Ghilarza to Bonorva

November 11, 2023

Exploring Nuraghe

Remembrance Day already. Time flies.

Our colds are still hanging on, but there were no coughing fits in the middle of the night, so that’s an improvement. We were also pleased to wake to a good weather forecast for the next few days.

Our route today was selected to parallel the railway that we’ll eventually catch to Olbia. Our departure was slightly delayed by a glitch loading the route into my Garmin. I had to re-plan and try again. Still, we left before 9 am.

Leaving Ghilzara, we passed by a 13th century church. And a 15th century Spanish defensive tower that was apparently constructed to be part of a wall around the city that was never built.

We had a very quick return to the rural world, and a nice descent that quickly turned back uphill in a bit of a rude way; it was the steepest hill we’d climbed in a while. In general, today was more about climbing - up to about 650 m elevation.

And the neighboring church built in 1291.

We soon arrived at a very cool nuraghe that we could climb. And many other nuraghi all along the way today. There are 7,000 nuraghi in Sardinia, so I guess we were bound to pass a few.

Just before our planned coffee stop, Komoot sent us onto another unpaved road that was sheep pasture. We had to open a gate to let ourselves in. Unlike yesterday’s successful trespass, today’s route resulted in inadvertent sheep herding and dead end that forced us to turn around. The dead end is visible in our track at the end of this posting.

Nuraghe next to the road, with no security or signage. Sue is visible at left for scale.

Climbing up the thousands of years old stairs.

Foiled by a sheep jam in front of this gate, we decided to turn around.

Retracing our steps, it was uphill and into a headwind to coffee in Borore - it was a tidy cafe that served delicious cornetti. Sue broke the Italian coffee rules because it was after 11 am when she ordered a cappuccino. Horrors. But so did a local woman who entered after us. Everyone in the cafe said goodbye to us when we left. Gotta love the friendliness here! Also gotta love that every cafe here has a decaf grinder.

We had more uphill to ride into the town of Macumer, and it was a busier road than we’ve become used to. We ate our lunch of leftover pizza at the Macomer cenotaph on this Remembrance Day, just because we passed right by it. The wreath laying services here were a week ago, on the day we left Alghero.

We exited Maconer through a gritty old industrial area, but then quickly we were back on scenic quiet roads.

Things we saw in the afternoon included sloe berries, people picking mushrooms, a baby boar that had been hit by a car, a million more sheep, donkeys, horses, and cows. And rocks. It’s amazing how many cobbles and boulders have been collected here for use in fences and nuraghi, or just piled in the fields.

Despite the weather forecast promising no rain, we had a short sprinkle in the afternoon. It didn’t amount to anything.

Our reward for a bunch of climbing today was a steep switchbacking downhill into the town of Bonorva. We are happy we won’t have to climb out of here tomorrow as we head northeast to our destination of the ferry terminal at Olbia.

When we arrived at our B&B (the only local one listed in booking.com) the owner magically opened the door. We didn’t knock. We’re not sure how she saw us coming. The bikes were welcomed right inside the house. We have a great room, and appreciated the nice hot water, since we were a bit chilled after our descent into town.

We went out in search of ‘not pizza’ for dinner, and ended up at a local pizza place that promised more. It was absolutely full of men, mostly seniors, watching Cagliari play Juventus in Serie A soccer. Maybe Saturday evening is ‘Soccer Night in Italy’? The kitchen was closed til 7:30 while the game was on. So we sat and watched Juventus beat the local Sardinia team 2-1. And it was fun people watching too. Other than a waitress, we were the only women in the place. At the end of the game, the old men left and teenagers and couples arrived for pizza. Like the past few nights, I’m pretty sure we’re the only tourists in town tonight. We witnessed teenagers getting pizza with fries on top - the fries go on after the pizza comes out of the oven.

Fun Sardinia fact. If you’re wondering how to pronounce the name of Sardinia’s capital of Cagliari, saying ‘Calgary’ is close enough. But I think it’s really more like ‘Cal-yary’.

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 614 km (381 miles)

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Scott AndersonFantastic day. I love the decade end sheep story. You’ve about convinced me we should give the island a second try.
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