Day 2 of cycling in Sardinia, another success.
We’d initially been warned that there was a storm due today, but in spite of the quite welcome clouds, the storm has held off and will hit this evening, if at all. It was still predicted to be warm, so with a number of beaches available to us today, three of us wore our togs for today’s trip. Simon likes his swims the way he likes his bread I.e. never, so he just wore his normal cycling gear (including button down Icebreaker shirt).
The theme for today was disapprobation. It began at breakfast, when two of our number were told off for filling their water bottles in the hotel breakfast restaurant. Apparently it’s variable around the world what you’re allowed to take away from hotel breakfast buffets. It’s frowned on in some regions, clearly Sardinia being one such place, but is quite acceptable in others. In the US for example, you can ask for a “To-Go box”, which you can fill up with as much as you like to sustain you for the rest of the day. The breakfast this morning was otherwise extremely good and generous.
Our route took us anticlockwise around the island, so we went back through the little township we’d passed through yesterday on the way to the hotel. It’s very picturesque, clustered around the small harbour, and the giant cobblestones are quaint although potentially treacherous on a bike.
We cycled across a causeway to another smaller island where we found a nice beach to swim at. It was lovely but sadly nothing can compare with the gorgeous beach we swam at a few days ago: we have been quite spoilt. I was so impressed that I decided yesterday to buy myself some goggles. I walked a loop around the hotel, popping into two dive shops, neither of whom could help me. The man I spoke to at the first shop recoiled in horror as soon as I spoke my first word (“cerco” = I’m looking for), calling on his colleague to come and talk to the foreign lady. At the second shop, the two young women who worked there were nicer and more helpful, and were selling better quality dive masks for less money than the first shop, but again, they didn’t sell goggles. They directed me to the nearby supermarket, where I got a very nice pair for 18 euros.
I wore my goggles at both the beaches we swam at today, they were a revelation. No use on those days when I’m trying to keep my hair and/or ear canals dry, but if I’m not, it really adds to the experience. I even swam some freestyle today, a stroke I haven’t done in years, because I could finally see where I was going. On dry hair days I will stick to breast or side stroke, but freestyle is definitely better for covering distance. The only downside is that for some reason the goggles gouge out some of the skin on the bridge of my nose, right between my eyes, which is an unattractive look that I’m so far successfully managing to hide with makeup.
We saw some people at each beach today snorkelling, and it’s hardly worth it. Just a few slimy rocks and some pale insipid fish. Go to Fiji, people!
There was a restaurant at that beach. It was too early for lunch but we were keen for a drink and a sit down in the shade before setting off again. No luck though. At first the waitress told us to take a seat, but when she took a closer look at us, she changed her mind. You can’t sit down, but we can sell you something to take away. But then her boss muttered something, and the end result was that actually, they were completely closed and they couldn’t help us at all. So much for the tourist dollar being king.
We stopped for lunch at a little, gorgeous, quiet out of the way marina. There was a lovely restaurant there, with great food, a beautiful view, and friendly and attentive staff. Unfortunately we didn’t go to that restaurant, but to a nasty little run down place that we had the misfortune to come to first. We got our second telling off of the day from the waitress for trying to unfurl the umbrellas which were all “rotto” I.e. broken. The food was OK although for some reason my crepe was a pale shadow of Kirsten’s beautifully presented, seasoned, garnished version, even though we had both ordered the same thing. They had also run out of Fanta which was probably a good thing because any sweet drink just brought swarms of wasps to our table. At least the man with very strong BO who was sitting next to us and had an alarming tendency to wave his arms about, sending wafts of odour in our direction, finally left, when we were half way through our meal. Another plus was that the toilet wasn’t rotto and I did eventually find the toilet paper.
One final climb after lunch brought us to the top of La Maddalena island, and then it was all downhill back to the beach near our hotel for the last swim of the day before a well deserved afternoon nap.