Nobody give me a gun. I am so over these koo-ing bloody pigeons. It doesn't matter where you are in a hotel or a campground, there is always one around doing their incessant koo-ing. I was trying to sleep this morning as the daylight started to drift across the campground and all I could hear was a throng of pigeons koo-ing all around the campground. It didn't help that I got in my head, during my half slumber, that they were all repeating the same thing over and over again – some a bit louder, some abit faster, but always the same thing...... ma balls hurt....., ma balls hurt, they all koo-ed from all corners of the campground, then one would get agitated and start Koo-ing faster..... ma balls hurt, my balls hurt..... then one right above the tent in full volume..... MA BALLS HURT, MA BALLS HURT.... oh well, with all this racket going on, I might as well get up.
I have mentioned my “help me sparky” moment with the pigeons to Anne, and she can confirm that yes inddeed, that does sound like what they are saying. She has also thanked me for introducing her to this information, because now rather than just hearing an annoying bird koo-ing, she can hear something quite different – and offputting. Oh well, you try your hardest.
One thing that I forgot to mention yesterday was that for an extra 11 Euros per night, it is possible to get “private” facilities. A small lockable cubicle that has the full range of amenities – toilet, bidet, hand basin and shower. As the facilities we have are already TOTR, we saved the 11 Euros for other things, although Anne does look longingly at them each time we walk past and comment on how other people have been lucky enough to rent them. Actually, this campground is by far the most expensive one we've stayed in working out at around 50 Euros per night in a classy campground. Sardinia is very expensive even by European standards, so we were expecting to pay more, but this place really is something else. When you arrive, they give you a big brochure all about their campground and the other campgrounds in their group, then they drive you round on golf carts to show you sites that might be “suitable”. Everywhere else we've been shoved a photo copied map into your hand and tells you to “come back with the site number when you've chosen the site you want”. The reception staff like their rules however and it does feel a bit like the army when you arrive, but once you're free of the reception staff, it is a very lovely campground and we do have staff around every day to rake up any pine needles that might have had the audacity to fall from the trees.
Today we visited three places – Palau, San Pantaleo and Porto Cervo. Palau is a small town on the coast that is the leaving point for all the boats that do the island trips around the North Eastern corner of Sardinia. The boat trips leave at 10:30 in the morning, are back at around 6pm and take you to a number of islands where they drop you off for a couple of hours swimming at each place. Having determined that this was the full extent of the entertainment offered by all the boats running the route, we decided we didn't need to do it. For what seems like a fairly sparsely inhabited island, there seems to be an extortionate number of boat services available. 20 minutes ferry sailing from Palau is an island with a largish town in it called Maddalena. There are 3 large car ferry companies servicing this very short route, with 4 – 5 boats that each go a dozen times each way per day (including all through the night on the hour). Between Maddalena and Palua, it feels like the Wellington to Eastbourne ferry, but with bigger boats more often – goodness knows what they are all doing.
After Palau, we visited San Pantaleo, a small historic inland town, that was having a market day when we arrived. It is set below some very dramatic rocky mountains and is a very picturesque setting with all the market umbrellas and the rocky mountains high above them. We stopped for lunch in San Pantaleo, before continuing on to Porto Cervo, which is on the east coast of the island. This is the Port on the Costa Smeralda where all the rich and famous come for their holidays (and where Paris Hilton went nightclubbing with Flavio Briatore about a week ago – sounds like a grandfather and daughter evening).
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