[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

[lightcycle]

Oristano. Very pretty, but we don't spend much time here.

We're feeling a little bit tired. I think we're going to call it a day and stop somewhere around here. Yes, I know. We've only gone about 120 kms today and we're already done. Ride for a couple of hours, rest for a couple of days. This travel fatigue is kind of getting out of hand...

So we tried to book a place in Oristano for the evening, but we can't find the same deal we got in Alghero. Too expensive. Instead, we ride about 20 minutes outside of town to stay on a farm just outside the town of Marrubiu.

The couple that owns the farm has a couple of guest suites on site that they rent out to tourists

Surrounded by all this nature, it turned out to be a much more picturesque place to stay than in the city. We just had to ride a bit into the neighbouring town to grab some groceries, since there was absolutely nothing around us.

Preparing to leave the next morning... is it my imagination or is it getting warmer?

Sardinia is not that big, only slightly larger than Corsica at 260 kms lengthwise. So I'm not sure if this warmer weather is the result of us moving further south in latitude or just the daily temperature fluctuations. But we don't complain, as we ride out of the farm into the brilliant, sunny day without any sweater or any base layers on underneath our mesh motorcycle jackets. I can't remember the last time it was this warm!

Not a cloud in the sky and there's mid-20s on the forecast for today. Nice!

 

[lightcycle]

Today we are going to try to hug the western coast as much as possible, all the way until the edge of the land curves from south to east

Somewhere near the southern shores, we spy this fantastic beach from the road

I'm not really sure where we are, we're just exploring all the little roads that follow the shoreline. Later on I try to retrace our route on the map. I believe this is Capo Pecora.

We want to get as close to the water as possible. Trying to find a way down to the beach

 

[lightcycle]

Good a place to park as any

Grabbing our swimsuits and towels and heading towards the inviting, crystal blue waters

Neda is scouting around for a place to lay our towels down

 

[lightcycle]

Kicking off our boots and soaking up some much-needed sun and warmth

Thinking about staying here forever

Swimming around all the little pools inside the rocky shoreline. Despite the warm weather, the water is FREEZING COLD!

 

[lightcycle]

Moto-freedom

I think this epitomizes what we love most about riding motorcycles around the world. Just wandering around with everything you need and own on the back of your bike. No schedule... if you see something interesting, just pull over and take all the time you want to explore without rushing to meet some kind of deadline. It culd be a monument or a vibrant, major metropolitan city. Or it could just be a pretty, deserted beach out in the middle of nowhere.

The world truly feels like our oyster.

Continuing our shoreline trek, lots of empty sandy beaches around but no tourists

 

[lightcycle]

The road winds high above the cliffs of the southern shores and we get some breathtaking views over the barrier

Here's a video recap of the roads around Corsica & Sardinia. Enjoy!

 

[lightcycle]

We arrive at the southern end of Sardinia, near the port town of Cagliari.

Exhausted.

Relaxing in Quartucci, at the very end of Sardinia

We've booked a couple of nights at a really nice guest house in the suburb of Quartucci, cheaper than staying right downtown near the ferry. Which means it's decision-time, once again.

We never really resolved our "discussion" in Marseille. I wanted to go to Tunisia. Neda wanted to drop the bikes off in Croatia and fly to Thailand.

I admit that the Corsica -> Sardinia side-trip was a trick to get Neda to eventually come around to crossing over to Northern Africa. I told her, "Let's just traverse the islands, it'll be sunny and lazy and we can take our time. We'll ride down the western side of the islands, and when we get to the tip of Sardinia, if you don't want to go to Tunisia, we'll just come back up the eastern side of the islands and go straight to Pula."

Come on, I can't be the only guy to ever beg a girl: "Just the tip"...

Hey, there's a Pula in Sardinia! Who knew...

Well, here we are at the tip. And I'm friggin' exhausted. I can't continue riding into Tunisia, let alone back up Sardinia and Corsica again. I just want to catch a ferry straight to Croatia right now, dump the bikes and lie on a beach forever in Thailand.

Neda smirks knowingly. She knew I'd run out of energy. My little "Just the tip" scheme backfired spectacularly.

Europe is done.

 

[longhorn1]

What an awesome trip. I've enjoyed every post.

 

[profdlp]

What an awesome trip. I've enjoyed every post.

There was one from about four years ago I didn't care for, but other than that I second the sentiment. :sombrero:

2,213 out of 2,214 ain't bad! :wings:

 

[RichJacot]

Wishing you folks a Happy New Year!

 

[lightcycle]

What an awesome trip. I've enjoyed every post.

Thanks glad to have you with us!

 

[lightcycle]

Wishing you folks a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you to!

 

[lightcycle]

There was one from about four years ago I didn't care for, but other than that I second the sentiment. :sombrero:

2,213 out of 2,214 ain't bad! :wings:

I know exactly the one you're talking about! Not my finest hour...

:bike_rider:

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/375.html

We're too tired to even ride back up through the mountains on the east coasts of Sardinia and Corsica. Now that we've decided to leave Europe, we find ourselves in a great rush to get the heck outta here.

Since we've both agreed not to venture any further south, the ferry at Cagliari is useless to us. The only boat back to mainland Europe leaves from Olbia, 275 kms away on the northeastern corner of Sardinia. We don't even think about it. The next morning we jump directly on the highway and within hours we're checking in at the ferry that will take us away from the islands.

It took us four whole days to wander down Sardinia and now that we're on a mission... three hours to come back up!

No pictures of the boring highway ride back.

But here's one of the ferry back to mainland Italy

Ten hours later, we're spit out onto the shores of Genoa.

From here, we're planning on heading east back to Croatia to dump the bikes and fly to Thailand.

 

[lightcycle]

Neda had a thought. Since we're going to be passing through Cinque Terre on the way to Pula, why not drop in and see the famous Italian Riviera? It's on the way...

Sure. Why not?

Beautiful southern shores of Italy

As the name Cinque Terre suggests, this part of the Italian Riviera is comprised of five towns. Although the towns are all within 20 kms of each other, it's still too much to see in a single day, so we're going to set up a base at a campsite on the west end, in a town called Sestri Levante.

Riding out to our campsite. This whole area reminds us of the Amalfi Coast, further south on the boot of Italy.

Our HQ for the next couple of days

We had actually wanted to visit Cinque Terre when we first landed in Europe back in 2014, but when we got close, Northern Italy experienced severe flooding, so we skipped the Italian Riviera. This part of Italy frequently gets flooded. The worst one was back in 2011, nine people were killed and there was extensive damage to several of the villages.