We were up early this morning for our sunrise beach walk at Maladroxia. I think we surprised a lady in her pyjamas and coat who had thought to do the same, but was perhaps not expecting company.
We planned to go to Calasetta today at the northern end of Isola di Sant’Antioco. There are ferries from there to another smaller island of San Pietro, these did not appear to be running today, probably just as well as we are getting a bit addicted to ferry travel. We had stopped off on route for fresh supplies in Sant’Antioco town, so by the time we got to Calasetta it was nearly noon. We decided to have a walk around straight away before the big siesta lockdown and headed around the marina into town. Calasetta is one of the communities which were offering the €15k grants for people to move there, not that we are tempted but I think it made us a little intrigued what it was like.
The marina had more working boats than yachts, which is a good thing, this being a big area for tuna fishing. The grand steps from the harbour lead to the church and from there you are drawn west to the Torre Sabauda which peaks between the houses in the parallel streets. The tower overlooks a beautiful bay which even in the winter sunshine looked turquoise. Back down to the amusingly named Piazza Pietro Belly and along the main street. It was certainly fairly quiet, but children were playing football together in the square and there were a few people having coffee in the cafés. However it was pretty quiet. We stopped for a delicious expresso but you could see there was not the usual bustle of some of the more inland towns. It has a certain shabby chic though with its cast iron balconies on the houses etc but obviously it has a dwindling local population.
We decided to would try a beach park up on the west coast and set off on the 10 minute journey down the coast to the first one. There was already a van parked up, but there was not a great deal of beach left and parking had been curtailed by some hefty boulders. We stopped for lunch but decided to move on.
There were numerous options for remote beach / cliff top / wild camping spots and we ended up doing a tour of several through the afternoon which turned into a circumnavigation of the island. We got out and had a walk round each time, which the dogs very much enjoyed. There was sometimes tarmac on the route round, sometimes not. Mostly single track road with just scattered houses. I kept my eyes peeled for wild boar in the brush land, but sensibly with all the hunters round there was no signs. Although we did see an Osprey, our first Sardinian rabbit and several shepherd dogs, mostly laying around snoozing (one in the road!) in the beautiful 23 degree sunshine.
Eventually after quite a tour we decided our favourite option was where we stayed last night, so here we are again in Maladroxia, which despite sounding like some dreadful tropical illness is actually a really nice spot.
In for a Penney 