Whacky Wednesday.

Today we planned to hit a few beaches around the island.  Before breakfast Jeff and I made a quick trip into town to purchase an overnight ferry ticket from Olbia to Livorno, Italy. We discovered the overnight ferry was full.....at least all the staterooms were booked and we didn't fancy sitting up all night possibly falling asleep in chairs trying to hang onto our suitcase! There was an afternoon ferry got which we could still get a stateroom for 2 persons, which we did book. The ferry trip is 7 hours so we felt it would be a good idea to have somewhere to leave our belongings while we moved about the ship......which is in the Moby line and the size of a cruise ship.  ....our ticket booked we hustled back to Porta Volpe as we were heading to the beaches with Joanie, Graeme , Sandy and Mike.
We had only about 600 yds to go when we were stopped by the police and not allowed to go further. We could see and smell the thick black smoke. Apparently it was too dangerous to pass as they were worried about a gas explosion.  We had no choice but to wait it out......hungry and frustrated as they could not tell us how long it would be. This being Italy and the odd hours of eating it was impossible to find a restaurant open.....until 12 pm......at which time the road was passable.
Arriving back at the condo where J,S,M,and G were patiently waiting we put together a huge antipasto platter for lunch, cheese, salami, olives, prosciutto, melon, bread and veggies.
Hunger taken care of we piled into two cars and we were off once again to join the crazy Italians racing around on their winding narrow roads! Mike doing his best to keep up (just kidding Mike!) and Jeff doing his best to lose him (or not!)
We were driving basically to the northern tip of Sardinia, where Sandy and Mike would eventually catch the one hour crossing by ferry to Corsica France. The coastline was beautiful and rocky, there was a large lighthouse at the tip and many walking/hiking trails through waist high shrubbery over hilly terrain. We were told there were a lot of large turtles  (tortugas) that lived in the area to watch out for them. We were not lucky enough to see one, although hikers we passed had seen one.
After a bit of hiking we were back in the cars, the next stop was at an archaelogical site Lu Brandali where we would see the Gianti Tomb. A collection of huge stone blocks which are a collective grave of about 60 skeletons from a nearby village, placed in the shape of a bull head complete with horns. This was found during an excavation together with bronze and amber jewellery and 2 pottery bowls. On the basis of the material found a chronological period was established.....middle and late Bronze Age (xiv - x. sec BC) .  There was also remains of several abodes that had been excavated and the belief is that there are more.
It was a long drive back to Ponto Volpe after a stock up at a supermercado for shiskabob makings and more wine and beer.
The six of us had a great bbq then tea and biscuits to end the evening.
Bonne Serra xo