Punta delle Balconcelli

The first thing to negotiate this morning was the shuttle bus to town which only ran for an hour, every 15 mins but only took 6 people. We booked for 10am, waited in the wrong place (as no clear instruction on the hotel map) and were duly dropped off…. in the Marina car park, along with another couple who are in their 80s. They wanted to go to the market which seemed to be another street level above us and we asked where the beach was. Hotel lady driving the bus seemed to have no idea but gestured vaguely towards the far end of the Marina. Having walked for a good 5 mins we decided to turn round and fortunately came to a splendid, tranquil beach, complete with small restaurant-see video! Scoped out the seating area, hired a couple of sun beds and had a coffee au lait from the restaurant. Unfortunately the sea bathing looked a little treacherous with big bouncing waves coming in although we did have a little foray into the water we were both knocked off our feet fairly quickly so decided to amuse ourselves watching others. Several older men ventured forth and once over the initial strong breakers appeared to enjoy the swimming although we thought some struggled to get back. After lunch at the small restaurant Ted and I settled down to do a crossword when we became aware of shouts of “Au secours!” from 2 men in the sea. A general feeling of panic spread over the observers, ourselves included, as people began to stand up in response to the arm waving from the water. A woman dashed into the restaurant and someone seemed to be phoning the emergency services. Next a couple of young men emerged from the restaurant carrying an inflatable boat which one launched and paddled with his arms towards one of the men whilst the other stayed on the beach madly gesticulating to the other man in trouble to head towards the rocky area to get out-here he did so then collapsed onto the sand, recovering after a few minutes. Meanwhile, inflatable boat boy had towed the other man to safety and took his boat back to the restaurant accompanied by a faint ripple of desultory applause from we observers. At this point, although I desperately wanted to video the whole thing I thought perhaps I shouldn’t. Everyone settled down, boat-rescued man re-joined his wife quite near us and the other man went into the apartments behind us……then we heard the sirens. Well! Like a scene out of Baywatch, several members of Les Saveteurs en Mer ((Rescuers at Sea) spilled onto the beach, all clad in orange, pulling wet suits on as they ran and even had the Baywatch flotation devices with them. Such equipment…. Walkie-talkies, life preservation vests, several interesting looking medical devices. The man who had rejoined his wife under the umbrella was seized upon and hooked up to a monitor, BP checked and the man who had returned to the apartment was hoicked out again and brought back out onto the beach. More sirens and this time the Ambulance personnel arrived. At this point I didn’t feel it would be unreasonable to do a little covert filming (only in the interests of the Blog of course) and so here is the photographic evidence plus a short video!
However, a restful day at the beach although we did have to walk back 15 mins to the hotel as we had deliberately missed the shuttle bus at 12.45 but it was worth it as we wouldn’t have seen the daring rescue. Just goes to show how treacherous the sea can be! Onward to Sardinia in the morning.Read more