Hooning along the Emerald Coast

We woke up on Monday morning rested and happy, as we were in Italy, on an island, by the beach, and where Monday-itis does not exist. After a quick hotel breakfast, we packed up and left our hotel room (strangely decorated with animal print items), and following sending Ryan back after he returned the keys without collecting our passports, we were back on the road in the little Fiat Panda. Before hitting the autostrada, we turned down a dirt road down to beautiful Cala Sabina. Although it was overcast this morning, the water still looked a glorious emerald colour (oh, the Emerald Coast - I geddit!!) and being relatively early it was not overly busy.

Cala Sabina, Golfo Aranci

We both went for a swim - it was very shallow for at least 30 metres or so out, so I enjoyed doing my crocodile crawling around in the sand, through the aqua water, until we could finally swim around a bit. It was the perfect temperature, and not too many people. The clouds looked a little ominous coming in though, so after an hour or so we set back off on the road.

As we drove south, toward Cala Gonone, the clouds really set in. No blue skies were left, although we only suffered a few spots of rain. We were not concerned though - we just wanted to get to the next place and settle in, and I knew blue skies were on the horizon again. After only a 2 hour drive or so, following Ryan's Google GPS lady (who I will say right now that I do not trust more than I can throw her),we were within 15km of our destination. The signs were saying to go right, but the GPS lady said go left, so Ryan did. It was fine for the most part, some pretty narrow and unsealed roads, but the highlight was when we reached the top of a mountain and it was literally like being on the crest of a rollercoaster dip where we had to wind down an extremely deep and narrow climb, with sheer drops off either side. I would have taken a photo if I had a third hand, but mine were too busy hiding my eyes and holding on to the Panda's Jesus bar.

Lunch picnic on the hotel balcony

Since this blog is continuing, it is obvious that we made it safely to Cala Gonone, despite all odds. And what a lovely little town it was - one of my favourites! We checked in straight away to our hotel, which turned out to be a gem. It had everything that we needed, plus a lovely rooftop "solarium" with 180-degree sea views. There was a supermarket just behind us too, so we went and picked up some of our favourite fresh produce (ciabatta, tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, porchetta and prosciutto) and sat on our balcony to enjoy it with dashes of the amazing Tuscan olive oil I bought at the winery I visited during the conference.

Hotel rooftop

The weather decided to clear in the afternoon too, so the views only got better from the rooftop. Australia was due to play Spain at 6pm that night, and although we were already out of the World Cup (as was Spain), we were desperate to watch the game. Spain is one of our adopted teams, as they won the Euro Cup when we were there 2 years ago, and Ryan has their souvenir jersey, so we were really interested in seeing how the match played out. Since Italy wasn't playing, no one in town seemed to be promoting any match, but then we came across "Roadhouse Blues Pub" where we saw a big TV with nothing on. We walked in, they were all Italian, and we somehow asked in broken English/Italian - "World Cup? Australia?". They flicked through the paper to see who was playing - obviously knew Italy was not - and then when we pointed out it was Australia vs Spain they seemed to happy to play the match, probably to see if Spain could possibly lose again.... Anyway, we sat down with the best seats in the house!

View from hotel rooftop

So we watched the match, which for the first half was fine, but the second half not so much. Another Australian couple (from Melbourne, living in London) wandered in during that match (the only other Aussies we spoke to or heard from our entire time in Sardinia!) so we had a chat with them. While the score was disappointing, our mussel/clam and octopus pasta dishes at the "Roadhouse Blues Pub" were actually very good! The only surprising thing was why our Aussie friends were asking us why all the restaurants around the place seem to serve seafood....?!

Boating around Cala Gonone

The next morning we brushed off the Socceroo loss with a quick hotel breakfast and then headed down to the sea to rent our own speed boat! We both wanted to hoon along the coastline at our own leisure. Ryan was surprised that I suggested it, and that I was so keen. Sometimes I get a bit scared of boats, but hey this was the Mediterranean.....! I wanted to get out and about on that calm blue sea!

Cala Gonone coastline

So we set off! The lady had told us that the day prior had been very poor conditions (with the overcast skies and what-not), but that today was a lot better, although there were still some "long" waves. She said long, which actually sounded quite nice to me, but in hindsight I think the translation is actually "big". So all we needed to do was show a passport, pay some money, and then nod to the instructions of how to operate the boat, and we were off! Just us, a boat and the Sardinian Coast!

Stopping ashore

Lucky I popped a sea-sickness pill beforehand - it was pretty choppy!! But it was amazing just cruising along the coastline being able to do whatever we wanted to do.... so Ryan being the salty seadog that he is, just cruised the boat around.... and we eventually reached a place which look ideal to pull up. We pulled right in and managed to get close enough so that myself and what we needed could be hurled onto shore! I jumped off, with our picnic bag and towels etc. while Ryan then took the boat back out. Little did we know this gorgeous little beach was made of pebbles and had such a steep incline that it was near impossible to climb by yourself. So once Ryan took the boat back out, I threw our stuff back up onto the top the beach, then with the help of a kind lady (German I think?) she helped me to hurl myself up too. Not the most elegant of beach entrances I must admit. Then Ryan had to go anchor the boat near the buoys, then swim back to me! It was quite the production for some beach relaxation...

Ryan dropping anchor before swimming ashore

But what a glorious beach it was - not for it's comfort, because it was made of pebbles, but because of it's remoteness and beauty.... We were so remote in fact that the German lady next to us and her male companion shed their togs, but they were 20 metres away from us and they are European so hey no worries. It was funny though when about an hour later, when we couldn't have been more relaxed, that suddenly a big touristico boat appeared right in front of us, and somehow dropped off about 60 people into this remote area. I did take note that the German guy was quick to put his togs back on. So half an hour after that, we all left in our speed boats to leave the hoards of tourists to do their own thing....

Riding the waves of the Mediterranean while anchored for lunch

So Ryan swam back to the boat, I gathered our belongings and waited on the pebbles in a spot where I thought was at least possible to throw them and myself back into the boat. He puled in, and quickly I threw our stuff in and hauled myself in as well, before we quickly reversed and headed back out to sea.A bit more smooth-sailing that time....  We wanted to find somewhere semi-private to stop for a bit to eat... The waves were not exactly calm, so we pulled up near another beach area.

Time to sail us home to safety!

So we pulled up, in a seemingly calm area, where we anchored again and and enjoyed some bread, porchetta etc. It was stunning surroundings, although there was the occassional large and unexpected wave. Just before we were about to leave, we were sitting around, and then we saw another large wave come - and it grew, and grew, and it was just about to break on us! We were so lucky to be anchored where we were - if we had been a metre closer to shore, we would have been under water, like the poor boat just behind us! Phewweeee! So after that we quickly packed up, pulled up the anchor, and I took charge of the wheel and drove us home!

Raw fish - my favourite

Home to my favourite meal of raw fish in fact!! The hotel restaurant across the road was actually excellent with a great view, so we went there 2 of the nights for some delicious food. We also watched Italy play their final match against Uruguay - complete with me wearing an newly purchased Italian jersey - but the result was again disappointing. The next morning I went for a long walk along the coast while Ryan went for a dive.... check out more photos can be found here: Cala Gonone pics

Morning walk from Cala Gonone