In which Sid and Doris ride away to holiday land, Neilson at Baia di Mori on Sardinia (you knew we were on Sardinia?).
Perhaps inspired by yesterday’s dawn raid on the SS125 we are up for 7.30 breakfast which is magnifico. We see more of the art that is a feature of the place. This includes a large motorbike, with fierce looking expansion chambers, and all the body panels reworked so the bike looks like a rusty shark which S declares to be ‘very artisticable fing’. And he should know. We liked more some of the paintings, and although they weren’t for sale that didn’t prevent Sid and Doris choosing one each for a #virtualsouvenir.
We had one final look at the view we had won and rode on. Rode on lovely tarmac that gives you wings. We rush small hills with a merry laugh. Ha, haha. Whoosh. This makes our 68k and 441 metres of climb an utter breeze.
Sardinia has some very large stone quarries. At one point the road ran along a causeway/spine left between two deep cuts with huge drops either side. There are huge blocks cut away, the size made clear here by comparison with the machinery in the picture. [If you look closely on the right hand side of the first picture, about halfway up ,you can see a full-sized digging/lifting machine looking absolutely tiny – D.]
This gives author Sid an easy segue into a picture that we should have had weeks ago, the Piaggio Ape (not pronounced ape, but Appay). These are the fore runner of the Bedford Rascal. One of these would surely grace any auto collection and come in handy for the gardener. These were taken at one of the most pleasingly chaotic little junctions we’ve seen since Sid and Doris sat with Robin Erswell in Marrakech.
This junction further marked out by an excellent graffito. Mr Banksy eat your socks and look to your bougainvillea, which is all around us here.
Between Orosei (coffee stop with Apes) and Pasada marina we stop to take on WADA disapproved sugary drinks. In Pasada we have a nitrogen packed panini left from our ferry foraging, so we are working our way through the first couple of rows of the periodic table.
Thanks to the earlier than usual start (Doris may opine here?) [I am silent – D.] we are not far from the resort by noon.
At this point we find ourselves riding with three gents wearing matching shirts on matching bikes that we guess are from our destination. Whenever two or more boats are sailing in company they may be taken to be racing. Happily one of these gents wishes to go quite quickly so Sid tows Doris up to him and we draft him for a while. Very satisfying, though he does get away and Sid’s heart rate had gone up to 140bpm.
After a little trip around Tanaunella we are into Neilsons’ holiday camp. We have a bungalow room designed for three people. We have a wall and a shelter for the Neddies. We are Vairy Happy.
Once clean we wander back to reception and meet Frosty, the base manager (no, not the Snowman). Have we stayed at Neilsons before? Oh, yes, Korcula in Croatia about 1997?- we loved it. Great, says Frosty, I ran that for the whole six years Neilsons had it. Welcome back. We have tennis coaching, mountain bikes, road bikes, a beach full of small sail boats with instructors, kayaks, pools, yoga, bars, much fud …
Already we have been to the beach, taken out a canoe each and made our number with the bike boys.
So far Sid and Doris have ridden 4,459 kilometres and managed 29,454 metres of climb (rather more than three times the height of Everest). We are doing nothing epic for a week, except planning the next epic adventure. This, we think, will see us cycle for a few days to Porto Torres on the north west coast of Sardinia for a Toulon-bound ferry. TTFN.
PS In these pictures Doris is modelling the Cyclists’ Tan (as well as the effect of 70 days’ cycling on the Vanishing Bottom). The tan is causing much good-humoured hilarity around the resort. Maybe it is just as well that we didn’t go to the Naked Diner.
