Our Everest

The body clock wakes a little earlier each day, perhaps knowing the best conditions for a run are just after sunrise.  Means I will hopefully see a Sardinian sunrise before we are through.

Made it my goal to run up the hill that we are perched on, so reduced distance and ticked that off as something I wanted to do before the week was out.

It also handily meant we were able to get out and about quicker and conserved a bit of energy that was much needed later on in the morning.

Fruit filled breakfast, and then into the car over to the looming beast of Monte Ferru, hard to have missed it these last few days at the far end of the sweeping coastline.

Missed an early sign so we ended up following some rally trails for a while which took us so far, but wasn't going to get us to the top. Retraced our steps and there it was, a windy, hidden trail upwards.

We had a bit of cover from the trees, although the cacti were stinging and the rocks not always firm underfoot. Needed to scamble a bit but the views got better and the bottles of water I was carrying offset any thirst. Barren land though and never sure where the top was - always another summit around another bend, as is the way with these things!

Finally we saw the Spanish tower on top of the climb (technically not the actual top but it really had to do) and we understand has been sitting there since around the 15th century, the Spanish another bunch who have laid claim to these lands over the years. There really have been many. Perhaps only in the 18th century did it really firm up its links with Northern Italy (Piedmont) before Garibaldi came on and did his bit.

The descent was quite difficult, technical I would say, and all of us took a fall at some point under pretty unstable ground. It was a steady as she goes plan and we really did have to work hard to maintain energy and focus, and dare I say, a bit of relief when we finally returned to terra fima.

Need a bit of R&R after that and our lovely home provided that, as did a stack of leftovers from last night, cold pasta, choccie mouse and a lot of liquid to rehydrate.

But of course the real R&R lay below us, and within 10 mins I was back in my alternative front room sipping the local lager, people watching and reading a bit. The poison of choice out here has been ichnusa  , a fairly flat lager which goes down a treat. We have tried the darker version of it, but light and oceanic  fits the bill next to the beach; also a couple of Peronis for good measure but we know all about them so when in Rome (or somewhere else in Italy) do as they do.

The climb back up to the house keeping the glutes working on this trip, am hoping this kicks London marathon back into gear as have not been training too well these last couple of weeks.  

Outside shower, some tidy clobber and then we walked down to the centre of Costa Rei. A bit disorganised on the meal front so ended up at the first place that would take us - seemed ok, and as I couldn't decide whether to have seafood or pizza I did my usual and have a seafood pizza!  Grub was fine, wine was cheap, service was awful. I'm a good tipper but if you are not looked after my 10-15% quickly drops to zero as was the case today.

Cracking walk back, the moon over the ocean, this is the life ....aperol spritz in hand mulling over favourite Italian artists, Robert Miles, Pavarotti and Joe Doclie in no particular order, let me hear you 'whats a matter you?' 

-Carys-

So it turns out, we did climb the mountain. With breakfast to energise us, suncream applied, and hats on  heads to shield us from the sun, we set off towards the mountain in the car (we're settling on it being called Robert de Niro as we've not come up with much better - no offence to Robert). We got there reasonably early, and it was quite shadowed near the bottom, so I had hope that the exploration wouldn't be too hot or sweaty - of course this did not last long. After walking for a good 40 minutes before realising we could get no further on this route; it was just dirt tracks for mountain bikes and things.

 So we walked back feeling slightly defeated, not a person in sight, as we'd accepted that there was no actual path up the mountain. But then, with a smug look on mum's face, we realised that the way she'd pointed out at the start of the track, had a sign pointing upwards, showing us that that was in fact the actual way to get up the mountain. So of course, we began to make our way upwards, not really knowing what we had cut out for us. We spent a good while getting up, the route being very technical - we had to avoid various bouts of cacti, these little white prickly bushes, and lots of spiky leaves - not always successfully.

 It was hard work but we do like a challenge so we powered up the hill, stopping to appreciate the beautiful views and catch our breath where necessary. Still absolutely no one in sight so part of me wondered if this was just a path trampled out by some people on occasion, and not a popular hiking spot. I saw one family, up on a different part of the mountain, who waved at the sight of me - I imagine they'd felt quite isolated throughout their hike as well. 

We decided the top was where we found a small watch tower, which I tried to climb but could not manage it, partly because there were few rocks to grab on to, and I also feared I'd fall, feeling very feeble at the time. I may have mentioned this previously, but at the shop, instead of normal water, sparkling water was purchased by accident. SO that was what we had to keep us refreshed on our travels, and I can't lie, it didn't do the best job. 

But I was grateful to have something to drink at all. After we felt ready enough to begin the descent, we began - and the disasters also began. We should have kept count, but all 3 of us managed to fall on the way down, amongst many other skids and slides. There was blood sweat and tears by the time we reached the bottom of the trail again. It was good fun though, and I'm glad we did it. It felt very much like us. We felt like proper explorers, just glad to be on solid ground again. 

Feeling a bit weak in the knees, we managed to get back to Robert de Niro, who safely brought us home, where I used the outdoor shower for the first tine, I thought it was great, and worked well at removing the dirt that was caked all over my arms and legs. After a little rest, to see if our legs would ever recover from feeling sore and achey, we walked on down to the beach, had a drink and an ice cream in the bar, and went for a dip in the sea. we didn't stay too long but I am really appreciating how gorgeous the sea is - and i'll really miss it when we return home.

 We all got ready, still removing dust from this morning, and went out for dinner. I somehow managed to fall again on the stairs on  the way down - still feeling a bit feeble I suppose?

 But I didn't hurt anything so had a good laugh over it. Dinner was enjoyable, for me at least. I had a vegan burger and some delicious chips - like flat, fried potatoes. Then we made our way yet again up the stairs (we've covered 17,329 steps with 116 floors in total) so hoping to get another good night's sleep! 

Indiana Williamses and the lost Nuraghe

 -Carys- assuming centre stage

Today was a but of an earlier start, but still nice and chilled. A similar breakfast to yesterday, which I'm really enjoying, as it feels very holiday-like, not necessarily something I'd have at home most mornings. I read my book for a while, which I've also been really enjoying - I'd been hoping to whizz through multiple books but it hasn't quite gone like that so far, but maybe I'll get through them a bit quicker in the next few days. Then we got ready - I found the sun cream task a little less stressful today luckily, and headed out in the car. With it being black on the inside and outside, it is absolute roasting in there, but the air-con is brilliant thank goodness. We had some stops and starts, little walks looking about. In all honesty, even though I love a good explore, the heat was really getting to me - It is just so warm, and sunny! We all commented on the way we felt like we were in Australia or South Africa, from the weather to the landscapes, it felt quite reminiscent. It was really pretty out in the hill type areas, and was half expecting to see some snakes or lizards but none of that today. I did spot a lizard/gecko type creature the other day but it skittered off before I got a good look at it. I hope we see some other exotic (but not dangerous of course) wildlife before we leave. 

We had some food and drink in a little cafe but weren't all that hungry so brought half of our sandwiches each home. Then we did supermarket sweep round 2, and picked up lots of different stuff, to make dinner one night, and to have as snacks around the house. I was desperate for chocolate despite knowing it would melt immediately, but I had to disregard this issue for the sake of my taste buds. And it was worth it too. We came on back to the house, and relaxed in the sun for a few hours (I read more of book and tried out the sun loungers which were very good, making sure they were in the shade) I'd managed to burn quite a bit yesterday, so today was abut avoiding that. Hence when mum and dad decided to head down to the beach for a bit, I decided to stay here and read more. There will be more chances to go in the sea I'm sure. SO I held down the fort, and got a head start on the blog. I even managed to spot mum and dad from the balcony, though they couldn't see me. I took a few photos, and although ant-sized, they were very much visible from up here. 

The rest of the evening has been spent mostly reading still, with some snacky bits and profiteroles too - very tasty. Now just to decide whether to walk up the mountain visible from our balcony tomorrow - sounds like a bit of a nightmare to me, but we'll see. 

(Lloyd)

Set my alarm a little earlier for my run, but still like a Swedish sauna as I added a few extra yards to the run this morning, and a little more gradient on my return up the hill.

Some breakfast, water melon, some exquisite pear juice, bananas to ensure the fruit and hydration was well in hand, and to give us fortification for expected adventures ahead.

Took the car out, De Niro or Sardine,not sure what the final name will be, and decided for a trip back in time. Sardinia famous for the many different cultures and inhabitants it has had over the years, as a critical location in the Med, but the early settlers in the bronze age left their mark. Specifically via a number of stone monuments, hundreds of which can be found across the Island, known as the Nuraghe.  Seemed a perfect moment to embrace the inner Indiana in us all, and the hat may have been waiting for this moment its whole life.

The nearest one to us only a few kilometres away, and apparently hard to find according to trip advisor, but we struck gold, up past the refuse site and into the wilds, we came across it very comfortably, and had a moment back in time.

We probably should have quit while we were ahead, but had a few others in our sights. First though wanted to check out the nearby capa ferrerro which is on the list to do a bit of hiking and climbing before the week is out. Think we have discovered an appropriate base camp/car park.

Our next Nuraghe was a few miles away, but it may as well have been galaxies. The Indiana myth fell quickly flat as we walked through the bush for a a number of kilometres but it turned out (later) we were in a very wrong bit of bush. And that's why Indiana was not seen using google maps.  We may look for 1-2 more before this is over, we needed to take our own trowels to unearth anything on our second look today.

Earned ourselves a smoothie and toastie in nearby pizzeria. Not the quality/price I would have expected, but the buzzing flies did add to the very Australian outback feel of the whole experience.  A supermarket next door allowed us to fill our boots with alternative sustenance. Very thirsty I must say. The tap water out here is apparently chlorinated and whilst we had a few water bottles for emergencies I think the odd sip was doing more harm than good.

Our next history lesson brought us to far closer times than the bronze age. The blog I have linked to below this had referenced a nearby prison no longer in use that cast a light back to late 19th century goings on in these parts. It was the centre piece of an almost deserted town called Castiadis, yet another place that had a western/outback feel,albeit with some slightly colonial decor and church.  We did not see a soul, the prison was derelict, with broken windows and chains across the gates. Chrissi remarked that the whole place had a very zombie apocalypse feel, there were a few parked cars around, but no people....

I think out work for the day was done, although as a postscript to the prison piece I later looked it up; it actually was set up as a bit of a rehabilitation centre for convicts to work on the nearby land and begin their transition back to normal life. This work also seemed to be the starting point of ridding the Island of malaria (draining those swamps to use modern parlance). Up until the middle of the last century this whole Island was rife with it, only been wiped out via a concerted project 1946 - 1950.  Good to hear as we are all covered in bites since our arrival.

That was the last real work of the day, I think we dipped our toes in enough history, so many other influences on this Island, will certainly try and pick out 1-2 more over the next few days.  We wound our way back to our own base, a few odd twists and turns, but rolling hills and barren landscape always fun to drive through as is so different to the world back home.

Quite nice to sit in the air con for a while and I might have even shut my eyes for a short while. But life is to be lived, and our proximity to the beach not to be ignored. Chrissi and I took our new 10 minute journey down to what is our new front room, the Montenai beach bar.  A cuba libre and G&T a well earned way to wind down, watching yachts, swimmers and enjoying some reflections and planning.

Never without incident, Chrissi managed to drop our credit card through the slits in the floor so some poor bugger had to get underneath the beach bar and crawl around to find it - a good tip was earned!  We slunk away and threw ourselves in the ocean,well you have to don't you!

It was then back to our lodgings for the rest of the night, cooked up a bit of pasta/pesto in our well appointed kitchen,  drank some local beer and listened to the Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack.  Apparently lots of non venomous snakes on this Island, maybe we'll see some tomorrow, none appeared so far, just geckos.  Will we have an Indiana style reaction if we do?

 

Cult (or something like that) of split Personalities

 

Blogging Duo

Managed to combine intrepid explorer with family man today, all it must be said, within the reasonably sanitised environment of comfortable resort. I'll expand a little as most of this is going on in my head through experiences, rather than anything too out there, hope to a little more of the latter tomorrow. I was advised there needs to be some rest on this holiday, so perhaps today was the day!

10 hours sleep as we all caught up on the lost night but was out in the oven heat at 8am thinking that was a good time for a run. Need to set my alarm earlier tomorrow, it was boiling.  Downhill to warm up, 4 easyish miles where I wished I'd taken some water, and then uphill walk/down.

Breakfast outside of course, and a shower outside too, what better way to finish a run, I think I'll do it all again tomorrow. Rehydration the name of the game with breakfast so water melon and fruit juice did the trick.

The girls happy to mooch and sunbathe at the ranch so I took a trip down into the other side of Costa Rei to just get my bearings and keep things ticking over.  Found a lovely little beach bar, got out my books, had an iced coffe, chatted with the waiter, getting some advice on kayaking and local hikes. Think he thought I was a lonely traveller so was a bit surprised a couple of hours later when the rest of the family turned up for a snack and a chat!

Gourmet sandwich for 5 Euros can't complain, turkey, mozerella and olive paste.  

We then walked along the breathtaking beach, just drinking it all in, taking a few photos and reflecting on why it might rank above other beach favourites we have visited over the years. Others put it up there https://www.sardegnainblog.it/en/destinations/costa-rei/costa-rei-top-10-most-beautiful-beaches-world/#:~:text=Costa%20Rei%20on%20the%205,has%20been%20awarded%20by%20the

Wanted to do a bit of core work so a double kayak for an hour managed to achieve that; we didn't go far, maybe that's a bit of exploration for another day.

Found another beach bar, couple of drinks whilst the girls worshipped the sun, and hopefully not frightening too many with my reading choice, the first of the Dexter books!

We discovered a very steep but short route back to our house on the hill so everything suddenly feels a lot closer which can only be a good thing.

Interesting factoid of the day, the word sardonic (one of my favourite words) comes from this part of the world (back to that old sard root), dating back to Romans poisoning people with a herb that left that sort of smile on peoples faces. I love a smile that shrugs, and most of my humour follows this line.

With that aside it was another outside shower hoping the postman didn't come a knocking and then into the best clobber I could find for a night at a pizzeria. My attention to detail led to a few worries as I mixed up my piazzas and pizzerias earlier but luckily my spot on my walk down to CostaRei this morning was infact the right one

Dined at the https://reyoasi.it/menu-italiano although took a while to work out what to eat. For the umpteenth time abroad we were mistaken for Germans and whilst Chrissi was keen to make a stab at the German/Italian menu for a while I eventually had to go back to the waiter, tail between my legs, and ask for the English version.  We then proceeded to order the cheapest wine on the menu (that didn't need translating) but have tasty Pizza Gustosa, and then dipped into a traditional Sardinia dessert Sabadas Miele. Felt a warm glow when the waiter mentioned his mama had always made it for him as a small child. That glow faded as pastry, cheese and honey not so welcome on my palate, but pleased to give it a go, and have some of Chrissis tiramasu as a side dish. All washed down with a cappuccino.

Tidy little walk after sunset, passed a few markets, up the steps, and some wine and music from our viewing point.

(Carys)

A bit of a later start to the day, later than most typical days, let alone the early start we'd had yesterday. But none the less, feeling more rested, and grateful to see the weather just as nice and the view just as breathtaking as before.

 I had quite a mix-matched breakfast, with some different juices, watermelon and then some yoghurt which was just what I felt I needed, very refreshing. Typical holiday stuff. Spent some time soaking up sun on the balcony and reading and then braved the irritating process of applying suncream, at which point I somewhat regretted travelling somewhere so sunny although it appears the sun is out at home so would be doing this regardless. At least here we have delicious and different food, and as mentioned, glorious views. We met dad where he'd resided in a beach bar on the sand for lunch - I chose a sandwich with tomato, lettuce, and buffalo mozzarella, and we shared some chips - how very foreign of (not). 

Then I joined dad in trying out the kayaking but in all honesty it was hard work, and I just wasn't very up for it. The waters are good for it though reasonably calm and crystal clear.

 Instead, I enjoyed some swimming time and then read on the beach, managing to burn my feet despite my vigorous suncream application earlier - it seemed i'd missed a spot. As it got a bit later, we strolled on back, miraculously locating the elusive steps that took us straight up to outside the house. I therefore take back my comments on the lack of convenience to beach access, even though the hundreds of steps to climb is a workout in itself. 

Once showered and changed (I am now the only one of us to have not tried the outdoor shower, but am sure I will at some point), we headed out for dinner. 

We doubted the existence of the pizzeria we were in search of, having seen many signs for the piazza, which could have been mistakenly what we'd seen. We did manage to arrive at the one we were looking for though, and were seated in a nice spot where the sea, and appearing moon, were just visible. I had a 'pizza carrettiera', tomato, mozzarella, and basil. Very tasty as hoped, and then for dessert, I went in blind, choosing a 'semifreddo', mostly out of curiosity as I had no idea what to expect. I was asked if I wanted chocolate or fruit I think, so rashly said chocolate, and was then glad with my choice. It was some sport of cake with an ice cream layer, and chocolate sauce on top - really delicious, but wondering what the fruit one would look like?

 Anyway, we took the steps back home, tiresome again, but good for the fitness, and lovely views of the moon overlooking the sea of course. Now off to bed hoping to wake up energised and positive!