Sardinia is a fun place to ride a motorcycle

O look -- another ferry. This one from Corsica to Sardinia. No sleeping on this one because it is only about an hour trip.

But first, got to ride my motorcycle into that dark gullet and tie him down. Brrr.

I really liked Corsica and kind of hate to leave, but it isn't all that big an island. I think I saw about all there was to see there. Time for a new scene.

This is the harbor the ferry is going to be leaving from. If you look way back in the background you can see some multi-milllion dollar yachts back there (the ones in the foreground are only a mere million -- chicken feed).  I've seen some expensive yachts like those other places in Europe, and they all seem to be registered in the Canary Islands; don't know why.

Anyway, bye bye Corsica

Hey dude! You're going the wrong way!

And just like that -- Wham, Bam, Sardinia, here I am!

Can you tell from this last picture that Sardinia is not nearly as mountainous as Corsica? It makes up for it with absolutely beautiful beaches. They say that Sardinia was a favorite with Princess Di because of the beaches. Hmmm. Okay, if you say so.

There were a lot of topless ladies on this beach. I wonder if Princess Di went around topless in Sardinia. Nah, it would have made the London scandal sheets.

There was supposed to be a trail from this beach to a cave. I tried mighty hard to follow it, but when I got to the worn out, weather ropes I decided it was time to do like everyone else and take a boat to the cave. 

And it was well worth the price. I thought ocean caves were supposed to be tiny and dank. Not this beauty.

Just kidding with this last picture. It just shows the entrance. The cave really was pretty once inside.

I wasn't supposed to take any pictures. Don't tell anyone. Okay?

What do you think of these bushes. They grow all along the roads in both Corsica and Sardinia. I'm not sure if they are planted on purpose, but I think they are. They come in Red, Pink and White; and there is also a yellow bush but it is a different species. They sure make the roads pretty. They grow sort of like hedges in the front of houses also.

One thing I noticed right away was that they have honest to goodness guard rails in Sardinia, unlike Corsica. Sardinia is Italian; Corsica is French. I will let you draw your own conclusion.

Although Sardinia is not mountainous, it still has roads that twist around like a pig's tail. Fun to ride, but kind of slow.

A big part of Sardinia is a national forest -- not with huge trees however, so I assume it was all logged over in the not too distant past.

My GPS was really proud of taking Odysseus and me down the road in this last picture. It is always doing that sort of thing to us, but it really outdid itself this time because this road was absolutely terrible: rutted, broken up, chuck-holed. Odysseus and I had it all to ourselves; not another vehicle anywhere.

Pretty though.  Check out these weeds along the road.

I have talked a little about how crowded European campgrounds are. There are no campground like we have in our State and National Parks; instead, they are all private. They like to cram the tents in -- there is always room for one more.

I thought it was a little ironic that a French woman made me move my tent farther away in another campground when I was setting up about thirty feet away from her. But you know, I have met rude, overbearing people like that in the United States. Mostly, though, everywhere you go people are nice as can be.

One thing they have in Sardinia, but not in Corsica, are absolutely ancient ruins. This one dates back to the Phoenicians at about the time Moses was parting the Red Sea so the Children of Israel could escape their Egyptian Captivity.

What a lot of work it must have been to build these things. But can you imagine the house the guide is in front of with a wooden roof. Got to do that or none of it makes any sense.

Time to do some exploring inside the tower.

Pretty dark in there. Not to worry though if there is a good flash on the camera.

Finally made it to the top. 

As you can see in this picture from the top of the tower, a lot of Sardinia is gently rolling hills given over to hay fields.

Here is another ruin. This one Roman. Don't worry-- I promise not to show many such things on this blogs. Ruins get old. (Ha! Ha!)

My last night in Sardinia was in a campground with flamingos in a salt water marsh. It wasn't easy getting a picture with my cheap camera, but here you go---

 Time to head on south to Sicily. But first, gotta find the ferry, which is always a chore. I hunted around a long time for it. I tried asking directions, but the people around there were very cranky, even with each other.   They speak their Italian very, very fast and get mad if you don't understand. It sounds like they are always mad when they are talking, and not just to me but also to each other. It must have been something about that particular town the ferry leaves from, because I have found Italians to be soft spoken, friendly, and helpful everywhere else. Hmmm. Don't know. Maybe they all woke up that day in that town and decided the Grinch stole their Christmas.

Anyway, time to go on to Italy itself. I wanted to go to Sicily, but the ferry to there only runs once a week. Can't wait around for that one. So, I am off to Rome on an overnight boat. I will head down to Sicily a different way than I had planned.

Ciao,

Ron

Riding in Corsica

I booked passage on the overnight ferry from France to Corsica. I am starting to feel like there are far too many ferries buzzing around in my life.

Once again, here is Odysseus ready to be put in the ferry corral along with a bunch of other motorcycles.

The ferry was huge. Look at this bar. Plus they had two restaurants.

Ands they had hundreds of cabins. Let's see: my choice is to sit in a lounge chair all night, trying to grab some sleep in the noise with the lights on-- or, get a cabin.  I am cheap, but the cabin was only 70 Euros (and I won't be spending 20 Euros to camp, so to my way of thinking the price is 50 Euros. I'll pay that.

I even had my own private shower and bathroom. Life is good.

Early in the morning there was a little chime: "Time to get up, y'all. We are almost in Corsica".

And here it is:

Corsica is bigger than I thought it would be. It is very mountainous. I headed right into them.

Twisty little mountain roads can tire a guy out. I stopped at an overlook to rest and take a picture.

 And this 78 year old man was there. He had ridden his bicycle up the mountain just for fun. I was very impressed.

Gotta be careful with these mountain roads in Corsica. I never once saw a guard rail. The stone "fence" that elderly bike rider is standing by in the last picture is very unusual. Mostly, they are only one stone layer high.

I think these little stone walls are there just to let the police see where a driver went through them. Here is the same place as above, but looking just past my right foot.

Even down by the sea you don't dare take your eyes off the road for a second. Not much time for enjoying the scenery.

I can hear the conversation now:
       "Honey---uh--- do you think you might be going just a little fast?"
       "Nah -- I got it under control"\
       " But honey, these roads are a little tricky"
       "Listen woman -- who's the man here?"
                   "Ooops!!!"

What do you suppose people do for a living here? There doesn't seem to be any industry, and precious little farming going on. There are a lot of restaurants though. Every little town like this one has at least two, and they are always packed with tourists, especially over the noon to 2:00 lunch hour when everything shuts down for the main meal of the day. Hey -- I could get into that habit myself.

I try to stop at a scenic place for lunch (mostly sandwiches) but I think I am going to stop doing that-- otherwise I am afraid I am going to give myself food poisoning.

They have small bottles of highly pasteurized milk in the grocery stores, and also small bottles of jams and the ever present Nutella. I enjoy them, along with some coffee and cereal for breakfast each morning. I always look forward to that, and usually roll out of my tent by 7 am.  Supper is stew, or canned meats along with ramen noodles, or something similar. I try not to eat out very often. Prices are about the same as home (12 Euros for supper) but it is the exchange rate that is a budget buster.

I usually try to get some exercise each evening. I was running night before last on a trail like this one---

I tripped, and took a face plant against a rock. What a klutz!!

Looks worse than it is, but looks better than it did with the blood streaming down my face.

They do a lot of kayaking here (and my kayaking buddies will be interested to know that they only use the Corsica kayaks like mine, or Prijons, or other larger boats. I guess the trend to small play boats that we have back home never caught on here.  They also do a lot of hiking, canyoning, and climbing. The mountains certainly look like they would be fun for any of those activities.

As I said before, the entire center of Corsica is mountains. They are really popular with motorcycle riders who come to explore the tight little roads and to ride up and over the passes.

Some of the mountains still have a little snow on them. What they don't have, though, is wildlife. I miss that, especially after my trip to Alaska last summer. Oh, they have signs warning of of deer, but I never once saw a live mammal other than some wild bikers. Here is the only wild creature I saw---

What do you think this is? I'm not real sure myself, but there were sure a lot of thank you notes to Saint Mary there. Maybe they are from people who are glad they survived the roads.

I enjoyed Corsica a lot, and I went about everywhere there was to go on the island. But now, it is time to head on south to Sardinia. No stateroom this time because it is only a one hour ferry ride.

More later from Sardinia,
Ron