Almost 2 weeks spent on the large italian island, located in tyrrhenian sea, climbing, swimming, enjoying the nearly 2000 km of coastline, sandy beaches and clear turquoise water. with MOUNTAINOUS interior crossed with perfect cliffs and hiking trails with beautiful views.
Sardinia was a love at first sight for me and no matter, how many times will I return, there’s always new places to explore, crags to climb and one of the dreamiest sandy beaches in Europe to swim at.
PEACEFULLY FLOATING THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING CITY TRAFFIC IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER. TRIPPING LIGHTS AND PEOPLE RUNNING TO GET TO WORK. WEATHER HASN’T BEEN VERY GOOD. IT DIDN’T STOP RAINING FOR THE PAST MONTH OR SO. I DESPERATELY NEEDED SOME SUN.
It’s been a while since I’ve traveled and I was done going through the same routine every day, working a lot in rainy Squamish. I decided to press pause and escape the real world for a little while. So, there I was. Floating through city traffic, making my way to the airport. And before I knew I was on my flight to Amsterdam. Couple hours here couple hours there and I arrived to Venice, Italy. From Venice, my mom and the crew picked me up and the next day, we took a ferry from Livorno to Olbia (Italian island, Sardinia).
And other than the ferry being late 4 hours, everything was okay and we were on the road.
First stop was one of our classic climbing spots on the island. Just 1 hour drive southern (taking the highway) from Olbia, called Buchi Arta. Very easy approach, from Cala Gonone, keep going up towards little town, Dorgali following the dirt road and size towards crags. We stayed in that are 2 days, ideal for the morning climbs (October-April) and afternoon ones in the summer. Good quality grey limestone rock with sharper crimps and cracks.
The third day was a charm.
We drove down to the seaside and stopped by the far most famous rock climbing area in Sardinia I believe. Cala Gonone was like a paradise for me. Crags so close to the ocean that you could almost belay directly from water, and luckily every year more medium/low-grade climbs. Best times for climbing would be early mornings or late afternoons, if you don’t want to burn down while visiting. And even though, in the early November, was pretty hot in midday. It’s a lucky mixtape and variety of many crags and beaches, all very close together. For the night we drove to Cala Cartoe, on the other side and spend a night there.
What a beautiful thing. Waking up to the sunrise and realizing all the best things in life are completely free and how little it takes to make you a happy person. Every single sunrise it’s a sign of a new day and the starting of something new and exciting, new options to do better and be better for yourself. Felt so lucky at Cala Cartoe, it was such an amazing place to wake up at, doing yoga before the sun come out and generally feeling grateful for life.
That day, we drove uphill (15 min) to hit the spot, Margheddie. Again, another one of the historic Cala Gonone crags. But definitely a good climb for the late afternoon! Very close to those crags there’s Grotta Millenium. If you’re ever visiting this island, this magnificent cave is one of the spots you have to visit, doesn’t matter if you’re a climber or not. It is a huge cave with fantastic and variety of higher graded overhanging routes, up to 9a+. It can be reached by a boat or from the above. Later on, we went to check out Cala Osala, but didn’t impress us much, so we returned to Cala Cartoe and spend the night there again.
The 5th day, we moved ourselves to the west coast.
3 hour drive to the Capo Pecora. Beautiful cape, far away from cities or people. Hence the west coast, we got to enjoy endless hours of sun on the beach in the late afternoon, mixed with a contrast of gentle swells, rolling from the west and beautiful landscape, creating a window to the soul, that is engraved in your mind forever.
The next couple days were spend simply climbing around local cliffs and crags around Buggerrru. Starting at the 7km long canyon looking inland, Gutturu Cardaxius (Banana Republic), specially developed in the last couple years. Classic Punta Pilocca and spots around Arenas, sectors like Saranno Famosi, Cinecitta and La Cantina.
Not too much sun, wasn’t cold, beautiful rock!
Nice and quiet couple of days, haven’t seen much people around, climbs were mixed up with swims on Cala Domestica.
As usual, the last day came way to soon. I wish we could enjoy the beauty of this island and the warmth of the sun and water for another week, but we had to turn back North. Did a little Cala Gonone swim before the ferry and that was that. Seven hour drive to Slovenia and cold, cold weather.
