Crosposted from !camping@sh.itjust.works.
When I was about to break down my tent, six white Sardinian shepherd dogs showed up. Beautiful medium sized dogs. They were barking a bit, kept a bit of distance, eventually figured I was alright, then left. Guess they had work to do.
I left camp and cycled along this dirt track, which seemed to be a real promising panoramic path to go, when I ran into the group again. The sheep were right at the track and the dogs blocked my way. I stood there for a bit, tried what happened if I pushed my bike a bit more towards them, but they did not seem to like that whatsoever. Bummer. Well at least they left me alone through the night, i heard the sheep’s bells and dog’s barks all around me when i got here yesterday and was a bit worried they’d bark me out of the spot in the night.
.
Anyway, i did not want to test how far they would go and decided to turn around and take a different route along some asphalt road, which was also real nice, nobody around but some cows, sheep and cork trees.
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Looks beautiful
It looks beautiful, my bike isn’t right now in ridable condition so I won’t be touring for another month or so (life happened so I decided to do maintenance in meantime).
Ah. So your original plan was to be on the road up to June which I figured you did. You gonna travel some more long time? Maybe with a tandem? ;)
This year I’ll not do any longer trips, just regular holidays, got two weeks now.
Yes it was the plan but at the end of June not on the beginning ;-)
But I will probably go for another month July/August. After I deal with the bike, I was bit surprised by some things the wear on some parts that I didn’t expected, water and mud got to headset bearings…
Oh yeah, you did not have the best luck with the weather. And spanish mud is a motherfucker 😆
It is getting pretty damn hot here, really exhausting on the climbs but I keep watering my shirt and hat that makes it bearable. Forecast says 38°C inland on the weekend, gotta take it easy.
Yeah, but worse problem was improperly sized cable housings, scratched frame and fork around headset and chewed through bearings cups of headset.
To be honest after visiting in winter some places (Spain, Portugal and southern France) are bit no go for me in summer. Too hot for me, I talked to some guy in Valencia and he just doesn’t understand why so much people are visiting in August.
Improperly sized cable housings? Like the length?
Yeah, generally no Spain etc in summer for me either. I was checking the forecast and it seemed alright for Sardinia, but my dumbass only checked coastal weather which looked fine, on the weekend it will be “only” 30 on the coast as well. 38°C is out of my comfort zone tbh, haha. Well, now I have to make it work.
Yes, it was too short and routed bit improperly (too sharp bends and routed from wrong side) so it was rubbing the frame.
So it damaged the paint job (which I don’t mind that much)…
… and wore hole in the headset bearing cups
Oh wow, that is kinda crazy.
Camping’s about the only option left in Sardinia. I spent a couple of days there a few years ago, the hotel bill was absolutely ruinous.
I took a room yesterday, 40€. Not a great room, but OK. And today I am going to spend almost all day on a bus, I forgot my ID on a campsite reception at the coast and have to go pick it up again, found out when I tried to check in to the room. Could not rent a car either because I did not bring my drivers license. So if all goes to plan, I return to my room and stay another night, haha, should work because I am already sitting on the first bus.
Renting a car? This is an interesting form of bike touring!
And you managed to get the bike on a bus, too? Is it foldable?
Ha. Yeah just to pick up the passport.
I left my bike at the place where I spend the night, it is not foldable, no. I could have cycled back to the coast in a day I guess, but I really wanted to continue the way I was going and not ride that stretch three times really.
Already picked up my passport. Now I get to have a dip in the sea again which is also kinda nice, haha. Then get back on the bus, back to my bike.
Where in Sardinia? How is it for cycling? And are you doing it as part of a larger trip?
No it is just two weeks of cycling Sardinia. Basically all around, I have no fixed plan but I am loosely following the Bikepacking Sardinia routes, have them as an overlay along with some others. But I also want to make it to the west coast. Not sure if i’ll go all the way to Cagliari or turn west earlier, got to see how I will cope with the heat.
That camping spot was actually a marked possible camp spot “with a view” on the bp route, so I did not end up there by chance. And the dirt track that was blocked by the dogs was along the bp route.
It’s nice cycling here, even though it is Italy so it’s got Italian drivers. But inland there ain’t much going on at all, it’s quite lonely, which I like. Hardly any traffic even on the bigger roads other than sheep farmers etc. Bit hot for my taste, but I can’t complain about that now, choosing to do it in summer.
Interesting, thanks! Yes, very hot already in early June, that was when I went too, but not on a bike. Almost got heatstroke when I spent a day walking in Asinara national park in the far northwest. But that’s the problem with southern Europe, it’s too cold till about March then you have about 6 weeks until it gets too hot!
How’s the experience camping?
Camping has been good so far and I think it will continue to be like that, easy, I see no reason why not, other than shepherd dogs. It’s really lonely inland, there is quite a bit of fenced off terrain, but lots of spots without fences. And the fenced off stuff has often been just some cork tree orchards where it’d be easy camping too I guess.
And Sardinian shepherds kidnapping tourists is luckily a thing of the past, haha.
Should have brought my sleeping bag liner though, bit warm in the night for the sleeping bag.