Today was potentially the only sunny day of the next three so we chose to spend it visiting the beaches in the Golfo dei Orosei, also known as the Blue Crescent. While we're not really excited about our Lonely Planet guidebook, it does say, "if you do nothing else in Sardinia, you should try to make an excursion along the Golfo dei Orosei by boat". We thought they might actually be right about this, so after breakfast we walked down to the port to find out what kind of boat excursions were available. Making the excursion by boat because none of the beaches along this coast are accessible by car (you can hike to some of the beaches, but the hikes can be up to two hours each way).
Given that we're getting near the end of the tourist season, the larger group excursion company told us they might not take a boat out today - they need a minimum of 15 people. So instead, we found a place that rents "gommone", or a small motorboats. Initially, it seemed like a crazy idea to rent a boat to anyone (no license needed) and just let them loose. Especially to us, two pretty un-seaworthy people. But it was the option that gave us maximum flexibility, and if they trusted us, then we must be able to figure it out.
Next thing you know, Mariner Mike hit the deck and we were on our way. We decided to start at the furthest site, about 25 kilometers south, and then boat slowly up the coast checking out the various beaches along the way.
First of all, this place is crazy. It is immediately clear why you can't drive to these beaches. They are at the bottom of steep granite and limestone cliffs which are filled with caves and caverns. Secondly, the water is out-of-control blue and clear. Even hundreds of meters off shore, we could see all the way to the sea floor.
Our first stop was Cala Goloritze, the only national monument along the gulf. It was immediately clear why it is a national monument - the rock formations are amazing, including a 100 meter tall granite pinnacle. Rock climbers love this place and we saw some tiny people climbing up what seems like the impossible. So now came the tricky part: we're on a boat, and want to go to the beach. You can't motor-in to the beach, so you can turn off the engine and paddle the boat to shore, take out all your stuff, paddle back out to between 200 and 300 meters from shore, drop the anchor, and then swim to shore. And you have to do all those steps in reverse when you're ready to leave the beach. And then you have to do that every time you want to go to the beach. Some of you know that I have what you might call a "background" in paddling, but that was just too much work for me just to go to the beach. So we just dropped the anchor at about 250 meters from shore, left everything on the boat, and both swam to shore. We spent some time at this beach admiring the scenery, but it just wasn't very sunny (partially it was cloudy, and partially the sun kept getting caught behind the huge national monument), so we swam back to the boat and went to check out the other beaches, hopefully to find one with more sun.We traveled to the next spot, Cala Mariolu - supposedly one of the most sublime beaches of the group. Just as we were going to swim to shore, Mike saw several jellyfish around the boat so we continued on our way. We boated (is this the right verb?) past several other spots including Cala Biriola and Cala Sisine, and then finally stopped at Cala Luna where we found the sun. We actually did the whole paddle-to-shore nonsense at this beach because we planned to stay for about 3 hours and wanted things like our food and the camera.
Cala Luna was pretty amazing - on the shore there were four large caves to walk into, some bright white rocks to climb on, and not many people. In fact it was mostly just some rock climbers exploring all the nooks and crannies on the cliffs above our heads. We relaxed here for quite a bit of time until the sun completely disappeared behind the hills, and then got back on the boat to make our way back to the Cala Gonone port. We showered up and then went out to check out the town before it got dark. First, we took a quick detour and got Mike his first haircut in Italy. It came out fine, but he misses his hairstylist from Oakland (where he would get to drink with her while having his hair cut)...From there, we walked to what we though was the north edge of town. At the end of the road we found a trail that looked like it continued quite a ways up the coast, but since it was getting darker we only walked part way before turning back. But it was still fun to walk around a bit after all driving and boating we've done over the last few days. And there were more amazing rocks to see - shapes, contrasting colors, etc.
We had a simple dinner at "Il Banjo" and then the worst gelato (oximoron, I know) we've had (it was just too old). Afterwards we walked around town a bit before calling it a day.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Stracciatella
Aviva - Caffe
The comment about mike drinking while getting his hair cut explains a lot!
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