Sardinia
One of my treats and something that either keeps my young thinking, or indulges it, is motorbikes. This ticks all my boxes, travel, road trips, adventure, speed and adrenaline. Motorbikes are like skiing for me. I am not that good at it, so I have to really concentrate. Just like skiing you are never more than a moment away from a mishap. The total focus required forces you to switch off from the everyday distractions of life. Somehow this is strangely relaxing. One becomes totally involved with the environment, the sensory overload of speed and forces of gravity through bends, the surrounding environment, the extra oxygen forced into your airways. All this triggers a feel-good dopamine release for me and many other riders.
For the last few years, a fixed item in the diary is an annual motorbike adventure, this has included Devon and Cornwall, the Scottish Highlands and Outer Hebrides. This year we wanted somewhere warm and equally spectacular. In the planning we settled on Sardinia.
September came around and waiting for the normal tourist peak to end we set off towards Sardinia. I have been a few times before and collectively we all had on the ground experience. This was enhanced by some locals who now lived in London. All in all this rolled up into what was becoming a slick near military planning operation. We all picked favourite locations down to specific restaurants, beaches roads etc and we arrived at Olibia in Sardinia almost running to the taxis and the nearby bike hire shop. We quickly changed into bike gear and got on the prebooked bikes. We had deliberately chosen different bikes, so we could swap with each other and have different riding experiences. Between us we had two Ducati’s and a BMW.
My Ducati was beautiful, gorgeous to look at shining red and black. I had barely sat on it and I was in love. Like a first date with a beautiful woman, you feel lucky to be with, and the date goes incredibly well. I felt at one with my bike and so happy in that moment. Now I must say that I did get out of practice on bikes for a few years and developed a bit of unfortunate habit on new bikes, of falling off one day one! Eek! So all of us are a little nervous until the end of day one, and as one, collectively with a laugh and breathe a sigh of relief when day 1 is over. This year, no dramas like that thank goodness!
So the trip, who knew Sardina was the perfect location for a motorbike adventure? Empty good condition roads. Twisting along beautiful azure coastal seascapes and through spectacular mountains. After a week I felt like we were in motorbike heaven. Our goal was a circuit of the island which by the way is very huge. We took the old longer routes to make the most of the bends and views. Every day was a golden day in my vocabulary. Full of exhilarating rides, sunshine great seafood and usually something memorable. One beach day saw a poor lady get a bee sting and then an anaphylactic shock, needing a helicopter airlift and a doctor being winched onto the beach to treat the lady and then she was finally ‘medevacked’ of to hospital. Meanwhile yours truly knee deep in the water amongst the other beachgoers looking on bemused at the skill of the pilot and the sheer drama of it all.
One of my favourite restaurants is Mabrouk in Alghero, they do an unbelievable Catalan lobster dish, but through bad diary management we were in Alghero on it was day closed! Very sad to miss that. Must come back to do that one again with more precise planning. However, another must do was later in the trip, Luigi Pommata in Cagliari. More on that later.
The coastal drive from Alghero to Bossa is just like driving down Big Sur on Highway One in California. High cliffs, lonely road, spectacular drops, and endless azure sea for our companion the whole way. The road seemed endlessly twisting and you get into a sub conscious rhythm of smoothly leaning in alternative directions with each interlinked tarmac turn. On some very tight turns, almost seeming to lean flat, shoe toes grazing the hard road. Confidence grows and grows and gravity and the ever-lovely Ducati bringing me safely and sure footed through each high speed navigation. When the road straightens, a twist on the right hand through the throttle, and the engine opens up and roars forward through the gears with an appropriate growl from the exhaust. Bliss! After a couple of hours, we reached the neat little harbour in Bossa, parked the bikes up and settled into a cosy little seafood ristorante for another ridiculously good lunch and chatted about the ride that morning.
Heading into the mountains we stopped off in Villagrande, apparently a UN longevity observation centre where the extended life span is understudy. My conclusion after a few hours there, party hard! They do that big time. We had an enormous feast and lots of wine and then went for lots and lots of drinks with our local hosts. We also had the contraband cheese, Casu Marzu (literally rotten cheese). Its illegal, and totally banned by the EU. However, with some foodie skulduggery we got to try the local cheese, that has live maggots in it. Wriggly around very visbly in the cheese. It tastes like a strong stilton. I had tried it before. All in all a great night which wound up with nightcaps around 2.30am. Slightly abraded the next day form the alcohol, but no obvious after effect from the cheese, we hired a boat for the day and self-drove all the way up the spectacular coast. Stunning blue sea, huge cliffs, and mountains really amazing day, truly golden and impossible to improve on.
Later in the trip, in Cagliari we visited Luigi Pommata Restaurant. It had been a long hot ( sweaty) day on the bike, a fresh was needed before the restaurant. A local barber took care of that and slightly shinier we went for Lunch. Luigi is famous and he happened to be stood outside just before service. I engaged him in conversation and even did a mini video interview. Luigi is known as the King of Tuna. He does thing no one else does. He is brilliant, funny and a great host. We had a modest amount of wine and hard to drive on to the hotel, two hours further in the dark through some barely lit country. We were very relived to finally reach our hotel at midnight, safely!
The next day we headed north on the final part of island circle. All around were lagoons covered in flashy pink flamingos. Another feast for the eyes. Sardinia remains stunning to all your senses. It’s the all round wow that keeps me coming back here.
Exhilarated, relaxed, sun bronzed and fitter with the exercise of 1000km on hard roads, I was refreshed and ready for life again. Strangely renewed by the adventure and stronger drive for daily action I continually seem to design into my life.