Sardinia * Corsica * Loire Valley

 

With vaccination cards in hand, we crossed the pond at last for a 6 week bike trip through Italy and France. Three’s the charm here - we first planned this trip in 2019, but Charlie’s accident and extended recovery required us to cancel, and then Covid came along in 2020. So here we are at last!

Dennis planned a great route through the back country agriturismos  (farms and vineyards which also rent rooms) of Sardinia and Corsica knowing that this is the best way to explore the real people and culture of these islands.  They take “farm to table” to the next level - everything you eat and drink (wine) comes from their property. After Corsica, we’ll fly to Paris and join 12 best friends from Poway to ride the famous Euro Velo 6 route through the Loire Valley. 

The trip over was so long due to Covid flight cancellations, but 31 hours after departure we landed in Olbia, Sardinia where we thankfully collected our bikes and bags. On these trips everything we have is carried in a bag below our seat, and all locomotion is by pedal. Thus the first order of the day was to build our bikes and pedal out of the airport to our first hotel.

Bike building as performance art. We had quite a few people fascinated by what we were doing. Home made bike boxes to the left - and left behind.     

Before setting off for the wilds of Sardinia, we spent a really nice day exploring the beautiful coastline of Olbia. 

We set off on our journey through beautiful cork oak forests.  The trees’ bark can’t be harvested til they’re 25 years old, and then every 9 years thereafter. It’s a huge business here and makes for exceptionally beautiful trails through the forest.

They only cut about 10’ of the base, which makes for interesting looking trees!

Sardinia has over 7,000 archeological sites called Nuraghes, built by the Nuragic civilization from the Bronze Age through Roman times.  We stumble upon them every day, just along the side of the roads. 

To be continued…