kwiecień 2015 – Like This Blog

Le Moléson (2002 m)

Holidays are over… High time to go back on the trails. I didn’t choose the itinerary for today, I guess I would have been less courageous myself 🙂 But Moléson was the mountain I had always wanted to hike. It’s just beside Gruyeres, my beloved village that I visit several times every year. Every time I was there I looked at the lonely peek with a sparkle in my eye. So when there was an opportunity to join a hike there I didn’t hesitate.

Although we’ve had good weather this year, it’s still April so mountains are still in snow. We learnt about it in a pretty painful way. Wet and heavy ground slowed us down, we had problems finding the path and most of all, we were constantly sliding. Some passages would not pose any difficulty in summer but today they were delicate and it even happened to Sergey that he lost the grip and slid down a couple of metres. Fortunately, he was able to somehow stop and nothing serious happened.

Not without a struggle, but we made it to the top from where we had a nice panorama over the Alps. The sky was clouded but clouds were high enough to let us see far and well. We made a lunch break, happy and not aware that even more struggle ahead of us 🙂
Whenever I can, I always do the routes that go in loops, I don’t like to trace back my footsteps on my way down. Today was no different. What I didn’t know was that the variant that was chosen for our descent was not really used in winter. At least we didn’t see any traces of hikers. It looked like the opening walk for these chemins and now I see why.
The path led on a ridge of a neighbouring mountain that looked like that:

I don’t have that much experience in winter hiking so I didn’t trust this overhanging snow. In fact, if it wasn’t for Sergey who went first and encouraged us to continue, I would have turned back. I did this passage with my heart in my mouth and felt seriously relieved when it was over. The rest of the route was substantially easier but not really a Sunday walk either. To cross all the snow fields was not an easy task and we moved rather slowly at times. At some point we lost the path and had to go downhill in the snow. I was glad we made it safely to our car.

Sardinia Day 7: Cala Gonone and Goodbye Orosei

Our last day on the marvel island… It went so quickly, I wish we had another week. We had been waiting to see the most famous beaches around (Cala Luna, Cala Goloritze etc.) until the last day. They can be reached by water or hiking on foot. We came to Cala Gonone full of hope that maybe today the wind would be a bit less fierce and would let us hop on a boat and paddle to one of those divine bays… But no… We had no luck and had to let it go. Radek didn’t feel like hiking, he just wanted to rest so I gave in and we spent most of the day chilling on the beach or around. See yourself.

While waiting for the wind to go away we visited Cala Gonone aquarium. The tanks were full of all kinds of tropical marvels. I like aquariums, I believe that the strangest creatures of our world live in depths of waters. It always puts me in awe and disbelief that such monsters live side by side with us.

Having checked yet one more time with a boat company whether it was possible to visit the beaches (nope, it wasn’t), we headed out to have lunch. We managed to find the sweetest spot to enjoy the Mediterranean way of life – a lovely patio on the verge of the sand. We stayed there considerably longer than the usual meal time and didn’t regret a minute!

We still didn’t have enough of the beach, after all we didn’t spend much time on the sand during the past week, so we crossed the fence and spent some time bathing in the sun and chilling. The inquestionable adventage of visiting places like that off season is the piece and quiet in not really secluded places like that.

Having lost all the hope for seeing Cala Luna (you clearly see my disappointment), we came back to Orosei to have a walk around. It would be funny to live there and not to see the place. Orosei is not super touristic, it’s more of a small town than a holiday resort, but we still enjoyed it.

We finished the day and the whole trip by saying goodbye to the sea. Farewell Sardinia, you’ve brought us a lot of joy.

Sardinia Day 6: Capo Caccia, Grotta di Nettuno, Alghero, Bosa

Day 6 was yet another busy day in our Sardinia trip schedule. We started driving east to Capo Caccia where high white cliffs stand out directly from water giving a breathtaking panorama over the Mediterranean and offshore islands. Another attraction of this place was Grotta di Nettuno – „an underground fairyland of stalactites and stalagmites”. We chose the more difficult way to get there – on foot by a 656-step staircase of 110m height. We got pretty tired in the morning sun while going down. I don’t have to mention that the way up was even more of a challenge.

The cave itself was pretty interesting – caves usually are to me. Maybe not the most spectacular cave I’ve ever seen but sure worth visiting.

From Capo Caccia we moved to Alghero – a big, touristic resort with beautiful old town and rocky sealine. It was a nice change to have people and open restaurants around. We had a nice walk through the old town and the seaside boulevard, we popped in a couple of tourists shops, grabbed ice cream and some refreshments on our way – in summary: normal holiday stuff. It felt nice.

Our last destination for the day was Bosa. I was lurked in to this place by postcard-like photos of the marina. Well, I learned that they were photoshopped a bit more than I expected but I won’t complain. We were already tired in Bosa and didn’t feel like doing the full tour of the city so we just strolled around and sat down for dinner. What was nice though was the road that led us to this tiny little place. We were going directly above the sea line and could admire the rugged shore. I recommend taking this route, it was truly spectacular. We didn’t stop by for views to often though as we didn’t want to wake up Wojtek. The views stay in our heads.

Sardinia Day 5: Tiscali

The very same day we went to visit Gorroppu canyon, we rushed up to the neighbouring Tiscali site. We were a bit tired after marching down and up and all the bouldering we did, nevertheless we wanted to see the so-advertised Tiscali site.
Tiscali is an ancient and pretty mysterious nuraghic site that dates back to the 6th century BC. Noone knows exactly why people settled in so high in the mountains but the remains of their village are to be seen up to this day.
Hiking to Tiscali was pretty easy and not too long with parts completely flat so we had a pretty good pace. The views were nothing fantastic to me but I’m spoiled by the Alps. On our way up we went past yet another archaeological gem – Domus de Jana – which looked like a cave shelter for someone pretty small. It was hidden among blossoming flowers and turpentine trees – a Flinstone-like look indeed.

To be honest, the site disappointed me greatly. I’m not an archeology lover, perhaps Andrzej Pilipiuk would have liked it better, but to me it was a bit boring and the fact they made me buy a ticket to see this was rather upsetting. The remains of the village are scarcely visible as all of the interesting stuff has been destroyed by raiders. The cave wall was nice but not worth 5 EUR. I also liked the twisted trees and the overall eery atmosphere of the place (no light, trees like ents etc) but I wasn’t blown away as I had thought I would be. Too bad.

Sardinia Day 5: Gola Su Gorroppu hike

The next day of our Sardinia trip was so action packed that i decided to split it to two posts. We were spending the day alone and the weather was good so we were able to squeeze in two hikes. We started from a Sardinia must – Gola Su Gorroppu Canyon.
This was a truly mesmerising hike first down to a canyon and then through the boulders and vertical walls of Su Gorroppu. We started from Silana hotel from where we continued a couple of kilometres down. It’s not often that you start hiking down, it’s quite tricky because you always need to keep powers to return to your car. In any case, the route to get to the canyon was already a nice walk.

We reached the entrance pretty early in the morning which was a good thing to do as later it became hotter and super crowded. The route is divided into three parts – easy, medium and difficult. The last one is advisable to be done with a guide and equipment. I’ll get to that soon 🙂

Even the easy part was already a fun scramble. We soon reached the famous 500 m climbing wall (that has the toughest climbing grade: 8b something – I’m not a prof on that). That was enormous and truly unbelievably beautiful. I felt like on shoot of Avatar movie with its fairylands. The two photos below show it best – can you see how small we are in the perspective?

We continued along the route and soon reached the red trail. We decided to keep on going as long as we manage. There was a couple in front of us that did the same, all the other tourists backed away as it really became super technical. In fact, I wouldn’t have made it alone, it was only thanks to Radek that was tall enough to reach certain ledges and later pull me up that I made it to the end. After a while we paired up with the other couple and continued together in joint efforts. It was seriously difficult at times, but nothing dangerous at least – no exposed places, no heights… When we reached the end of the canyon I was actually disappointed and was hoping for more. Pointe Percee – I am going to get you this year! 🙂

And the end:

We don’t have many photos from the red part of the trail as we needed our hands constantly but the ones we have show the deal 🙂 I recommend visiting this place with all my heart.

Sardinia Day 4: Punta la Marmora (1832m) and Su Barone Orosei

Happy Easter everybody! We’re spending this day by doing what we love the most – hiking. I mean, you saw it coming, right? Being on Sardinia and not to hike the highest mountain on the island? Naaaah 🙂
Punta la Marmora (1832 m) was supposed to be a walk in the park for us. Surprisingly… We didn’t make it to the top! You didn’t see this coming, right? I didn’t at least!

When we arrived at the car park it was below 0°C and the trail was covered with snow. We were below 1600 m over the sea level and the conditions were already bad. But OK, we enwrapped ourseleves with whatever at hand and set off on an adventure.
Almost immediately we started struggling with snow, cold and wind. In the beginning it was not too bad but with time the conditions became more and more difficult. Radek suffered from cold as he didn’t take his head band and needed to improvise by tying his shirt around the ears. I was lucky to have my gloves in the pocket.

We hiked below the ridge of the mountain, a bit on a side and the wind was already very very strong. When we reached a col the wind was almost unbearable. I needed to lean in against it so that I’m not knocked down. It was extreme, but terrain in this place was wide and safe so we decided to go past the col and continue on the side until we are closer to the top. But this plan didn’t work for long. The wind got only worse as we proceed and well, if you wanna reach the summit eventually you will have to hike up the ridge somewhere. When this moment came Radek went ahead to check out the conditions. He was like 10 meteres above me, crouching at the ridge and clinging to some rocks. I watched him struggling with wind and shouting to me something but I couldn’t hear a word. I was fighting myself not to be knocked down by the wind, I can’t imagine what it was like at the ridge. He showed me to turn back but I was afraid to move alone so I asked him to come down to me. He took a path behind the rock and for a minute or two I didn’t see him and it felt awful. Fortunately, he rejoined me after a moment and said that he hadn’t been able to stand up on the ridge due to very strong wind and we have no other choice to turn back. Well, it doesn’t happen often and I surely didn’t expect it on a T2 hike on Sardinia! But it was an extreme experience for us and I took the lesson that one should always be humble in mountains because in the end it’s often the mountain that decides if you will be able to reach the summit or not.

As we reached our car it started to rain and the weather stayed unsure untill the end of the day. In the evening we ventured a walk on the Su Barone Orosei beach where we took a couple of wet drops on our heads but nothing too serious.

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!