Was für ein Tag!

The day today was supposed to hold several impressive highlights for us. Driving, scenic, and animal!

However, we did not yet know this when we started in Portoscuso in the morning to drive north along Sardinia's west coast. As far as driving is concerned, I already had a certain premonition (which I didn't tell Steffi about just to be on the safe side), because the route from Bau Gennamari to the dune beach Piscinas was only marked on my map as a thin, yellow-dotted, or hatched line, and therefore it fell into the category of "Unpaved and difficult to drive". That should be interesting with the fully-loaded AfricaTwin plus passenger! 😃👍

The road there actually got narrower and worse. Other road users: practically none. And then the road eventually turned into natural surface. As a sandy off-road track, our path meandered through the beautiful, lonely landscape. Now our AfricaTwin was allowed to show that it rightfully bears its famous name with the genes from 30 years of worldwide motorcycle adventure experience. In contrast to us, Waltraud seemed completely unimpaired by this track. She followed her path as if nothing was there and didn't even flinch at the potholes, corrugated passages, sand holes, and river crossings. Well, it may be that an AfricaTwin can only smile tiredly about this off-road adventure, but Steffi and I definitely had fun and felt like explorers of a forgotten world.

At the beginning of the track, our path led past an abandoned iron mine. A backdrop like from an Indiana Jones movie! The area, like a few other former mines in Sardinia, is protected as a monument. The progressive decay of the buildings brings with it a special, morbid charm. Great!

In the further course, we finally approached the coast and were suddenly completely amazed: The golden yellow dunes of Piscinas towered in front of us without warning! The sparsely overgrown sand dunes with juniper bushes and a few other shrubs reach up to 40 meters and are among the highest dunes in Europe. (If you ask the Sardinians, they claim they are even the highest, but this statement should be enjoyed with caution.) 😉 Whoever has fought their way this far will be rewarded with a magnificent setting in a lonely landscape.

At this point, the Costa Verde begins. The region stretches for nearly 50 km north with its dreamlike, quiet beaches. Initially, we continued on our off-road track and then followed the coast on paved roads, constantly amazed by the breathtaking panorama.

And then Costa Verde had a very special surprise for us: In a lake, we discovered animals that we would never have expected to find in the wild here: Flamingos! Dozens of delicately pink-colored birds stood in the water and sifted the bottom with their beaks for food. A sublime sight that we enjoyed very much. Flamingos have actually been native to Sardinia for centuries and are respectfully called the 'Red People' by the locals.

In order not to neglect the interior of Sardinia, we headed towards Áles in the evening, further to Lácono, and only ended the curvy marathon in the mountains in Sórgono. There we found a room in a bed & breakfast. The hostess was really super nice - almost like a real Italian mom! We were only allowed to check into our room after we had coffee with her and had a small talk. Since she only speaks Italian, she used the app 'Google Translator', which worked extremely well. She pressed the button for 'Italian', spoke into her phone, and the app translated into German and read the text aloud. The other way around, from German to Italian worked just as well. We had a lot of fun!

In the evening, we went to a pizzeria to eat and to watch the Germany against Sweden game with Kroos' ultra-last-minute goal.

What a day!