Autor: Ania

Sardinia Day 3: Capo Testa, Santa Teresa di Gallura, Roccia dell’Orso

Another action packed day started with a visit to Capo Testa, the most amazing cape at north-east of the island. The views were amazing, with all the boulders and rocks scattered around the shore and inland the cape. Clouds, wind and general gloominess only added to the mood of exceptionality of the place. Yet again, the powers of nature astounded me and left me out humbled by their intensity.

Except for hopping over pebbles, climbing huge rocks, navigating between narrow passages, mounting to a viewpoint tower and fighting the wind, we also enjoyed the views and fresh sea breeze. It’s a must-see place if you’re on Sardinia.

From Capo Testa we moved to a neighbouring town of Santa Teresa di Gallura. We spent most of the time at the beautiful Spiagia Rena Bianca beach that looked like a picture from a travel magazine. Soft white sand, turquoise waters and green hills surrounded us and gentle waves soothed us as we sat down bare feet in the sun rays.

Our last attraction for the day was a bear-shaped rock called Roccia dell’Orso and a nearby Pallau town. The granite carved by the wind sits high up on a hill overlooking the sea and the inland. Not really bear-looking in a close-up, but still magnificent site gave us lots of fun as we grabbed tight to the barriers so that we were not knocked down by the wind. As a result we have wide grins and funny looking hair in the photos 🙂

Looking forward to day 4!

Sardinia Day 2: Cagliari, Iglesias, Nebida

Our second day of Sardinia adventure was the most serious one in terms of distance travelled, as we drove to the south of the island to see two cities and a natural resort. We started with Cagliari, a big city build around a citadel on a hill. The real reason behind it was probably defence system but years later tourist benefit a lot from this solution by having a picture-postcard view on the city.

We started our tour by the citadel from where we wandered down through narrow streets to Torre dell’Elefante which is a defence tower elevating over the city. Between we stopped for a coffe (Italy, right?) and popped in a couple of churches and a basilica. The city seemed quiet and ancient. The mood was Roman-like.

There are a couple of defense towers scattered all over the city, we chose the one in the centre that would give us a 360° glance around. 

From there we did a short walk on cobblestone streets around the city to reach the remains of Roman amphiteatre and back to the car.

Our next destination was Iglesias – a historic town with no sea line. The description in the guide said it was a city that bubbles in summer and slumbers in colder months. I’d say it was more of a coma than a nap but OK 🙂 We had additional bad luck since we reached it during siesta time so not only there were no people but also everything was closed. So we had no other choice than to wander around super narrow, dark and shabby alleys without any other entertainment than our own presence.

We somehow managed to free ourselves from the labyrinth of the lanes and got to the castle. Or what’s left of it… A short walk up the hill through bushes and we were able to see the ruins.

To sum our trip to Iglesias – it didn’t stand up to to my expectations but to give it its justice, I guess in the high season it would have been way better.  But the next place truly wowed us. Only a couple of minutes away from Iglesias, Nebida is the place to see. Mesmerizing views from a panoramic viewing point above the cliff and a mighty Scoglio Pan di Zucchero (Sugarloaf Rock) standing out from the sea make this place truly special. Restless water, white, yeasty waves, dull and overwhelming clouds – it all contributed to the mood of awe and respect to the nature. We all felt like hipnotized by the charm of this place. See yourself.

Sardinia Day 1: Porto Cervo and Olbia

Yey! Holiday time! Oh, I’ve been waiting for this week to come. Sardinia, here we come! We haven’t been on proper vacation for a couple of years now so we decided it’s hight time for a week off. We chose Sardinia because it’s close to us and looks like fun for nature, mountains and sea lovers.
When we landed we headed straight to Porto Cervo – a lovely little place where nearly everyone own a boat 🙂 Coming from cold and windy Geneva, it was a pleasant change to us to bask in the sun and taking in the peace and quiet of the surroundings.

In high season Porto Cervo is an eldorado for the rich. Super fancy boutiques lined down the Piazzetta were now closed and the whole town seemed secluded. We wandered around, had a look at Stella Maris church, local marina and Roman-style streets and sat down to have pizza and Prosecco wine. We’re in Italy in the end, aren’t we? 🙂

On our way to Olbia where my mom would land, we stopped by to have a look at the sea. The smiles on our faces tell the story best 🙂

In Olbia we had enough time to have a stroll around the old city. It was nice and busy – some alternative to deserted Porto Cervo.

In only half a day we got a gist what would wait for us in the coming week. Some lovely sea-side villages, beautiful marinas, Roman style cities, mountains and sea, sea, sea… Can’t wait for the next days to come!

Discovering France in winter

This year’s winter passed so quickly! It wasn’t the fircest one (actually it wasn’t fierce at all) and now the world starts to bloom. Due to the fact that we started skiing we didn’t have much time to do short trips around but I manged to collect a couple of photos mostly from my (or neighbouring) village. here they are.

Challex:

Saint Genis Pouilly:

Annecy:

Tete de Bostan (2406 m)

Our first big hike this season -Tete de Bostan. We’re gaining elevations gradually, 2406 m is already pretty high up so I can’t wait for the rest of the season to see if we are able to beat our record. I saw photos from Tete de Bostan on my friend’s FB and immediately decided I wanna go there. I knew it would be a challenge with nearly 1400m of elevation gain but couldn’t resist anyway. Especially after our previous hike that was not very satisfactory when it comes to length.

Before having challenged the mountain, as usual I checked the opinions and conditions on route. One guy wrote: „It sure is one long ridge”. I seriously can’t argue with that! This mountain has like 3 false summits! You think it’s there, you can see your destination, you’re approaching with the rest of your powers only to learn that it’s not there and you have like another hundred of meters to cover. A bit annoying 🙂 For example look at the photo below where I am pointing to what turned out not be our destination and Radek pointing to the real Tete de Bostan.

We had a very nice weather that day. The sun was frying us and we got some really nice tan despite having put factor 50 of sun block 🙂 And the views were rewarding throughout almost all of the hike.

Final meters were tough to me but I was making a steady progress because I was curious of the vertigo-building line right before the summit (see photo below).

We were right on time on the top as soon after we did some photos the weather changed and became clouded. Going down was frustrating. We shared our route up with lots of ski tourers and every time I saw them I was envy they had skis and I didn’t. I mean, I know I probably don’t have enough skill to ski down such a slope but it would have made everything so much easier! I have no doubts that ski touring will become my thing soon! But for now – long and tedious way down on snowshoes.

Pointe de Bellevue (2041 m)

I really longed for a proper hike and was very excited about the one we were supposed to have that day. But I also chickened out a bit and settled for a not-so-challenging route which turned out to be a mistake. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the hike was very nice but I had a bit of a feeling of dissatisfaction afterwards – like I wanted more that day but the route had finished… Anyway, we will have a chance to have another one so nothing’s lost.
But to the point – our destination: Pointe de Bellevue – which in translation would be Peak of Beautiful View. It really was, but I’ll get to that later.
We started our hike on a very steep meadow where we gained elevation super quickly. It wasn’t a real trail, we just crossed the field where convenient for us. We didn’t intend it, we were following someone else’s gpx track that had been named as the official route. Bummer.

What I liked most about this hike was the constant presence of Dents du Midi. Most of the hikes we do here are more in vicinity of Mont Blanc. It’s funny because every time I see Mont Blanc it tempts me to climb it some day. And when I was close to Dents du Midi it made me wanna hike them again since last time we were there we didn’t have perfect conditions and it’s this kind of mountain that you wanna see crystal clear all around you.
Back to Pointe de Bellevue – our route there was pretty easy and as soon as we left the grassy steep hill behind us, we equipped our snowshoes and continue along the slopes straight to the top. From there we had a really nice view around the valleys and to the surrounding tops. Although there was no sunshine, we could see as far as the Italian mountains.

It was pretty windy up there so after a couple of photo shots we continued our hike down the marked trail to the ski station, where we took the already known off track path. It was a nice walk but made me want a bit more.

Stats: Max altitude: 2041m; elevation gain: 800m; Length: 7.3 km; Duration: 3h 40min

Our last skiing outing this year: Espace Diamant

Our first outing together as a marriage and at the same time our last outing this year… In any case – an important day! We set off to Espace Diamant resort – one of the biggest in the area. We were both really looking forward to this day and the fact that we had had to wait for such a long time to ski together was rewarded by the most beautiful day in the mountains! The sky was cloudless and we could see as far as the horizon let us.

I really enjoyed the freedom of choice when skiing with my husband. By that I mean the freedom of routes, freedom of speed, freedom of timeline etc. Although the conditions were already so-so due to spring temperatures, it was a very nice day for us. Our lunch break was a cherry on a pie to all of that. We stopped at the most beautiful restaurant with an amazing views over the Alps. When we finished our meal at the table we moved over to sun loungers. The sun was literally frying us and it was such a blissful moment.

We were planning to go skiing again this season but due to really high temperatures, snow is not the best for skiing now and we prefer to use up our free days in a different way. But we are looking forward to the next season. Wherever we are next winter, we will find a way to ski together again.

Check out the movie we filmed during this beautiful day:

Plateau des Glières (1782 m) on snowshoes

At last! Clear blue skies, lots of sun, lots of snow and mountains. Liking it… No… Loving it 🙂
We set off for our second hike this year and it was a blast this time. We headed for Chalets des Auges and in order to reach them we needed to traverse the Plateau des Glières which opened a magnificent view over the Aravis mountains. Simply stunning, but we’ll get there in a moment.

We set off from Col des Glieres where nordic skiers have their earth paradise. It looked really awesome with all the routes prepared for amateurs of winter fun. We never got into nordic skiing but who knows what will happen in the future!

The route was pretty straightforward (I always choose easy ones when we go with our son on the back). Except for a pretty steep section in the woods, it was all nice and neat. When we reached the plateau the views took our breath away. It was fun to have a look at the chain and to recognize the mountains we had already hiked.

Once on the plateau, we did a short walk to Chalets des Auges (1782 m), took a few other photos and went back to the car by the same route. It really was a very nice family hike for us.

Stats: Length: 7 km; Elevation gain: 400m; Duration: 3h