Surfing Safari

"Lets go surfin now

Everybodys learning how
Come on and safari with me
(come on and safari with meee...)

Early in the morning well be startin out
Some honeys will be coming along
Were loading up our woody
With our boards inside

And headin out singing our song"

On Friday we packed our car and headed to our west coast where a Big Swell was expected to blow in that afternoon. The part of the west coast we went to is a particular coast called "costa verde" (green coast) named this way because of its lush evergreen vegetation.
In this area there are many abandoned mines from the 1800's and 1900's, an important part of Sardinia's industrial history. We first stopped in the small town of Nebida - mining town known for Iron and Zinc extraction.

(Miners at the Chessa Gallery entrance end of the 19th century)

View from Nebida looking south towards Funtanamare

Another view from Nebida looking north towards
Masua and the "sugar loaf"

The washery- A place where ore, coal, or crushed stone
is freed from impurities or dust by washing.
Also called wet separation plant or washing plant.

An old wheel

A "lone" yucca

Us in front of the powder magazine
(where they kept all the explosives) and Enrico "mocking me" ;)

Iron & Minerals

We then headed on to Buggerru where the forecast was right on .... this is what happened in about a split second! (the pictures above were taken the same day about 30 min before)

The "swell"

It came....

The loooow clouds, and it rained

before & after
(same day just 30min apart)

We set up tent, and waited for the waves the next day.......

THE NEXT DAY! (SATURDAY) WAVES IT WAS!


A view from up top of Buggerru's port

Waves blasting into the Port's entrance....

..... banging on the side of the cliffs....

....on the jetty.....

Enrico on the jetty

Then off to Masua to the sugar loaf,
hoping it's a bit less choppy...

It was, even if to Enrico it wasn't that good.
At least he got to try his new board out!

The next day (Sunday) we packed up our tent and stuff and headed north to the sand dunes of "Piscinas" beach, there are no paved roads to get there.... if you click on the link you can see a satillite image of where the road finishes and to the west the big white sand dunes where we went... Unfortuatly to get there you have to go back inland up the mountain and then back down, it would be esaier if they built a strait road, but maybe it's just better that way so not so many people can get there.... ;)
However, there is 1 Hotel in the middle of no where called " Le Dune" In 1985 the Ministry for Cultural Assets declared the hotel a national monument for its particular historical interest and artistic value. It consists of three main buildings joined together by a beautiful patio and a little piazza looking on to the sea. (click on the link to lean more)

Passage way through the Mine's Manager Building (built in 1875)
in the town of Ingurtosu. The Manager’s Building, called “The Castle”, is built in medieval style imitation of a German building.

Ingurtosu is an outlying small village in the municipality of Arbus and was, together with Montevecchio, one of the most important mining centres in Sardinia. The name Ingurtosu comes from “su gurturgiu”, a griffon vulture which inhabited the skies of the area. Today Ingurtosu is a crumbling, half-deserted village but it was inhabited till the end of the 60’s and at one time almost 5,000 people lived there. It was the managerial centre of Ingurtosu and nearby Gennamari mines which made up the mining area called the “Montevecchio Vein” where lead, zinc and silver were extracted. The mine began its activity in 1855 and reached its peak at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The valley ends with the wonderful Dunes of Piscinas where minerals were transported by a small railway, built in 1871, and then loaded onto cargo ships.
Today Ingurtosu is a monument of industrial archaeology and is part of a vast area that has been declared “UNESCO World’s Heritage Site” and part of the Historical and Natural Geo-Mining Park of the Region of Sardegna.

The unpaved road

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

A bent juniper tree from the high mistral winds that blow from NW

Us on the way back home (finally for a nice shower)

One last glance.....

The lush vegetation