Imbarco traghetto Porto Torres

We got up at 7.30am and spent a fairly incompetent morning of cleaning and packing. After a shower and breakfast it was just after 11am when the car was fully loaded and we rolled out of the site. We had stayed on the campsite for a total of 11 nights, which cost us just €23 a night thanks to our ACSI card. Absolute bargain!

Our first stop was EuroSpar for some essentials - our new favourite nutty cheese, beer and wine. We tried to buy some stamps at a Post Office but the queue was too long.

We then set the SatNav for Port Torres and selected the fastest route to catch our ferry back to Genoa. The interior of Sardinia does not have a lot to write home about. It is mountainous scrubland with just the odd small town or random restaurant.

We didn’t stop anywhere until we took a very minor detour to a Decathlon shop in Sassari, where we purchased a single ‘luxury’ airbed and 2 gas canisters for the cooker.

We were still 50 minutes early for the ferry check-in, but Jackie insisted we go anyway. Our ferry was in port, but it was surprisingly quiet. We pulled up at the security point where we were informed that check-in had been delayed until 6pm, some 2 hours 20 minutes later. Initially pissed off, because they could have sent us an email, which we wouldn’t have read, I suggested finding a beach which Jackie shut down immediately.

Instead we went McDonalds for a coffee, to get some WiFi, use their toilet and reassess. We ended up buying a Big Mac each and shared a fries and coke. I had somewhere in mind and with WiFi I was able to discover it was just 22 miles along the northern coast of the island.

We headed off taking a small detour through the holiday resort of Castelsardo to Elephant Rock. I didn’t know what to expect, but actually it was better than I could have ever imagined. We took a few photos, mainly with an irritating Italian woman in the way, then at Jackie’s insistence we rushed back to Port Torres.

The guard at the security point had told us to return around 6.10pm, but we arrived half an hour early to find a huge single line queue. We chose to park up and listen to the cricket as the queue got longer and longer. After 6pm, the queue started moving and a 2nd queue which we now couldn’t get to, formed for those just arriving. If only we had heeded the guard’s advice!

It was another chaotic embarkation, but we eventually boarded and found our cabin. We watched the disappointing sunset fade to nothing over Stintino with a couple of flasks of white wine. We then had a sandwich, a shower and fell asleep in our lovely bug free, dirt free, airbed free cabin.

Song of the Day - Elephant Stone by The Stone Roses.Read more