Never been to Sardinia before so was looking forward to this island belonging to Italy. Sadly when we arrived, and for the most of the day, it has been fairly overcast, although extremely warm (around 30) and extremely humid (don't know but very high.)
In tandem with cronies Ophelia and Stephen from Burbank, CA we tendered into Golfo Aranci and headed across the port area towards our pre-planned walking route. This started out quite tame, as we slowly headed round the headland towards an old WWII lookout post some two miles away. The Angels had had their fill so we said our goodbyes at a crossroads and they walked back the way we came. In doing so we missed our planed path and mistakenly took a slightly unscheduled one.
Extremely glad this moment of serendipity happened as it took us (half killed us actually) up the mountainside and we ended up at the ancient shack which was an C19 lookout post where, in 1930, Marconi first tested and thus proved that his miraculous invention, THE RADIO, would work, against terrible opposition from intellectuals around the world. One could argue that this place is equally as important for the development of our world as any one other ... such as as Newton and his apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, and Darwin and his ship the HMS Beagle.
We slowly returned from 330m to sea level and then took our intended route back up another cliff-side and headed North as planned. We didn't spot any indigenous tortoise but did see Bambi (should that be Bambini in Italy?) locally known as Mouflon, one snake and lots of lizards. It wasn't long before it started to rain, huge drops of cool, wonderful moisture most welcome, the consequence shortly after it stopped was that the humidity hit the jackpot, but we struggled on uphill once again.
As previously mentioned we've been bowled over by how detailed TomTom's EU app is, there's the most incredible detail, every staircase, path, trick and turn embedded into a modest iPhone, but would it be too much to expect them to chart dry river-beds whilst they are at it? So for a couple of miles we went 'off-piste' - but comfortable enough in our planning to not worry. We headed round a second cliff-side and back to the far side of Golfo Aranci before crossing the local refuge tip (it's amazing how often this happens to us!) and starting our second butterfly-wing of the day. We continued to walk until we dropped back down towards the very far extent of the bay, and plundered through a fancy private housing estate. Citing ignorance (is it our fault the signs were in foreign?) we ignored them and forged forward, around and over the various obstacles until we came to more public territory.
Having previously managed elevenses and then a fruit break, we decided we'd earned a proper lunch today so stopped at a supermarket and bought bread, cheese, salami and Peroni and headed to the beach to create a typical wanderers feast, Hubby's absolute favourite, before finally heading back along the delightful frontage back to the ship's port-side welcoming awning and wonderful staff. We tendered back and immediately headed off to the jacuzzi to sooth our aching joints. 14.5 miles requires at least a couple of splendid cocktails, and later, three champagnes each.
After dressing for dinner we sauntered up to the pool-side bar and held court for a while, before descending to the MDR to enjoy a Thonas Keller menu which was one of the best yet. The addition of vintage Krug certainly helped our appreciation, thanks Ophelia and Stephen!
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