The destination for our next day’s adventure was a bronze-age settlement in a big limestone cave called Tiscali.

To get there we had to navigate around several closed roads and drive along some improbable dirt tracks in our rental car.  Then we had to hike up to an enormous cave at the top of a very steep limestone cliff.

It was great adventure and the weather was warm and dry.  We saw lots of wild flowers and even managed to stop on the way home for gelato and espresso!

The next day we made a much longer drive to visit the town of Orgosolo.  This town is famous for its murals which have been painted ever since the 1960’s.

Many of the murals have an anti-war sentiment, and they are both colorful and creative. They are all over the town and can be seen best by simply wandering around at random amongst the old buildings of this mountain town.

At the end of the day we stopped for gelato and espresso, and enjoyed watching the world go by.

After a week of hiking in Sardinia we still had another week to explore the island.  We started out with a trip to the Gola di Gorropu, which is a natural limestone gorge to the north-west of where we had been hiking.  

The drive to the gorge was breathtaking with many steep mountain passes and narrow roads, and the last few miles required us to hike down to the gorge by foot.  The water level was quite high so in places we had to wade along the path in the gorge and the water was very, very cold!

On our way home we stopped at the town of Urzulei where we wandered around for a few hours.  The mountain town had some great old buildings and a few impressive murals of life in the hinterland of Sardinia.

Last weekend we enjoyed a weekend together in southern New Hampshire.  On Saturday we visited the town of Peterborough and looked around, and in the evening we went to the ‘Capitol Center for the Arts’ in Concord to see John Prine in concert.  It has been several years since we saw him perform and we were not disappointed.  He played many of his classic tunes and also a selection from his new album.  For a man in his seventies he puts on a great concert and he is still very sharp-whitted and humorous.

On Sunday were drove another 40 minutes north to Winslow State Park where we were able to check-off another of the “52 With A  View” peaks.  Mount Kearsage is an easy walk of only about 1.5 miles each way, but the views from the top are spectacular.  We arrived before it got too hot and before the crowds arrived.  We were back in Connecticut in time for tea and were able to pick gooseberries before dinner.

Earlier in the week we had seen the pinnacle of Pedra Longa, and on our last day with our guide Michele we scrambled to the top to enjoy the unique viewpoint that it offered.  The sun shone and the seas were blue, and all was well with the world!

Then, to finish off our week with Michele, Alberto, Lory, and Elaina, we went out for lunch at a local beachside cafe.  We enjoyed telling stories about our adventures in Sardinia and we dined on some excellent local pizza and beer.

The weather on Day-8 was even better than the day before, and we were able to travel by boat to the trailhead because the seas were much calmer.  On the  way we saw lots of impressive limestone cliffs and a rare waterfall, and we were dropped off on a beautiful beach to start the day’s hike.

The hike started with a steep climb up, a traverse along narrow ledges, followed by some more climbing, and more traversing high above the ocean. We saw a wild boar (no one got a photo) and lots of goats.

To finish the day we rappelled over an overhanging cliff back down to a secluded beach with clear blue water.  The sun shone and we enjoyed relaxing on the beach before being picked up by the boat and ferried back to town.

Once we were back in town we celebrated our trip with few beers down by the harbor.

For the past 10-days we have had turtles in our yard every morning. We think that they are coming from a nearby pond and are 'nesting' (looking for a place to lay their eggs). Needless to say, Zealand is very intrigued by them…..they are almost as big as he is!

The next day dawned much like the previous few days.  By now we knew that the best weather was in the morning and the rain would arrive in the afternoon.  We headed out early and started with an ascent of a peak via fantastic a limestone pavement and cliff formations.  Again, we utilized the precarious looking wooden steps and ladders built by shepherds hundreds of year before our arrival.

From the summit we descended by a series of rappels over impressive overhangs.  One of these ended up in a huge bramble patch and we were all nursing scratched legs by the end of the day.   Finally, we hiked down to the coast via a rough path that gave us views of “Pedra Longa” a free standing pinnacle just off the coast.

The next day we headed back to the coast (by Landrover) and picked up the Selvaggio Blu Extreme trail.  There were patches of blue sky, but also lots of clouds swirling around us.

Today’s route involved rappelling (abseiling) down the cliff face to reach a series of ledges which we then scrambled and hiked along.  This included climbing down an ancient shepherd’s ladder made from an old tree trunk.  After passing though a couple of natural stone arches we reached a series of caves down by the sea.  We then traversed along rock ledges just above the crashing waves to finish our day’s adventure.

It was a great day and the rain held off until we were hiking back up to the Landrover from the coast. But that didn’t matter because we had dry clothes to change into and a warm bed to sleep in.

The next day we awoke to more rain.  Whilst Michele made some more phone calls we ate a fantastic homemade breakfast of fresh baked bread, local salami, honey, and freshly-made goats milk cheese.  And strong coffee too!

The poor weather was predicted to last for a few more days, so a change of plans was needed.  Our guide managed to find us some indoor accommodation for the rest of the week.  We would use this as our home base and then make day trips to explore the Selvaggio Blue route.  We could get wet during the daytime and have a place to dry-off and get warm in the evenings.

The rest of the day was spent relocating to our new accommodations, drying out, and getting ready for the remainder of the week’s hiking.