The Road Less Traveled

There were so many titles for this post that ran through my mind - careful what you wish for, shit happens, into every life a little rain must fall, best laid plans…in the end I settled on the fateful words that led us to the painful twist in this adventure.  On our second day of biking, as we neared our destination, we decided to veer from our course and take the road less traveled - a beautiful rugged trail into the forest. Forgetting that I no longer had my beefy tires and had 20 pounds on my back and bike, I mis-navigated a loose dirt rut and fell hard on my elbow. It immediately swelled up to baseball size.  We finally made it to our agriturismo only to learn they had no ice. Nowhere on the island! The nearest town was miles away, so I hoped for the best and we (gingerly) continued our journey the next day.  Dennis quickly adapted our path to be on the road because the jolting of the dirt was too painful. 

Even in pain it was still easy to appreciate the view from our window.

2 days later we finally made it to a town with a hospital. I waited 6 hours, and no one was called in so I finally gave up.The only funny part of the whole experience was watching the patients fight with the hospital police.  The waiting room was so full of drama and discord that the police would have to come mediate.  The same thing was happening outside where Dennis was waiting, between paramedic staff, Covid staff, patients who had yet to be admitted and police. Not knowing the language, we could only guess at the subject. However, after being there for so long with nothing to show for it, we could guess. (We later found out all the doctors take the month of August off, so if you visit Italy in August, stay healthy.)

 

If they weren’t taking the bloody guy to see the doctor, there was no way they were going to take a swollen elbow!

We continued on our journey, sticking to beautiful back country roads instead of our remote dirt trails. Surprisingly biking didn’t hurt too much, so I decided the impact was just major trauma (swollen black and blue arm and hand) and no broken bones. 

 Loved this ancient hilltop town, Orgosolo - it was  covered with murals.

Coming into the Scala San Giorgio where rumor has it God created a giant break in the mountains to let the people pass

            Did some hiking on our day off to yet another ancient Nuraghe

Stopped at the village which has the largest number of people over 100 years in all the world. I made sure to fill up my Camelbak at their water source. 

      Coming out of the mountains down to sea level 

If you look carefully you’ll see this was once a railway line

                          City life in Cagliari

Checked out the local beaches - San Diego’s are better but the water in the Mediterranean is so warm (and salty!).  Funny story - we took the bus to the beach, and we didn’t know you had to buy tickets at the Tobacco shop beforehand. (We could hardly be blamed - who gets bus tickets at a smoke shop?) Soon enough, the ticket police climbed aboard, and all the locals were frantically telling us to jump off, hide, whatever to avoid the fine. They were so kind trying to help us! We played dumb (didn’t take much acting), and the police gave up in disgust with our lack of language, etc. The people on the bus were so happy for us!  We took a taxi back. Bikes are so much easier. 

We took a train to the Catalan-like city of Alghero (these islands were once conquered by the Catalans aka Kingdom of Aragon.  What a checkered past of conquests they have - Genoese, Pisano, Goths, Moors, Spanish, French,Italy). It was so much like the Spanish beach towns we used to visit when we lived in Barcelona. 

We left the city slickers and tourists behind and climbed back into the beautiful mountains. My heart just sings on these days, even if it’s a hot, steep, long journey. 

Was able to do some dirt roads again!

Nice when you travel with a photographer 

Multiple descents and ascents each day

Sharing my pear with a friendly horse

Agriturismos are the most authentic form of travel if you really want to understand the land you’re visiting 

I’m not a big meat eater back home because of the inhumane way we raise animals, but these farms are just the opposite. The animals have a wonderful life - until one day they don’t. There’s an appreciation for life here that somehow makes their sacrifice okay. 

We said farewell to Sardinia and hopped on the short ferry to Corsica. A different country but so intertwined with the history of Sardinia, including food, traditions and some language.  Beautiful islands full of natural resources and safe harbors that were totally at the whim of their conquerors. As you might imagine, independent movements and ideology are prevalent in both. 

Arriving at the Bonifacio Harbor 

Exploring the sites

The next day, Dennis convinced me to get an x-ray of my elbow. I grudgingly agreed. Turns out I had a very bad break and required immediate surgery. 

It doesn’t take a radiologist to read this one

It’s never a good sign when multiple doctors come in to view your image, take pictures and ask you, again, when did this happen??  And you biked for 15 days?  I was made to feel very irresponsible.  They checked me into the hospital that day and surgery was the next morning. One day I’ll write a blog on socialized medicine, but for now I still have too much PTSD. 

I’ll finish this ridiculously long missive with some brief concluding remarks - surgery with pins and wires, full cast, no more biking on this trip, a rental car, depression, forced to be responsible, finally got the trip I wished for - sitting around gaining weight. Turns out I really don’t want that type of trip. Ah well. C’est la vie. 

I’ll be back!