Category: Sardinia 2007/8
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Returning to Sardinia
I have now booked the ferry to Sardinia for the last leg of my circumnavigation of the island. In a few days time I will push the Skim Distance back in the water exactly where I pulled it up last year, and finish what I set out to do last year. On Friday I’m off…
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Photo from Sardinia in Kokata Ad
Kokatat will be using a photograph I took in Sardinia last year in an ad in the May issues of Paddler Magazine and Wavelength Magazine. The photograph is taken in the morning as we were rounding the granite formations of Capo Testa. Kokatat sponsored us with Knapsters, Storm Cags, Anoraks, life vest, Seawesters, and hydration…
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April in Sardinia
I’m preparing the last leg of my circumnavigation of Sardinia, which I plan to do in April. The route is about 320km (circa 200 miles) from Fertilia down the western coast of Sardinia to Cagliari. I still don’t know if I’ll do this trip in early April or late April, as I have other affairs…
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Going back to Sardinia
I’m heading back to Sardinia soon. My wife Valentina and I will spend the Easter holiday with my in-laws in Palermo, and immediately afterwards we’ll be on the ferry to Sardinia. We’ll spend almost a week with my good friend Francesco Muntoni in the Ogliastra region on the east coast of Sardinia. Valentina then returns…
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Parcel update
I have finally received an answer from the Poste Italiane (the usual word document attached to an empty email): In riferimento alla sua e-mail del “07/01/2008” con Oggetto: «pacco estero», Le comunichiamo che per richieste di informazioni sull’esito di spedizioni inviate e/o in attesa, riguardanti il prodotto dei pacchi internazionali, si dovrà recare esclusivamente presso…
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A Parcel’s Odyssey
I sent a parcel from Sardinia last October. I sent it to Palermo where it arrived after two weeks. Unfortunately, it wasn’t picked up by the recipient, so it was returned, but returned to where? I’ve been hunting this parcel for over three months now, and I’m still none the wiser. The kayak journey in…
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Skim Kayaks
In spite of the journey being put on hold until April or May, Skim Kayaks has generously offered to continue to sponsor me for the remainder of the journey. I’ve paddled the Skim Distance in Sardinia for four weeks in different conditions, and it is a brilliant expedition kayak. It is stable, fast and spacious.…
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Team paddling experiences
The four weeks I paddled in Sardinia is the longest kayak journey I have been on so far, and the first time I have travelled for so long with somebody I knew so little. Things went very wrong between Wendy and I, and I have quite naturally given it quite a bit of thought as…
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Leaving Sardinia
I’m in Palermo now. I spent a couple of days in Fertilia, first to make up my mind, then to figure out what to do with all the gear I had there. The first night I slept in the open near the harbour where I had the kayak in sight. At that point I hadn’t…
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My Sardinian journey ends here
I have decided stop my journey around Sardinia here in Fertilia. My primary reason for embarking on this trip was to recover from a depression I had after a marital crisis last year. I wanted to get away from everything, try something new, have fresh impulses in my life and hopefully come back a fitter…
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Team split
Wendy and I have for some time had disagreements, mostly on questions of time and speed. Our disagreements has proven irreconcilable, and yesterday at Porto Ferro we decided to go on separately. Wendy left before me this morning. I have no information on her whereabouts. I’m currently at Fertilia just north of Alghero. Tomorrow I…
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Hardship continues
We’ve had a hard day on the beach today. The sun was relentless, but we did manage to send several text messages, shave various body parts (apparently Wendy and I have different predilections there), do some laundry and cook an edible meal of italian noodles, which they seem to call ‘pasta’ down here. Only at…
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Suffering and Hardship
Paddling is not just aching muscles. It can also be waking up to a beach full of sand looking at derelict old edifices: or being forced to have your morning cappuccino in the wrong kind of cup, eating Sardinian cakes from the previous day: or discovering that the copious amount of excess belly tissue it…
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Back-paddling
I have a history of back problems. It is a growth problem from my childhood, my vertebrae are slightly deformed and therefore more at risk of dislocation. When that happens it is pain beyond words. The whole back locks up in a spasm making just about any movement difficult and very painful. My back has…
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Windbound again
We’ve had a very short but active day on the water. We started from Vignola Mare at about nine, in moderate weather conditions. We had a good NE wind, around F4, and some following waves of 1-1½m. We had a fun ride down the coast, with tailwind and following waves, but after an hour and…
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Beach Blogging
Wendy and I have been blogging quite actively during our time in Sardinia. We’ve been blogging on the beaches, we’ve been blogging in the streets, we’ve been blogging just about anywhere. There are few internet cafés in Sardinia, home internet diffusion isn’t very high and in any case, we haven’t been invited in anywhere. I…
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