Yesterday was spent exploring the beaches and coastline west of Oristano. The first stop was an amazing beach of Arutas which is considered "the most beautiful beach in Sardinia"(but aren't they all). What makes this beach special is the sand is similar to grains of rice which range in colour from pink to pure white. From there I got lost again (thanks to google maps poor description of what actually is a road) trying to find my next beach location. But it didn't matter too much driving through fields of artichokes and wheat crops. (Which by the way were covered in white snails that have made a real mess of the front of my car!) I then made my way to the Torre Grande (the largest Spanish tower in Sardinia) via a weird little village called San Salvatore which is where many spaghetti westerns were filmed including scenes from "The good, the bad and the ugly" with Clint Eastwood! Onto Cabras to see the giants of Monte Prama. These 3000 year old and 2.5m high statues rival those found on Easter Island in the Pacific. There is so much speculation about these statues as they are still being dug up - or at least the bits of them that they can find. It's such a shame that a lot of the history of the nuraghes peoples has been destroyed. It was then back to Oristano for a good walk around town.
Today was a drive day on supposedly the prettiest drive in Sardinia, along the coast from Bosa to Alghero. Spectacular views and colours would be an understatement - but Sardinia is known for its aromatic herbs and plants, so you really need smell-a-screen to get how incredible this drive was. It's called the macchia Mediterranea scrub and when its in full bloom, like right now, its absolutely amazing. It smells like a bouquet garni on steroids. Lavender, strawberry, juniper, pine, rosemary, sage, thyme, eucalyptus are wide spread and huge in the macchia, so I drove this part of the coast with all the windows down and it was special!
I now at my Airbnb in Alghero for the next full week.
What an absolutely stunning place. So beautiful. What about that beef! What did you eat?