As usual, one day doing nothing is more than enough for us, and so we left the beach and continued on the SP66 south.

As usual, one day doing nothing is more than enough for us, and so we left the beach and continued on the SP66 south.
This road ends in a gravel road that goes over to a hard sand road. It brings us to the Dune di Piscinas.
A dune formation at the coast that makes you think you are in a desert. Some dunes are enormous. Well worth for a walk.

Continuing the track brings us along ruins of the many silver and lead mining sited Sardinia had.

At Naracauli we had to make a decision. Either continue the track I had planned, going back to the coast off-road, or heading inland to visit an other archaeological site.
We opted for the second one and headed towards Antas for the remains of a Roman temple.

As it was pretty late in the afternoon when we left Antas, we opted not to loose time in searching a campsite but headed over to a camping near Portixeddu, so we could have a nice warm shower.

Next morning we headed for Capo Pecora, not that special, but it has a great viewpoint. We notices several other 4×4’s and campingcars that spent the night there.
That was also our plan, but it was to crowdy to our liking, so we headed south and see what comes before us.
We went a little further south of Cala Domestica, passing several very nice looking beaches, but all pretty crowded, and no option to stay the night.
On the map we found a track heading to the sea, ending at a height of 30 at the coast, and gave it a go.
At a certain point, where we had a change to turn around easily, we went scouting firs to check if the track will be doable.
Apart from deep grooves the track was ok but should be taken at ease. Until there was a drop of at least 50cm. No way to go around it, and down might have worked, but getting back up, certainly was a no go. Turning at that point was also a no go, so we did well in scouting first.

We didn’t want to spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a campsite, and since heading south showed on the map no desolated places with a nice view for a long distance, we headed back north.
We had to drive back to Capo Pecora, where at the end it was still pretty crowdy. While driving to the end the co-pilot spotted a track, not on the map, but apparently going to to coastline.
And indeed, we could park Olli at a few meters from the shore, no other campers around us. Since we converted this trip to a relaxing beach holiday, we stayed for two nights.

The next place to stop would have been Sant Antioco, but we ran out of Aspen 4. The fuel for our Coleman cooking device. Searching the internet gave us a selling point in Carbonia. Luckily not a big detour.
At Sant Antioco we stopped for a city walk and have lunch in one of the advised restaurants in our little tourist guide.
If you happen to go to Sardinia, do try the very very good sweet desserts.

We decided to take a tour around the little island and sleep somewhere along the coast. At one of the little tracks we took in search for a place we encountered at a dead end 2 cars and 4 youngsters. It seemed one of them had driven over some rocks and ripped his carter pan open. His friend had a tow bar, but no pulling point, so they were very happy to see us coming.
They didn’t speak English or French, we no Italian, but never the less we managed to communicate and pulled him back to the road. We have no pictures of the road, but believe us, we wouldn’t dare to take it with a regular car, the more the track had steep descents.

Time was ticking and sun setting, so we had to find something soon. Near Cala Sapone we found a great spot on a cliff with a great view. Once the sun was down, the creatures of the night awoken. This was the first time we had to fight so many mosquitos.

Getting in the water here was a no go so next morning we continued our tour around the island. Along the track we took, we saw several very nice beaches, but all exploited for tourism and very crowded. The fact it was Sunday was noticeable. One of the dirt racks took us to one of the “giant graves” Several are found on Sardinia and are a burial site and temple from the bronze age.

Once of the island we headed for Santadi to visit the cave Grotta Is Zuddas. An amazing cave, well worth a visit. Check the visiting ours before you go, as you can only enter with a guided tour.

Our tourist guide mentioned the white dunes near Arresi. These can only be visited from end of June until mid September, as the only way to get there is via a military domain. Seems crossing military domains is a constant during our trips, only this time, it was allowed.
The dunes itself are not that special. Just like our Belgian Dunes, no more, no less, but maybe special for those who don’t know our Belgian coastline.

It was time to have a good shower, so we headed towards a camping. We found a very good one, not expensive at Porto Tramatzu. It had a very nice beach and so we decided to stay 2 nights.

Back on the road we headed for the capital, Cagliari. Not that much to see, a very busy city, but when you go up to the Castello it’s less noisy and you get a great view over the city and the harbour.

After a short walk and dinner we decided to hit the road along the coast and find our next campsite. We noticed we’re getting more and more at the touristic side of Sardinia, and desolated placed get sparse.
And then you are happy you travel with a 4×4 and don’t mind a scratch or two.
At the most South-East point we found, after going through a narrow uneven track, a great spot. It was not save to go in to the water due to the rocks and wilder sea, but it would do just great to spent the rest of the day here and stay overnight.
One night was more than enough, we planned to stay until noon, prepare lunch and then to continue up north.

Some Random photos.

Download file: Sardinia_driven.gpx