Standing dripping in the bath, just like Botticelli’s Venus (who am I kidding?!) last Friday, I realised that this was going to be my last bath for quite some time. Yes folks, we were hitting the road the next day, though I must admit we were going to cheat at the start, as we were flying to Sardinia, where we had left Bertie the Bimobil, in Sofia’s tender care.
We’d had a great time at home: I’m actually one of those strange people who love Christmas, I think we may be a dying breed, as people seem to get more and more stressed about it. But I just love it as a time when the world slows down, people are kinder to each other and spend more quality time together. Yes I know there is massive commercialisation but I try to ignore that and just enjoy being with my family and friends. And get horribly fat……!
So loads of catching up with family and friends, from here, there, all over the place. A good time and now, after a few days grace at Sofia’s, back to the road, goodbye bath, hallo chilly showers!
We arrived on a cloudy, chilly day and promptly lit a log fire at Sofia’s house. Hmmm…….not much difference there but the next day was warm and sunny and so it continued.
There has been no significant rainfall in Sardinia since last March and farmers, like Sofia’s partner Carlo are beginning to become concerned. The land is difficult enough to farm as it is but the lack of rain makes it even more challenging to grow crops. Needless to say, it didn’t bother us in the slightest as we soaked up the rays and reacquainted ourselves with Aperol and Ichnusa beer. How shallow we are!
Lottie the Land Rover was unleashed from Bertie and went off to have her annual service. We paid the bill, wincing slightly but realising that it was only once a year and we need to keep her in good nick. She duly performed in fine style as we took a ‘short cut’ back from the coast on Sofia’s birthday.
Remember those short cuts or scenic routes? Yes, we were back on those bendy mountain roads…We couldn’t believe our eyes when the yellow main road suddenly turned into a dirt track full of the most enormous holes and we went up and up and round and round. Poor Sofia was lurching around with Lily the dog in the back of Lottie. What do you do with your daughter on her birthday when she is feeling unwell? You take her up a mountain pass and bounce her around like a loose spring, rattling all her teeth in their sockets, that’s what you do. Carlo described it as the road that never ends. He was right. We all survived, largely through descending into hysterical laughter as the next bend or set of holes materialised. It was a short cut………..but it took a lot longer!
Another lunchtime, we sat in the sun on one of Cagliari’s lovely beaches enjoying the beautiful view and sunshine. I’d earlier been amused by the sight of an elderly person appearing to wrestle with a fishing buoy for a very long time indeed. It gradually dawned on me that he wasn’t wrestling but doing some form of exercise as he twisted this way and that. Then lo, as we sat there, three figures appeared in wet suits trotting slowly but surely through the water in a single line, it was a very strange sight. As I looked at these two ladies bouncing along behind this chap, I realised they were doing some form of callisthenics or aquafit as we’d call it now… Very odd but very hard work too.
Up on Carlo’s farm, the sun continued to shine and the mountains loomed above in the sun. The quiet was broken by the sound of the bells on the grazing sheep and on Sunday, by huntsmen as they hunted the wild boar which live in these parts. We were lucky enough to see a couple of boars as they came down to the small lake to drink; they’re big blighters I wouldn’t like to get the wrong side of them! They make nice sausages though, their meat I mean, not them, their trotters couldn’t cope…..
Cagliari itself is a pleasant town, we had a walk around one afternoon, admiring the city centre. I managed to make a grand entrance into a rather posh coffee and tea shop, falling onto all fours down a little step which I hadn’t seen in the dim surroundings with my sunglasses on. What a twit I felt but people were very kind, as they tend to be in Sardinia.
So now I’m on the ferry sailing to Palermo where the adventures will continue. We have a pleasant cabin, thought it’s rather offputting to have a strange man coughing inches away from one’s head on the other side of a very narrow wall…..Roll on Sicily.