Our grand day of adventure...and we survived!
Cala Gonone sits in the middle of Golfo di Orosei, a gulf most well-known for is its beautiful hard-to-reach beaches, turquoise waters, and stunning cliffs. You can reach some by foot (our receptionist said Cala Luna was a 2.5 hour hike away) but the best way is by water, where the options are kayak, boat, or ferry/chartered boat. I already had my sights set on renting a boat since reading this blog because the travellers said it was an unforgettable experience that, though pricey, easily made up their favourite day in Sardegna. So with that in mind, all I had to do was convince Oli. I didn't for one second think about the risks or the fact that I can't swim.
Ferry/charter boat rides would have been a good choice if we had just wanted to visit one beach, but once you add up the costs for a second or third beach, it made more financial sense to rent your own boat. On top of that, being on our own would give us the freedom to choose where we wanted to go and when, provided that we returned the boat by 5:30pm.
Oli's big worry was that we needed a license to operate the boat. We had stopped by yesterday to ask and quickly learned that no experience was required. Woohoo! The cost would be €80 plus the price of gas.
At 11:00am, after stopping by the grocery store to stock up on snacks for our day on the water, we arrived in the port and chose one from among many rental companies (all at the same price). I signed a consent form and was given a quick run-through of the rules before we headed to our gommone ("rubber dinghy"--I prefer to say "boat" though!) for an even quicker set of operating instructions. I am the type who does not think of questions until I encounter a problem while Oli can immediately foresee what other information she'll need, so she asked what 25 metres indeed looks like (this was how far we could be from shore before turning off and raising our motor). After that we were left to our own devices, and as I drove I realized that it was virtually impossible to figure out where we were. There were no visible landmarks for us to determine which beach was which and, though I was wearing my life jacket, I started to fear for my life between and with every bump our boat encountered. I gripped the steering wheel as if my life depended on it and started to have an irrational fear of getting sucked into the propellers if I were to fall overboard. Later on, Oli would reveal to me that she had been thinking about the dangers of the propellers too.
Our first anchor was at Cala Luna (or so we believe). It was a big beach with quite a number of people tanning and swimming. We were worried about being too close to shore so we left our boat far from the beach, Oli jumped right into the water, and after a bit of coaxing in my life jacket, so did I. The first thing my feet touched were the sharp rocks on the beach (there is no way anyone could have looked glamorous walking on them) and then the rest was sand.
We sat inside a cave with some exposure to the sun. After looking around I realized how much I wanted to take pictures so Oli swam all the way to the boat and brought it closer. In order to avoid retrieving it again, we broke the rules and semi-beached the boat with Oli keeping her hand on the rope to prevent it from floating away. I grabbed my camera and rushed to snap some photos and then we paddled past the "safe zone" before turning on our motor and setting off.
It felt like forever before we saw the next beach. Since we didn't know where we were, I asked a man in a nearby boat and he said we were in Cala Sisine. I stayed in the boat while Oli took a quick dip--I was scared of heading into the water since we were so far from shore plus I was feeling lazy after our first dock. We ate some of our grocery store-bought breadsticks and I took some more pictures.
After Cala Sisine we think we temporarily stopped at Cala Biriola, a tiny beautiful beach, but we soon left because we didn't anchor down and were floating treacherously to the nearby rocky cliffs--not to mention the stink-eye we received from a presumably Russian lady tanning topless on a boat in front of us with her lover, who started hiding her chest when she saw us, perhaps because she thought I was taking pictures of her--which I wasn't!
Golfo di Orosei was much larger than I had fathomed. Each time we thought we had gone too far, we would soon realize that we still had a lot of area to cover. We went on our last adventure to Cala Mariolu (once again, this is just our guess) and then I drove us back to Cala Gonone, mostly on high-speed. The ride was smoother this way around but once in awhile we'd see big waves (most likely from other boats) and I would get scared and slow down. Sometimes I would wave at the people in nearby boats--they were mostly families, couples, or groups of couples--and everyone seemed very nice.
We arrived, filled up on gas (20€), and walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and some souvenir shopping. I found a cute Cala Gonone magnet for my mom with a donkey on it and then we went to Ristorante al Porto da Simone which boasted a view of the port (and its adjacent parking lot). It was one of the busier restaurants in the area. When we entered, I noticed that we got a lot of looks so I mentioned to Oli that I think everyone thought were were a lesbian couple. Pretty soon after I said that she spotted a real lesbian couple. Case closed.
For dinner we had:
The pasta was delicious and we noticed that one of the bits of seafood looked rather phallic. I asked the waiter what these were and he said squid tentacles.
While dining, we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had one the shape of a beaver on my right arm--a nice way to remember Canada?
We followed dinner up with coffee--I had an espresso and Oli had a latte macchiato--and then went for some more souvenir shopping. I found a few postcards and a ring while Oli bought a mug and a necklace that she said looked like a mussel. She asked me to ask the salesperson about it, which was hilarious because I asked if it was a mussel (plural: cozze) and he asked me to clarify since it kind of sounds like an Italian swear word for "penis" (cazzo). I asked him what the singular for cozze was (it's cozza) and he explained that the necklace was made from a shell. DRAWKWA!
Tomorrow I'm going to have to drive stick again...
Lesson of the Day
Never underestimate the power of good enunciation. Speak otherwise and you may get yourself into sticky situations.
 |
| Leaving Cala Gonone |
 |
| Cala Luna |
It felt like forever before we saw the next beach. Since we didn't know where we were, I asked a man in a nearby boat and he said we were in Cala Sisine. I stayed in the boat while Oli took a quick dip--I was scared of heading into the water since we were so far from shore plus I was feeling lazy after our first dock. We ate some of our grocery store-bought breadsticks and I took some more pictures.
 |
| Cala Sisine |
All the fears of drowning and painful death aside, the scenery was breathtaking. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but there were so many times that I wanted to take more pictures but couldn't because I was driving--of valleys, caves, cliffs, and the turquoise water that glimmered in the sun as if there were jewels. We were in awe, and the only thing that would have made me more fully appreciate it all was if I could swim. I still loved it though.
After Cala Sisine we think we temporarily stopped at Cala Biriola, a tiny beautiful beach, but we soon left because we didn't anchor down and were floating treacherously to the nearby rocky cliffs--not to mention the stink-eye we received from a presumably Russian lady tanning topless on a boat in front of us with her lover, who started hiding her chest when she saw us, perhaps because she thought I was taking pictures of her--which I wasn't!
 |
| Cala Biriola |
Golfo di Orosei was much larger than I had fathomed. Each time we thought we had gone too far, we would soon realize that we still had a lot of area to cover. We went on our last adventure to Cala Mariolu (once again, this is just our guess) and then I drove us back to Cala Gonone, mostly on high-speed. The ride was smoother this way around but once in awhile we'd see big waves (most likely from other boats) and I would get scared and slow down. Sometimes I would wave at the people in nearby boats--they were mostly families, couples, or groups of couples--and everyone seemed very nice.
 |
| Cala Mariolu |
We arrived, filled up on gas (20€), and walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and some souvenir shopping. I found a cute Cala Gonone magnet for my mom with a donkey on it and then we went to Ristorante al Porto da Simone which boasted a view of the port (and its adjacent parking lot). It was one of the busier restaurants in the area. When we entered, I noticed that we got a lot of looks so I mentioned to Oli that I think everyone thought were were a lesbian couple. Pretty soon after I said that she spotted a real lesbian couple. Case closed.
For dinner we had:
 |
| Tuna with black olive sauce |
 |
| Mixed seafood spaghetti with sun-dried tomatoes and peperoncino (chilli peppers) |
While dining, we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had one the shape of a beaver on my right arm--a nice way to remember Canada?
We followed dinner up with coffee--I had an espresso and Oli had a latte macchiato--and then went for some more souvenir shopping. I found a few postcards and a ring while Oli bought a mug and a necklace that she said looked like a mussel. She asked me to ask the salesperson about it, which was hilarious because I asked if it was a mussel (plural: cozze) and he asked me to clarify since it kind of sounds like an Italian swear word for "penis" (cazzo). I asked him what the singular for cozze was (it's cozza) and he explained that the necklace was made from a shell. DRAWKWA!
Tomorrow I'm going to have to drive stick again...
Lesson of the Day
Never underestimate the power of good enunciation. Speak otherwise and you may get yourself into sticky situations.
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