FROM OROSEI TO CAGLIARI
A guy dressed like Napoleon Bonaparte rides a horse down Main Street. His horse is led by what looks like a Turkish servant wearing a tall orange fez. On the sidewalk, a young couple dressed in 16th-century attire trade French kisses in front of Porky’s Sex Shop. It’s the First of May Sant’Efisio celebration, and in Cagliari, they take their processions seriously. And as for us? We’re just happy to have made it so far alive.
It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black.
We woke up the previous day in our Orosei’s apartment. The morning is ominously dark. Heavy clouds cover the skies. It looks like rain is just a matter of time. This is a bit of a shame, as our seventh day of our Sardinia round tour should be one of its highlights.
Today’s plan would take us 84km south along route SS125 over the Ghenna Silana Pass. Reaching an elevation of over 1,000 m, this is one of the highest roads on the island and should provide us with some spectacular views over to the east. After clearing the pass, the route leads back to the eastern coast and the small town of Tortoli. Once in Tortoli, we will take the road west, back into the mountains, and ride the super curvy SS198 road for another 107km of pure riding joy. Next, from the village of Serri, an easy 5km on road SP9 would lead us to the tiny hamlet of Gergi and to our nightly stop at the Domu Antiga. All in all, 197km of mostly mountainous roads. This should be a breeze, right?
Wrong!
It doesn’t take more than 21km for us to realize things are about to take a turn for the worse. As we pass the town of Dorgali and start to climb up towards the pass, we come to realize that:
a. The clouds are much, much lower than we thought and cover everything above 500m.
b. It’s getting much colder than anything we had on our trip so far.
c. It’s starting to rain.
d. We haven’t had the brains to bring any winter riding gear.
Oh well, this is not going to be fun, after all. I switch the engine and traction mode to “rain”, and continue to ride upwards at a slower pace. Then, my Arai helmet visor fogs up. With no way of seeing beyond a few meters ahead (should have brought Pinlock), I find myself forced to choose between opening the visor and get rain straight into my eyes, or closing it and ride blind.
Suffering from the same predicament, my colleague and I take the middle ground. We reduce speed to a crawl, keep our visors open just enough to let them defog, and bear the rain coming in and dropping down our necks and into our moist unedshirts. It doesn’t help much, and when we ultimately reach the 1,000m pass, we stop to reevaluate our situation.
It’s not gambling when you’re out of options, is it?
I lift my visor fully, only to discover, much to my horror, that the issue was not the fog on my visor; it is rather the fog outside. The mist is so thick and dense that anything beyond 30m is a pure guess. Vehicles coming the other way can be spotted some 40m away due to their fog lights. Turns? Holes? Hairpins? Forget about it. We wait for the fog to clear. We then wait some more, but to no effect.
Finally, out of alternatives, we ride on, slowly. Very slowly. I wish I could tell you more about this road; how it turns from one corner to the other, how its fast sweepers open up to splendid views of Sardinia, how it is such a joy to ride, how it is the best road on the island…
Unfortunately, it is none of the above. Just a long, painful, and occasionally dangerous slog, with a random car (or worse – a truck) coming the other way, barely missing us. A total disaster. It is only when we descend the massif towards the town of Serri that the rain stops and the thick blanket of fog subsides. We traverse the last 20km to our final destination, with relative ease, reaching the tiny village of Gergei at about 4pm.
The rest of the Sardinia tour: * Part I - From inception to Carloforte * Part II - From Carloforte to Mamoiada * Part III - From Mamoiada to Pelosetta Beach * Part IV - From Pelosetta Beach to Orosei
Home, sweet (ancient) home
Turning left, just off the main street, we reach a stone wall and stop next to a set of large wooden doors. An iron sign says “Domu Antiga” – Old house in the native Sardinian dialect. The place is owned and operated by the Lai family, which converted this early 19th-century country house into a small boutique hotel of a few rooms surrounding a central garden. Restored with a lot of dedication to local materials and techniques, Domu Antiga is a charming and rustic throwback to a bygone era. How good is Domu Antiga? Well, good enough for the New York Times to write an article about it.
We lock our bikes outside and venture inside. The rain has stopped, and now, with the afternoon sun shining in, the inner garden of the mansion looks as fresh as a car out of a carwash. Large Roses cling to the raw, stony walls of the main building, shining in intense colors. We’re greeted by a member of the family (we later learn they also have a local cheese workshop nearby), and are taken to our upstairs apartment. True to their commitment to restoration, our room is filled with late 19th-century paraphernalia, which, given the overall vibe of the establishment, looks very much in place.
We head down for a rest and a beer. We sip it down in the colonnaded arcade, admiring the location and protecting ourselves from the rain, which comes and goes for the next two hours.
24hrs left
With cheese factory credentials, it should come as no surprise that Domu Antigua also doubles as a restaurant, albeit a tiny one – the place only has five tables. The menu changes by the season and the availability of locally-sourced raw materials. Persided by the “chef-de-maison” – a Lai family member (what else…), the meal is as rustic and great as the place that houses it. Shame on us for not taking any pictures.
The following morning, the first day of May, rises to a beautiful blue sky with no clouds in sight. Temperatures are an ideal 23 degrees. This is our last day of riding, covering 66km due south. We hope to compensate for yesterday’s experience by locating some nice riding roads to Cagliari. Alas, the land between Gergei and the Island’s capital is flat, and the roads leading to it are straight. A little disappointed, we arrive at the bike rental shop about an hour later. When we get there, we are hit with a BIG surprise.
May Day in Cagliari
When I grew up, the First of May parade was a big thing. This was the Workers of the World celebration, and all unionized labor would cease. Employees would march with red flags down city boulevards, holding hands and singing the Socialist International. These days are long gone, and I honestly can’t say I miss them very much. In Cagliari, however, they take their 1st of May parade seriously, and as we will soon learn, very differently too.
Back at the rental shop, we can’t ignore a rustling and increasing sound of footsteps, followed by a rhythm of hooves and carriage wheels. We ask the store attendants about the commotion outside. “Don’t you know?” they reply, “It’s the Festival of Saint Ephysius. You’re just in time for the main procession.” We go out onto the back street and into a cacophony of costumes, colors, and beasts of burden.
More motorcycle tours in the links below * The complete survival guide to India motorcycling * On a ride to nowhere * Scouting Malibu on an Indian * 6 essential rules you must know before doing Nepal off-road * You only die twice
Saint Who?
St. Ephysius, so we learn, is the patron saint of Cagliari. Being the Capital city of Sardinia, the festival that honors him is the most important religious event of the island. It takes place every year on May 1st, and we’re just lucky to be around. During this festival, thousands of people from folk groups all over Sardinia adorn their traditional attire and march in procession down the city streets.
The festival originated in the mid-seventeenth century after a terrible plague decimated Cagliari. The local authorities attributed the cessation of the disease to the miraculous intervention of their protector saint. With roots in a 350-year-old tradition, the participants around us all dressed like they just came straight out of the pages of Alexandre Dumas’ “Three Musketeers.”
We take a strategic location, down the main road from the central town square, and prepare for things to come. And come they are. 2,500 people in traditional dress, from all over the island, followed by about 300 horsemen, carts, oxen… You name it. The combination of colors, costumes, and sound is dazzling. Words do them little justice. Given the amount of investment and the sheer magnitude of the spectacle, it should come as no surprise that the fastidious organizers are already working on obtaining a UNESCO World Heritage title for the feast.
All good things must end
When the procession comes to a close, a couple of hours later, we head to the town’s main square. Makeshift stands – erected for those with a longer planning horizon, and means — frame a ground covered with trampled flower petals. We hobnob and take photos with some of the participants before heading to the train station. We’ve got a plane to catch.
On the way to the airport, we start making some tentative conclusions. We rode 1,600km in eight days. Had mostly great weather and excellent roads. I got penalized for trashing the bike, breaking both side bags, and scratching its left side in Carloforte on the second day of our journey (see Part I for more info on that incident). Together with the extra mileage, my bill came to 1,000 Euros, overall. More than fair pay for what my poor Kawasaki had to go through. My friend was also charged a thousand extra, though in his case, for some very minor scratches and dents – a gross exaggeration. Looking at this together, I guess we had little to complain about.
As the big metal bird leaves the tarmac and Sardinia behind it, all we can think about is – “we should do it again!”
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