A beach walk at Costa Rei

 

It's 7:15 on this windy Saturday morning, and the sun will rise in a few minutes. We've watched sunsets from the rooftop terrace, the sun disappearing between the roofs of two hilltop houses rather than in the ocean at this time of year: days are short here, too, and the sun sets shortly after five pm. We can't see the sun rise from here, but I can see already that it's a bright day, last night's thunderstorm blown over, literally. Wind has been a nearly constant companion on our daily excursions, but we have been very lucky with the weather.

After two hikes on Wednesday and Thursday a bit east of here past Costa Rei we decided on a beach walk at Costa Rei yesterday: for once the morning was absolutely calm. We spent three hours walking along the 10 kilometre long beautiful white sand beach that must be very crowded during high season. Yesterday we encountered only three people, one dog and a few gulls and cormorants. The temperature was a pleasant 20 degrees Celsius, just like the day before, and even though a breeze started up on our way back blowing in towering thunder clouds it was warm enough to walk in shorts and short sleeves. Marietta and Johann even decided on a swim, the clear water about the same temperature as the air.

The drive to Villasimius, a neat village about half an hour from here close to Costa Rei, took us along the rugged coastline on a very curvy road with stunning views around every corner, but on the way back we decided on the faster freeway: the looming clouds made it advisable to get home without delay.

The fierce wind from the middle of the night has given way to a nice breeze, so that nothing should stand in our way to explore Cagliari, Sardinia's capital city, today.

A trip to Sardinia's south coast

 

November 24^th, 2022

It's a quarter to eight in the morning here in Geremeas at the southern tip of Sardinia. The comforting warmth of the pellet stove beside me is a nice counterpoint to the howling wind that's playing with the golden hibiscus and pink and red bougainvilleas in the small yard, but I know it sounds and looks worse than it is: it's a warm wind, and it won't keep us from exploring this area with its rugged beauty a little more today on our hike.

We arrived here – our friends Manfred and Marietta, Johann and I – after driving from the ferry at Olbia, 300 km to the northeast, two days ago.

Right now I am waiting for the bread dough which, covered with a tea towel, is rising on the wood stove beside me: I've been tasked with making buns for breakfast. The next supermarket is about twenty minutes away, and the little bakery that's within walking distance is closed for the season, as so many other restaurants and tourist-oriented venues. Far from lamenting this fact I'm glad about it: there are very few people here at this time of year, quite different from the summer, as we've been told, when parking spots this close to the beach are very hard to come by and beaches are teeming with people, streets are crowded and noisy.

When we arrived on Tuesday the wind was blowing hard and it was cooler than it is now, but the sun was shining from the bright blue sky, a perfect backdrop for the foam-capped waves lashing the beach. We had chosen this particular destination – Geremeas, about half an hour from Cagliari, Sardinia's biggest city – because Marietta's brother and sister-in-law own a house here, our home for the five days we are here. It is rented out in the summer months, between late May and early to mid September, and nobody had stayed here in six weeks. We opened the shutters and got settled in, put away the groceries we had picked up at a supermarket along the way, and made our way down the road to the beach, a walk of five minutes. It didn't feel like the mediterranean just then, the waves and wind reminiscent of a more northerly sea in the summer, except for the palm and olive trees, the cacti, the ochre, light yellow and white-washed houses and villas. 

Just like yesterday we plan to hike today, but right now the buns are ready and it's time for breakfast. Hopefully we'll be able to get water from the taps again today; yesterday afternoon it stopped running for no apparent reason. A bit of improvisation isn't a bad thing, though, and so far we are doing fine.