso maker etc. His entire luggage weighted in a 14kg and could fit in a small rucksack.

We had a very pleasant evening together, sharing food, desert and tea, only interrupted by a short shower. As the time to turn in came, Wendy set up tent, but I decided to sleep in the cave like Axel. I have never slept in a cave before and had no intention of letting that experience pass by untried. It was a bit hard to sleep on the sloping cave floor, but I enjoyed looking at the stars, listening to the waves and watching the occasional lightning over the sea. The mosquitoes feasted on me, but it was worth that little sacrifice.

In the morning we made cappuccinoes on the rocks for all three of us, exchanged email addresses with Axel, and launched late, about ten.


The main attraction of the following day would be the Grotta del Bue Marino, and five km deep marine cave. We moved slowly in that direction, as we kept exploring the coastline. We took a nice long break after noon in the Cala Sisine, but quite suddenly the sun disappeared and dark clouds took its place. The small groups of beachgoers started heading for their motorboats and we headed for our boats too.

As we continued the Grecale returned, exchanging the placid waters of the morning for lively waves of 1m and more. We struggled into the headwind and the waves towards our goal, the Grotta del Bue Marino. We had no idea how it would be marked, so we followed the coastline closely peeking into every hole in the rock walls.

When we found the Cave of the Sea Cow, it was closed. It was forbidden to paddle in, only for service personnel the sigh said, and apparently this marine cave can only be visited on foot, walking on platforms mounted on the walls of the cave. As the site was clearly deserted, even though it was only around 5 in the afternoon, we ventured into the darkness a bit, but the cave was too vast and too dark for our little camping headlamps, so we turned back, from darkness and silence inside to light and roaring waves outside.

We continued for a few kms to the small town of Cala Gonone where we have set up camp on a nearby beach after a small forraging foray into town.