We arrived in Cagliari a little late at 8am after a smooth crossing from Palermo. We had dinner on board with Terry and Cheryl. Cheryl has a good grasp of Italian and she put us straight on how to pronounce Cagliari. The ‘g’ is not really pronounced and you need to use the same sound as in
‘onion’, consequently, we have started substituting Onion for Cagliari whenever we say it.

Our hotel is not in town this time – only about 3 km out, but too far to walk. We dumped our gear at the hotel and rode back in to town. We found a little café down by the harbour for breakfast and ever eagle, eyed Kerrie discovered a poster on the wall about a Vespa and Lambretta Show and Shine happening just across the road. What beautiful, classic machines these are. Most were from the 1950’s and restored to a high degree. We spent an hour admiring the machines – not quite Sport’s Bike Sunday at Canungra – but close!

As usual, the main part of town was at the top of a hill. As Greg has a bit of a bug, we decided not to tackle the steps and hills and rode out around the coast for the rest of the day. On the way home we found a supermarket to purchase goodies for a Greggy dinner as there were no restaurants close to our hotel.

Our next stop was to be Portescuso, almost directly west of Cagliari but we rode along the south western coast to reach our destination. Greg was once again wishing he was on his Daytona as the road had sweeping curves that hugged the sides of the rolling hills. Lunch was at Sant’ Antioco, a little island attached to the main island of Sardinia by a bridge – very pretty little town. We could see the clouds darkening as we rode out after lunch and hoped we would reach our hotel in Portoscuso, only 12km away, before it rained – no such luck! We were damp when we arrived at our hotel but not drenched. 15 minutes later the sun was shining and the view from our hotel room was stunning.

Portescuso was to be a make and mend/rest day. I use the word rest but it involved a lot of walking checking out the town, Kerrie visiting the hairdresser and Greg catching up on his friend Google. We also intended doing some washing. Armed with a business card for the local self serve laundry we set out. When we found the correct address it was closed. We decided that there might have been a back entrance, so off we went. All we found was a little building with a man inside. Greg knocked on the door and the gentleman was only to keen to help us. So, he motioned for us to get in his car and kindly drove us back to the closed laundry. He then shrugged his shoulders, shook our hands and drove off. When we returned to the hotel still carrying our smelly clothes, the new man at the desk told us that the laundry was "kaput" but he did print out the address of several others in a town about 20km away - the clothes stayed dirty!

Portescuso is a 'summer' town. Most businesses were closed and we were told they would be open in a month. Nevertheless, we found Torre De Portescuso, a Spanish tower built from local stone in the 2nd half of the 16th century. It was built to defend the nearby 'Su Pranu' tuna fishing plant that is now a ruin still containing 3 wooden tuna fishing boats. The streets of Portescuso are spotless and the houses well maintained with flower pots by the doors. The locals were very friendly and often asked did we like Sardinia - very proud of their home.

Next morning we headed north to Oristano. Some days on a trip like this are for sightseeing, some are for resting, some are for seeing something new and learning something, some are for mending and washing clothes and some are for riding. Today was one of the riding days. The road hugged the coast to start with and then we hit the hills. We rode up and down two passes - Passo Genna Bogai and Passo Bidderdi - not very high, only around 500m but enough to be a rehearsal of the switchbacks for the Dolomites in a few weeks time. The road was great and the curves easy. No knees down but that is not easy fully loaded with the wife on the back. We reached Oristano about 1pm and finally found a self serve laundry close by. As the riding gear had not been washed since Athens, first stop was the laundry. We then spent the afternoon knocking off a bottle of Mateus Rose, cheese, salami and crackers while booking the accommodation for the next few days and the ferry to Corsica. This style of afternoon tea is not unusual for us when travelling with our friend Chris Pearson who will join us in England on May 21st for more riding together. Chris, the only thing missing from our afternoon tea was you.

Next was a walk around this new town. First stop was a church. This one was quite modest by Italian standards and seemed to be a 'working' church with people praying as opposed to the more elaborate Cathedral next door which was visited by tourists snapping photos. Oristano was surrounded by defensive walls built in the 13th century but only a small part of them is still visible.
Once again, this town was spotless and well maintained.

Our last stop in Sardinia is Olbia for 1 night. The ride to Olbia was cross country from the west to the north east. The surrounding countryside was mountainous and picturesque. The road surface smooth and easy to ride. Our hotel is supposed to be in the centre on Olbia - but it isn't so we bit the bullet and started walking towards the town center. It didn't take as long as we thought and the crepe and gelati that we consumed on the way may have made the walk more tolerable. We wandered around for about an hour before finding a place to have our last Ichnusa - 'Itchy' beer, we have really enjoyed this brew! Dinner tonight was in a little restaurant down a side alley. While having dinner there was a constant stream of traffic going passed about 2m from Greg's seat - drive through took on a whole new meaning.

The ferry to Corsica leaves at 10am so today is an earlier start than we have been having. The crossing will only take 50 minutes but cost us 72 Euro - quite expensive we think.

And so as we say arriverdicci to Sardinia we only have one question. If people from Rome are Romans and people from London are Londoners are people from Sardinia - Sardines?

We have thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Sardinia. The whole island is spotless, roads are smooth, the riding is interesting, the food delicious and the people proud and friendly. We would recommend a visit to you all.