Cala Gonone is becoming a must every summer, last year the whole clan of Tidus and Unruhs enjoyed it with Michelle, Zsolt and their kids, this year we went with Dylan and Jazzi. It is also becoming a tradition to arrive there late, so it is impossible to find a rubber raft to rent, and we have to buy a ticket on the mini cruise boat who takes you to three beaches and leaves you in each one for a couple of hours.This time the day was ideal, blue skies and crystal clear waters….. More or less like last year!!!!! One of the operators of the boat was very helpful and gave lots of information on the type of trees that grow in the area; an eagle’s nest perched in the rocks; the derivation of the name of the boat, which was TURCALI, probably from a pirate that was hung in the area of Dorgali; local discord as to which County the major beaches belong to…and so forth.
Dylan and Jazzi also walked to an arch on the water, it was made of razor sharp rocks, and the crazy kids climbed it several times and dove from there. Dylan also went to another rock, which was even higher than all the other ones, and overcame his initial fear to take the plunge! He would have repeated the dive, but his flip-flops broke and besides the rocks were really cutting his feet a lot. We saw them from afar and started to hope they would hurry back since the boat was about to come back to pick us up…. then we started really worrying, and started calling, at first they did not seem to hear our calls, but at last we saw them jumping in the water and swimming fast to shore…. they made the boat breathless!
This year I brought my beach shoes which made it MUCH easier to walk on the beach of Cala Mariolu, which has the tiniest, whitest, oval or round very smooth pebbles instead of sand; this gives the water a wonderful emerald color, beautiful to behold but not very comfortable to walk on!
Jazzi and Dylan found rock climbing and diving very exciting and fun, we walked to a rock that was maybe 20 feet from the surface of the water and Dylan was the first to dive, then either Toni or Jazzi took the plunge, encouraged by all of them I decided to dive to the wonderment of M. Teresa who couldn’t believe it. I jumped and it was exhilarating…so... I jumped again!!!!
Tony and Jazzi....
...all four of us, click on the picture for a nicer view....
Can you believe how crystal clean this water is?
Toni and Dylan swam to a rock quite far away from shore, Dylan and Ale also checked out the sea floor with their goggles and found it very interesting.We had so much fun swimming and diving that we could not find time to eat while in the first two beaches, so waited until the last one, Cala Luna.
Jazzi and Dylan on the Turcali enjoying the sun
Last year we had time to walk around the town of Dorgali, make some purchases and eat pizza, this time we stayed in Cala Gonone, we got there too late to take showers, so we had to remain “salty” and preferred to walk around Cala Gonone. Some of us stopped at a bar, Dylan and Jazzi had “pizza al taglio” and I had a panino, not an extremely fun way to cap the day, but nice enough and very relaxing before starting on the three-hour drive back.
This is one of the many caves that pepper the coast of Cala Gonone, the water is actually this color, no filters here, just my trusty Coolpix.Plans are being “penciled in” already for next year’s trip, God willing. We will DEFINITELY rent the rubber boat, even if it means getting on the road at 4-5 AM; as nice as the mini tour is, I think we have outgrown it. Renting the boat will give us the opportunity to visit all the caves and inlets, swim in the deep water, and dive off the many cliffs that protrude on the shore.
We have also learned that the major cave, which houses an endangered species of seal called “Bue Marino” will be expanded to include several more caves, so it may be time to re-visit it since the last time we saw it was a loooong loooong time ago.
This is definitely one of the blogs I will want to edit when I am not limited to 30 minutes of internet per day..... many of the pictures did not download and the whole thing is discombobulated! Sorry, but it is better that nothing I guess.
