Sardinia
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5. Windmills
After this introductory morning biking
along the west coast of northern Sardinia we headed south,
where Roberto's trails were waiting for us. It was a 300
km drive and we still wanted to carry out a short ride to
Monte Archi in the same day. But our car messed up our
planes a bit. We were driving along an endless plain just outside
Sassari, when our breaks started whining like crazy. We
had to stop and take the wheels off the car in order to
see what was wrong. One disc of a brake was extremely hot
and it looked like a small stone had found the way between
the disc and the brake pads. Well, nothing was seriously
wrong, we just had to wait for the break to cool down...
Later when we were approaching Monte Archi,
we could see it from a distance. It was quite a rising in
the middle of the plain around Oristano. But the starting
point - S. Maria Zaurbara Church - was not that easy to
find. The reason was our not that good Italian and new
roads in the area. So instead of starting at five as
we had planned, it was not until seven o'clock that we
were climbing Monte Archi. Of course we were caught by the
dark before we could descend on a promising singletrack on
the other side of the crest. So, we returned the way we
came on quite rough trail as the red sun was setting down. It
was more like a lottery ride in the dark, but we managed to
descend safely anyway.
Since it was too late to be looking for a
campsite, we decided to pitch a tent right there next to
the church, outside the stone wall. The church looked
deserted. But that was not the case at all, since there
was a spring nearby and there were people coming with cars
constantly to fill their water bottles. Of course we
instantly thought that the tap water was not drinkable,
but it was. The tap water in Sardinia is drinkable!
Still while we were cooking dinner, we
noticed that the wind was picking up. We did not pay too
much attention at the time, but we hardly fell asleep
because of the strong wind. And at 2 a.m. it looked that
our igloo tent would not survive the night. So, we had to
strike it and get everything in the car, including
ourselves. So, at 3 a.m. I was already with my legs around
the steering wheel and trying to get some sleep. Well,
after this incident it was clear to us why there were so
many windmills all along the crest of Monte Archi and why Sardinia
is also popular windsurfing destination.
In the morning the wind was still blowing
strong, so we left the foot of the windy mountain in a
rush and we had breakfast on the way to our second tour on
plateau of Giara, a high altitude plain 555 m above sea
level. Giara is a protected area, measuring 50 square kilometers. The terrain is mostly flat, but here are some nice
cart track and also singletracks. The whole territory is
connected by a macadam road. But that's not all, the reason
to visit this area is its wilderness - from periodic
lakes, wild horses to sheep and goats.
In Sardinia all domestic animals graze
freely, out of folds and enclosures. Pigs are especially
funny, since a lot of them have black curly hair. And they
are not afraid at all, they come closer if they smell
food. After a few rides, we found out that especially cows
looked at us with astonishment, as if we'd been from Mars
- on bikes and dressed in colorful clothes with helmets.
But they didn't bother about the cars passing by though. I
guess they probably didn't see much mountain bikers.
There are also quite a lot of wild animals
in Sardinia as well - deer, mouflon, wild cat, etc. We
have heard gun shots of hunters several times and there
were cartridge cases everywhere, even though in the most
areas that we were riding through, hunting was strictly
forbidden. We also couldn't have not noticed that almost
all signposts that forbid hunting - "Divieto di Caccia"
were almost all shot through several times.
Sardinian vegetation is very much diverse.
It is mostly Mediterranean type with large areas covered
with pastures. Then you also have large limestone areas
which are bare and rocky on one hand (e.g. Mt. Supramonte)
and quite wet and lush areas on the other (e.g. north side
of Mt. Gennargentu).
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