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VIII - We Continue on to the island of Sardinia, Italy.
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Living back on board Sailaway.
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Log Entry Friday 2nd June - Today we will drive directly to Sailaway in Carloforte, our adventure is over!
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Our time here was now finished, the surrounding area amazing as we remember from 2010, and the people still so friendly. We plan to drive directly to Portovesme on the southeast corner of Sardinia, from there the ferry over to Carloforte - tonight we sleep on Sailaway! With the car packed up once again, Ann pops down to the store for cold drinks for the trip, our trusty VW at the ready. The drive is just over 90 miles (135km) our satnav tells us it's a 2.5 hour trip due to the road type etc, she has not been wrong yet?
With Ann back, we saw "farewell" to the guys sitting sitting drinking coffee outside the hotel - they had "kicked our butt!" is a bar down the street last night, 3 games to 1! They retired after their victory with the Italian flag flying high, not that I understood that as it was just a friendly, "It is not the winning that counts, it is the participation!" (Nonsense clearly, they were just lucky!).
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The drive was interesting, obviously we had to stop for Ann's "latte addiction". One the single winding road I spent a little time giving way to the racing locals, they clearly, hopefully knew the roads well based on the points at which they would overtake? I should not complain as Ann repetitively "screams" at my driving, you have to adapt to the local styles, At least I have not yet been banned from overtaking as happened in Turkey, even after 3000 miles (4,500km) across Europe, I am quite proud of myself?
We paid for the ferry tickets and waited the 30 minutes for our turn, just like catching a bus, no room, you wait for the next one.
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We find it hard to believe that our trip is nearly over as we approach Isola San Pietro, what an adventure, still, more ahead on Sailaway, once we make our minds up where we are going?
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As we pull into Carloforte Harbour we pass the marina, Sailaway has been moved but there she was waiting for us. We had now only a few hundred yards left to cover and complete our 3,000 mile (4,500km) trip, originally estimated at 1600 (2400km), direct that was?
Log Entry Thursday 1st June - The area around Belvi fascinates us once again, just as it did in 2010!.
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We climb high into the mountains around Belvi, the first thing we notice is the much improved quality of the roads, not how we remember the tracks and lanes, nor the landslides, still that is progress? The roads are all "fenced" now we are hopeful to see the litters of wild pigs as we did last time, fingers crossed?
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We continue high above Belvi, it is amazing to see the small cars coming from the dirt tracks we come across, we try one or two but their condition is terrible. We give up on trying to find the old tracks from our last visit and enjoy the new routes, sort of?
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We continue ascending until the road literally stops and the track takes over, we check out the tracks until we loose our nerve and return. Plenty of local vehicles seem to use them, we see mainly the old Fiats "zooming" along them, they clearly use them regularly.
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One of the main roads halts at a church, quite an impressive building and grounds, but from the chain through the gate, not used to often, but interesting all the same.
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We turned back and rejoined the road we had left, but again in time it came to an abrupt halt, who knows what the sign said. As I tried to translate in on the mobile, a couple of old Fiat's 127's passed us from the apposite direction? This model of car seems to be the favourite of this region, no idea what age they are but they just seem to keep on going? With regards to the roads, it is almost as if they just ran out of money, or gave up?
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We now have two issues, we are a little short of petrol and the cash to buy it? There is no banking or petrol in Belvi so we make for Gadoni, the next largest town in the province. We arrive at lunch time as normal around lunch time, this town is deserted. The central monument to the past mining industry is impressive, the satnav provides no information on the town at all. Searches for fuel and ATM reveal nothing - we need a human!
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We eventually find a solitary chap leaning on a fence, peering over the mountains, in my best Italian he guides us to first the bank and then the fuel station, what a guy, very helpful. As there is nothing open at all, even the cafes have shut for lunch we head back out of town.
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We now decide that it is time to head back to Belvi, unsure as to how many mile we have covered in total up till now, but, according to our trusty satnav we have a two and half hour trip ahead of us? We are so pleased to come across a couple of landslides, lightly marked, this was the sort of thing we saw a few times during our last visit? This one was quite an age as there was grass growing amongst the fallen earth?
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After an hour or so we come across the town of Sadali, an interesting place, but, it is still the lunch period, a sizable town, but deserted as usual for this time of day.
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Log Entry Wednesday 31st May -- We head south, to Belvi, closer towards Sailaway.
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Log Entry Tuesday 30th May - Sleepy, Porto Torres, Sardinia.
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Log Entry Monday 29th May - We say "Goodbye" to Corsica and "Hello" to Sardinia.
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The ferry trip was about 5 hours which would have us arriving late in Sardinia, we have booked accommodation in Porto Torres, Sardinia as putting up the tent in the dark was of no great interest to us. The second reason was as we saw in Corsica, there was very little difference in the price of camping and the accommodation. The ferry was well equipped and the time passed quickly, after dropping us off it carried on to France, this is how we will probably return to the UK in October.
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The whole process was as usual, very simple and straight forward, we had been warned to turn up earlier as there would be extra security due to the "G8 Summit" being held in Sicily, but, no real issues.
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Our ferry was around 5pm, there was no hurry as when I enquired as to what time we had to vacate the site and explained why, they said "leave when we want as long as we check out when we do." We packed up in time, said goodbye to our beach and made for our ferry.