Sardinia Sept 7

We did it! Hot and hilly but we survived.
Yesterday evening we had dinner at a little restaurant up on the hill behind us. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but it had gorgeous views out over the bay.
We did our best to eat and drink some of the local specialties but we drew the line at the poor lobster that was shown waving its legs at the couple next to us and then brought out half an hour later all ready to be eaten. Grappa is the nasty local version of strong aniseed flavored liquor that every hot European country seems to have. There’s a blueberry flavored version that is somehow sweet and delicious though.
A cloud of mosquitoes attacked us around dusk but just as we were contemplating going back to the hotel to get insect repellent, they left. Mysterious but pleasing nonetheless.
It’s a struggle leaving any restaurant before 9:30, by the time we could tackle someone to bring the bill it was after 10 and people were still arriving to eat.
Breakfast at 8 and we were heading off as planned shortly after 9. It was already 27 degrees or so and we were fairly quickly drenched in sweat but we made good time in spite of all the hills and we were having lunch not far from our destination around one.
Our little guidebook informed us that the car is king on Italian roads, and it was good to be forwarned.  There was quite a bit of close passing on blind corners and other similar shenanigans, it was just lucky that most of the cars on the road are pretty compact.
We’d planned to look around the shops before catching the ferry but had forgotten about siesta time. Most shops close for a very extended lunch break from 1 to 4 or even 5. Thwarted, we bought our ferry tickets, watched the competition ferry come and go, eventually got on board and headed across to the island of La Maddalena. As it happens, the island was in the media back home in NZ a couple of days ago, with an article about rampaging wild boars attacking people on the beaches, with one young boy sustaining damage in the testicular region.( Many thanks to Kirsten’s mother for drawing our attention to this little snippet of news.) We’ve seen nothing similar so far, in the way of dangerous wild animals.
On the ferry we wondered whether our luggage had arrived yet at our new hotel. That was when Simon discovered that one of his bags had been left behind. Thank goodness once again for Apple AirTags! We phoned the Bike tour operator and his bag is making its way towards us as I write this. Simon is quite miffed though and fair enough too. All the bags were together and clearly marked.

This is the view from where I’m sitting, by the hotel pool. David and Kirsten are behind me and Simon is sitting by the pool watching the All Blacks try to wreak vengeance on the Springboks on his phone.