If there is on theme to today it must be the many types of weird waves we’ve met. We started from Cala Morescoe near Golfo Aranci and headed straight into some extremely choppy waters off Capo Figaro. Waves apparently came in from two different directions and bounced off the vertical rocks, giving us quite a ride.
From Capo Morescoe we crossed north towards Piccolo Romanizzo, passing Isola Moratio on the way. We had a very brief stop there, but there was no bar and no reason to linger.
The next stop on our path was Porto Cervo. We had been told on many occasions that there was a fantastic marina there with everything we could possibly need. We had another very choppy ride up to and into Porto Cervo. We landed on a beach just besides the marina, which was full of some very expensive looking boats. We packed up everything we needed for a good and sorely need shower and some laundry, hopefully topped by some delicious food and good coffee.
As we walked towards the marina everything looked very quiet and dull. A huge building was full of closed and boarded up shops, and the only open door we could finf led to a very closed restaurant, with tables stacked and chairs covered for storage. We continued and at last we found an open place. It was a very fancy cocktail bar, and very empty, but we got something to drink and a couple of sandwiches which surely suffered from severe identity crises.
We were low on water, the cocktail bar only had one liter glass bottles and the marina supermarket wouldn’t open for another two hours. We decided to paddle on, doing our shopping elsewhere, but on our way out we did manage to find a bar that could sell us some reasonably sized bottles of water.
From Porto Cervo we headed for Isola Caprera. Again we were in for an agitated ride. We had 1m waves coming in from NE and E so we were tossed here and there most of the time. We got some nice tailing waves as we turned west towards Caprera, but we continuously got splashed and pushed by the sideways waves.
Things became a bit easier when we turned west at Isola delle Bisce, since we got some following waves to play with, but we were still tosse hither and thither most of time, including our way into the bay north of Punta Rossa on Isola Caprera, where we set up camp on a secluded beach.
We passed the Isola di Tavolara yesterday. Tavolara has a quite extraordinary history. It is not that often you get to eat in a royal restaurant. The waitress was pretty too 🙂
We’re just a couple of day from the northern tip of Sardinia now.
I guess we’ve only been pizza blogging recently, so today we had sandwiches 🙂
Thursday morning we woke up in Cala Gonone to a dark sky. We were ready to go but up north it was thundering, just where we were supposed to go. We made everything ready and went for a cappuccino. It started raining, another cappuccino passed our way, and at around 11 the rain almost stopped, the thunder ceased and we went paddling.
Cave on the coast
It was a very quiet paddle up the coast. We passed some beautiful rocks and huge caves. We had lunch north of Marina di Orosei, frozen pizza, but as we continued the NE wind increased and so did the waves, so when we arrived at the beach of Cala Liberetto, we decided to call it a day.
It was quite a busy beach, and as there appeared to be a huge camping just behind the dunes, we decided to do the bivy thing, sleeping on top of the tarp just in case. Good thing too. About 5 in the morning it started to rain, and we scrambled under the tarp, but it was rather uncomfortable so we soon decided to get up.
It was a very cold and wet morning, but we had some breakfast, packed the boats and set off into the great unknown.
Capo Comino
Fortunately for us it became a nice warm and sunny day. Before noon we rounded the Capo Comino, the easternmost point of our journey up the Sardinian east coast. There we stopped for a couple of hours to dry all our wet gear and recharge gps, batteries and phone with our Brunton solar panels.
In the afternoon we ran into the normal afternoon NE winds and waves, which slowed us down, and at 5 in the afternoon we landed on the beach of Sant’Anna near Budoni, circa 20 km south of Isola Tavolara.
Snacks on the beach
We had our sandwiches at the local beach bar, Bar Sa Capannizza, where Wendy once again indulged in her latest addiction: the Sardinian beer Ichnusa.
Tomorrow we will paddle to Isola Tavolara for lunch and then hopefully get past Olbia in the afternoon. Sunday looks like a very windy day, so we haven’t quite made our minds up about that. We should be up at the northern tip of Sardinia within a few days, though.
We’re having lunch at Peppes Bar on the beach near the Marina of Orosei. The pizzas were of quite dubious quality, so we won’t stay longer that it takes the GPS to recharge.
We have had two spectacular days in the Golfo di Orosei. Most of time we have paddled in the Natural Reserve of Golfo di Orosei and Gennargentu.
Tuesday we started on a calm and sunny morning from Torre di Bari, and paddled quietly to Arbatax and Santa Maria Navarrese, where the natural reserve begins.
The coastal area of the natural reserve is very mountainous, with tall steep rock walls dropping hundreds of meters into the sea, sloping hill sides and rock gardens, all battered continuously by the waves of a constant NE wind, the Grecale. Scattered throughout all this is a myriad of little inaccessible beaches, caves and deep coves.
We paddled half the length of the reserve on tuesday, and we both agreed afterwards that it was the most fantastic paddled we had ever had. We passed the Pedro Lungo, explored numerous caves and coves, admired the beautiful birds nesting on the rock sides (which we later learned is a rare species of falcon), but failed to find the natural arch of Goloritzé. When the time of sunset approached we were forced to look for a landing spot, which wasn’t easy under a tall vertical rock wall, but as we explored out options, we turned a corner, and faced an incredible arch of raw rock, the arch of Goloritzé.
We paddled throught and around the arch, and just behind it was the brightest white beach, the perfect landing site for the evening, pebble beach, smooth white rocks and a large cave. However, as we approached, we discovered that the cave was already inhabited, by a nice young man in jeans and t-shirt.
Axel, a young German Ph.d. student on a solo hiking holiday, didn’t mind sharing the beach so we disembarked, and started hauling out all our gear. Poor Axed was astonished as we pulled out tent, tarp, cooking gear, food, espresso maker etc. His entire luggage weighted in a 14kg and could fit in a small rucksack.
We had a very pleasant evening together, sharing food, desert and tea, only interrupted by a short shower. As the time to turn in came, Wendy set up tent, but I decided to sleep in the cave like Axel. I have never slept in a cave before and had no intention of letting that experience pass by untried. It was a bit hard to sleep on the sloping cave floor, but I enjoyed looking at the stars, listening to the waves and watching the occasional lightning over the sea. The mosquitoes feasted on me, but it was worth that little sacrifice.
In the morning we made cappuccinoes on the rocks for all three of us, exchanged email addresses with Axel, and launched late, about ten.
The main attraction of the following day would be the Grotta del Bue Marino, and five km deep marine cave. We moved slowly in that direction, as we kept exploring the coastline. We took a nice long break after noon in the Cala Sisine, but quite suddenly the sun disappeared and dark clouds took its place. The small groups of beachgoers started heading for their motorboats and we headed for our boats too.
As we continued the Grecale returned, exchanging the placid waters of the morning for lively waves of 1m and more. We struggled into the headwind and the waves towards our goal, the Grotta del Bue Marino. We had no idea how it would be marked, so we followed the coastline closely peeking into every hole in the rock walls.
When we found the Cave of the Sea Cow, it was closed. It was forbidden to paddle in, only for service personnel the sigh said, and apparently this marine cave can only be visited on foot, walking on platforms mounted on the walls of the cave. As the site was clearly deserted, even though it was only around 5 in the afternoon, we ventured into the darkness a bit, but the cave was too vast and too dark for our little camping headlamps, so we turned back, from darkness and silence inside to light and roaring waves outside.
We continued for a few kms to the small town of Cala Gonone where we have set up camp on a nearby beach after a small forraging foray into town.
We had a nice day on the water today. We started in great style with an hours break after an hours paddling, but after that we paddled for five and a half hours almost without break.
Initially we had it easy. Tailing swells of 1-2m and a pleasant tailwind gave us good speed, but in the middle of the Cala de Murtas the wind changed suddenly from S to W, probably funneled by the mountains. We then had swells from SE and waves from W which was new to me. It caused some interesting wave patterns. Just as we came across the bay for a cherished break, the wind turned to N and the rest of the day was double work at half speed.
We didn’t get as far as we wanted before it got close to sunset and we had to search for a landing spot. We ended up in Melisenda, some 30 km south of Arbatax.
As we started to set up camp and preparing some serious camping cooking, we discovered that our cooking alcohol wasn’t there. I had taken it out of the hatch the evening before and left it beside my kayak, but during the night the sea had eaten away at the brink, and the bottle was gone. The kayaks almost went the same way, as the sea had dug away under them too.
In any case, we were sitting on a beach with food but no gas or alcohol for camping stove. Hunger can drive even the sanest person to extremes, and we walked out into the darkness, dressed only in headlamps (almost) in search of a place to eat. After having scared an elderly lady in a house out of her wits, we got some instructions on how to find the local pizzeria.
Apparently destiny will have it that we paddle from pizza to pizza. It is somewhat of consolation that the pizzas here are very good. One in our little group uses stronger words, though.
Right now we’re sitting in a bar at the harbour of Porto Corallo near the village of Villaputzu.
We spend the night on a beach called Spiaggia San Giovanni, just behind a fish-farm. We had a brilliant dinner in a local restaurant where we ate pizza. According to Wendy her seafood pizza was “orgasmic” 🙂
There’s quite a bit of surf on the beaches here so landing and launching is a bit tricky, but we usually do manage to find good spots.
Yesterday was a quiet paddle from Cala Pira. We had wind and waves in our favour, so we could enjoy the coastline and the sea.
Our plan for today is to get about half-ways to Arbatax, if possible to Marina di Gairo.
We’re in Sardinia now. Everything went surprisingly well with the ferry and boarding with both kayaks and a motorcycle.
We did have a few scares of continued back luck. Just as we were to board my camera died. Just woundn’t turn on, not even with a battery that worked in Wendy’s camera. Bummer! I managed. to fix it later, though. It was a bad contact in the battery compartment.
In the evening we put Wendy’s Internet Tablet to charge and we both fell asleep. I woke up around 1.30 and the tablet was gone. Stolen, probably. Knowing I wouldn’t get any sleep anyway, I set out to find it. I looked for the reception where two men were chatting, and as I explained the problem, one of them just said: “I took that. It was just left there.” He took it out and wanted an explanation of what it is. Time passed but we got Wendy’s tablet back.
When we woke up in the morning my phone was dead. It worked, but I couldn’t place any calls or send SMS. It took at least an hour before I figured out I should turn it off and back on again.
We arrived in Cagliari and walked off. I went in for my motorcycle and got that, but when we walked back in, all unloading from the part where our kayaks were stored had stopped. A truck carrying firewood had dropped about 8-10 cubic meters of wood just around the spot where we had the kayaks. We weren’t allowed in for a long time as they cleared up the mess, but fortunately the wood had missed our kayaks by some meters.
So, we’re finally on the water in Sardinia. We started at 16 o’clock and paddled for two hours. We’re still quite close to Cagliari, but we’ve started and it feels almost like an achievement after all the problems we’ve had in the last weeks.
We’re camping on a small beach just besides Cagliari Yacht Club.
Thinking about driving in Italy with a kayak? Better rethink. Don’t even consider doing it in a rented vehicle.
This is the story of a very long and quite expensive journey from Venice to Civitavecchia, a distance of about 550 km of which over 400 km on highways. It shouldn’t be more than half a day, right? Wrong! We would rent the car on Thursday afternoon, pack in the evening, leave early, return the car in Civitavecchia before 16 o’clock and take the ferry at 18.30 for Cagliari.
Starting from Venice with two kayaks and a motorbike we set out to rent a car which Wendy would then drive to Civitavecchia with the two kayaks on the roof, while I followed on my motorbike. It sould be easy. Its just a car. First hurdle was finding a usable car. Of four car rental offices in Venice, only one had cars available, and the last had no cars with roof racks.
In the end we rented a Ford Focus Cmax from Hertz, and we went to Mestre to find the roof rack which we would buy ourselves. We found one shop and searched in vain for another, but no roof rack. Back at the camping the owner, Paolo, helped us find a shop with a roof rack for the Ford Focus Cmax, but we could only go there the next morning as they were closing.
The next morning we left early for Mestre, found the shop, bought the roof rack and spent some time mounting it. Then back to the camping to pack up and in the afternoon we were finally ready to leave. The kayaks were mounted and strapped down on the roof just as we have always done, both in Denmark and in Canada. We were quite confident that they would stay safely on roof for the duration of our little journey.
First obstacle was the ferry from the Lido to Venice. All the other times we just showed up, paid and borded the next ferry. This time the line was over a km long, and we only got on the third ferry to leave the Lido. It was dark when we arrived on the highway and after a few hundred km we stopped for night at Barberini di Mugello some 30 km north of Florence. We slept in the car until it was light again, but before we left we went for some breakfast at the restaurant
When we came out of the restaurant we were approached by a policeman from the Polizia Stradale from Bologna. He had a series of complaints about our car and the kayaks.
First of all, you have to carry a special cardboard sign on the end of the car if your gear on the roof extend over the end of the vehicle. We had no such sign, and that was rewarded with a fine of €74 to pay cash up front.
Second, the kayaks weren’t allowed to extend in front of the car, so we had to move them back on the roof. This meant they were no longer balanced on the racks and we had to strap them down quite hard.
Then the longer kayak, the Skim Distance which is 588cm long, extended too much on the back on the car, as was proved and documented by several measuring sessions. In Italy, we were explained, any single piece object carried on a car must not extend further over the back of the car than 30% of the cars length. Simple math will show that to transport a 588cm kayak on a car the car must be at least 454 cm long. The Ford Focus Cmax was only 437cm long. Way too short, and we were carefully explained that this transgression could carry a fine of up to €661, the loss of the driver’s license and the confiscation of the vehicle.
In short we were instructed to get a longer car. They would not let us continue in the Ford Focus Cmax, under threat of confiscation, not even to Florence airport where we could rent another car. As they explained, they were from the Bologna police and they had no authority to follow us to Florence, and Bologna was too far back on the highway. They ordered us to call Hertz to get another car, after which we should leave the Skim Distance behind, go to Florence airport to switch cars and at last come back to pick up the Skim Distance again.
That took a bit of discussion, explaining, arguing and several phone calls to Italian friends, and in the end it was agreed that we could follow them to a place where the Skim Distance could be left in safe hands while we organised a new car in Florence. They left us there once the Skim Distance was unloaded, and we were spared fine, loss of driver’s license and confiscation of the car, which certainly would not have pleased Hertz.
We weren’t exactly in the best of moods at that point. All our plans and intensions were null and void. We weren’t even better off that when we started. There at least we had a place to sleep.
After a while we decided to take the motorbike to Florence to see if it was even possible to rent something there. Our experience from Venice wasn’t exactly good.
Right we were. At the airport Hertz just told they didn’t have any cars with roof racks or even just large cars. They recommeded a company that rented full size vans, but Wendy’s licence wouldn’t cover it, so that was not an option. All the other rental offices had long lines, and it was clear it would take hours of waiting, arguing and explaining what we wanted and why it was necessary, at each of the offices with little hope of finding a useful car.
After wringing our brains a bit we started looking at the cars in the parking lot, and suddenly we spotted the parking lot for rental cars. We walked in and looked around, and in about 15 minutes we had located at least four suitable cars. At the point a guard came over because he found it suspicious that we walked around the parking lot taking pictures of rental cars but we explained the situation and were allowed to go to the rental office again.
With our new information we had a Chrysler Voyager of 480cm length rented in no time. It was way too late for the ferry the same day, and the Avis office in Civitavecchia isn’t open on sunday, so we would have to rent the car for two days, so we could return it on Monday. That is, the whole affair would cost us an additional two days delay.
It took us several round trips between Barberini and Florence airport to swap cars, and it was well into the afternoon before we were back on the road again.
Our plan had been to go the coast north of Civitavecchia to find a camping, in the area of Tarquinia, but after some time we decided to spend the extra day in Rome. I called some friends I have outside Rome and we were welcome to come by. We arrived there at nine in the evening and settled in, preparing for at day of mainstream tourism in Rome for the Sunday.
When we hopefully arrive in Civitavecchia on Monday morning, take the ferry on Monday afternoon and arrive in Cagliari on Tuesday, our journey can begin in earnest.
In the end it will have taken us from Friday afternoon to Monday morning to travel the 550 km from Venice to Civitavecchia with two kayaks, and it has cost us over €700 in car rental, gasoline and fines.
Most of the stuff from our North American sponsors have been shipped to Wendy in Canada, so only now when Wendy has arrived here in Venice to save me from all my problems have I had the possibility to actually see the things we have received.
There was way too much in Wendy’s massive duffel bags to list it all, but here’s some of it.
The first thing we tried was simply too amusing to let rest. We had to try them on immediately. The Vibram Fivefingers are glove-like shoes with separate fingers for each toe. Initially they were a bit hard to get on, but once on they were very comfortable. I paddled with mine all day and had no problems.
Kokatat have sponsored Wendy earlier, and this time they sent us a huge parcel with jackets, short sleeve knappsters, storm cags and a new PFD for me. I used the PFD for yesterdays paddle and today the storm cags saved our morning, when we had to get up and out of the tent in pouring rain. I have no doubt the storm cag will be one of my favourite paddling garments in the future.
ODLO had sent us a parcel with technical underwear and other sports clothes to Palermo. I still haven’t tried it all, but I used the ODLO T-shirt for yesterdays paddle, and amazingly it feels cool in the sun, warm in the shade and it dries almost instantaneouly, so its the perfect shirt for a paddle on a sunny day in Venice.
Wendy bought a beautiful tent from Hilleberg, a Nammatj GT3. We slept in it tonight through pouring rain and thunderstorms, and it was just brilliant. It stands with just three identical poles and four pegs, so it mounts in an instant. We had it standing in a couple of minutes without looking at the instructions. I wish it were mine 🙂
