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Peter & Anne Holidays |
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Cycling (road and mountain bike), walking and climbing in Ogliastra, Sardinia |
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Above: Sardinia walking Gorroppeddu & Serra Oseli: Anne follows (?) Peter's description as we test a new walk. This walk is included in the 2010/11 Rother guide |
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Walking in Sardinia |
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How to get there from the UK: Ryanair fly Stansted—Alghero all year, 3-7X/wk. EasyJet fly Gatwick—Olbia, Bristol—Olbia (May to September); Luton/Stansted—Cagliari all year, 3x/week winter , every day summer. From any of the three main airports, it is 2.5 hours drive to Ogliastra. For other options on getting to Sardinia, see How to get there Walking in Sardinia is fantastic, and the Ogliastra region offers some of the best and most varied walks, with hundreds of routes for walkers, ranging from spectacular coastal walks— from the many easy walks, starting from a 6km circuit of Lotzorai with one leg along the beach, to the “Sentiero Selvaggio Blu”, a 6-day expedition involving climbing and abseiling, and other walks with similarly or even more-challenging route finding and steep terrain—as well as walks on the Gennargentu mountains overlooking Ogliastra. The highest point, Punta La Marmora, 1834m, is reached by en easy walk but in summer do take enough water for a 5-hour round trip. We failed to do this when we went... Although it’s hot in summer, just as for cycling and climbing, walks at 700m+ and/or in the deep gorges, or on the coast with a sea breeze, are cool even in the height of summer. We have by now completed many walks, from the easiest to the most difficult, and explored in detail this area and can help our guests with route descriptions. We use a number of different guidebooks and information sources, and have also done (and documented) many walks not in these guidebooks:- · The best maps for walking in Italy are from the Istituto Geografico Militare . We have all the 1:25 000 and 1:50 000 maps needed for walking in Ogliastra, and they are really excellent for detail and contours, although sometimes the footpath information isn’t up to date and newer roads aren’t shown... we can tell you where they are! The best place to buy them in the UK is The Map Shop, Upton upon Severn. They keep a number in stock, and it takes them about 6 weeks to order other sheets. Here is an interactive map finder to decide which maps you need. · During 2009 the Ente Foreste della Sardegna worked very hard to improve 76 of the island’s mostly-inland walks and equip them with signs, and published detailed descriptions in Italian and English of them in 12 maps. The project is called Un’Isola di Sentieri, An Island of Paths, and is one of the best such initiatives we’ve come across during all our time in Sardinia! As the map on the right shows, The Lemon House is ideally located for accessing these walks, with 4. Supramonte Ogliastrino 5. Gennargentu 6. Gennargentu Ogliastrino 9. Tacchi d’Ogliastra right on our doorstep. You can download the maps and the brochure here. At The Lemon House we have lots of copies of the brochure and copies of the 4 nearby maps to consult but not to take away—they’re too precious! As described in the brochure, each map can be picked up free from the local Comune or relevant Ente Foreste station. · In English, the Sunflower guide and the 'Rother Walking Guide to Sardinia' between them describe abut 25 walks in or near the Ogliastra region, and both include the most well-known and suitable-for-families walks such as to the Gola su Gorrupu and Cala Goloritzè. No walks harder than E (escursionistico) on the Italian Alpine Club scale of difficulty, meaning they are generally on paths. · The Sunflower guide is regularly updated (4th edition 2010) and the online Update service means you can get the latest up-to-the-minute information. This includes the most popular walks. · The 'Rother Walking Guide to Sardinia' is published by Bergverlag Rother www.rother.de. While the English 2000 edition (50 walks, 14 in our area) has been out-of-print for some time, in 2009 we helped Walter and Elisabeth with information for a new June 2010 German edition ISBN 978-3-7633-4023-1 (English, French and Italian translations available March 2011) with 63 walks , of which 24(!) in our area. Peter gets a special thanks on p164 for his help in suggesting walks in Ogliastra (für seine Wandertipps im Ogliastra-Gebiet); The Lemon House gets a couple of mentions, both as a place to stay and for information on sports in Sardinia (walking, climbing, mountainbiking, kayaking). · A Cicerone guide to walking in Sardinia will be published in 2011. The author, Paddy Dillon, stayed with us in 2009 and 2010 as he was documenting some 50-odd walks. · If you want more challenging walking, consider the Selvaggio Blu, “Italy’s most difficult trek”, a 7-day expedition from Santa Maria Navarrese, 3km from The Lemon House, to Cala Gonone. The second half of the route involves climbing up to UIAA grade IV and 45m abseils, but if you don’t want to do the climbing and abseiling we can suggest equally-interesting alternative routes. See photos here. The guide (in English) to the Selvaggio Blu , for which Peter did the translation, was published in April 2008. ISBN 978-88-88776-25-5 €16. You can order it from the EdizioniSegnavia website. With this guidebook, and without a guide-person, you can confidently undertake the trek. The major problem of Selvaggio Blu is the lack of water along the route, and it’s best to carry the water you’ll need or (as most people do) drop it off in advance. We help our guests by suggesting exactly where they can leave water easily. We can also help you get a lift by boat from Cala Goloritzè to Cala Sisine if you want to avoid the stages which involve climbing and abseiling. · In Italian, we use the following guides. If you are looking for technically-challenging walking in remote places, you find it described in these books: many are rated EE (escursionisti esperti) means for expert walkers, with difficult route finding and often absence of paths or route markings eg across scree or open limestone pavement. · Aldo Nieddu’s beautiful ‘Andalas & Caminus’ which comes in two volumes and describes in details walks following the paths and wooden ladders (scalas ‘e fustes) used by shepherds on the Supramonte above Baunei. Also by the same author and publisher (Poliedro, Nuoro) “Terre Selvagge” covering the Urzulei area. · The Italian Alpine Club (CAI) guide “Guida dei Monti d’Italia” Sardegna. As well as descriptions of climbs, this has a dedicated section on walking with excellent, detailed descriptions. · Finally, our friends here show us some great walks not yet in any guides, for instance see here for an easy family walk to the mountain Mundugia between Talana, Triei and Lotzorai, which Giampietro of the Sant’Efisio Hotel (www.hotel-santefisio.com) showed us. The Ente Foreste added signs to this walk in 2009 (see above). For an more challenging walk, see here for a description of the walk around Serra Oseli and Gorroppeddu, which Peter did with the CAI in 2008. We can help walkers choose walks, with logistics (pickups/dropoffs, one-way or to do only part of a walk, or avoid the section on tarmacked roads) and can also make some suggestions on easier walks, suitable for people with young children and/or for older people. We often accompany guests on those walks not described in the English guidebooks and/or where route finding is a bit tricky, or can explain the “crucial” bit of route-finding for a walk. We can also arrange for you to be dropped off by boat, eg to walk from Cala Sisine to Cala Luna and then Cala Fuili at Cala Gonone. For groups of 6 people or more interested in multi-day walks, we can help people who stay with us in arranging things with local Italian-speaking guides, including accompanying you to help with translation. |
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The Lemon House via Dante 19 08040 Lotzorai (OG) Italy Tel/Fax: +39 0782 669 507 Mobile (Anne): +39 339 714 6496 Mobile (Peter): +39 335 648 9826 E-mail: peteranne@peteranne.it
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Above: the stunning view of Punta Giradili, 5’ from the car. This is the start of the 1st stage of the walk Selvaggio Blu. You can walk to this point in 2 hours from The Lemon House via a coastal path.
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Above: Walks for all ages and abilities. Anne and her very much in-form Mum Margaret at Bacu Canale, on a popular 4-hour round walk we devised on the Golgo plateau. |
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Above: the Ente Foreste’s 12 maps Beow: examples of signs from walk to Paule Mundugia, from map 6. Gennargentu Ogliastrino |