Kiwi Roaming

Actually it’s Sardenga, and where we are staying is pronounced kar-nig-JOH-neh. We are slowly remembering our key Italian phrases, Steve occasionally scrolls between French, Portuguese and Spanish first, but he gets there.

Swimming in the sea

The water here is amazing, so clear, clean, kinda warm (Steve would say cold but it’s the same temperature as the air as far as I can tell) and wonderful to swim in. I would rate it second after the Caribbean Sea with Fiji close behind. We’ve been leaving our swims until 5:30pm when it ticks over from 29C to 28C, just that tiny bit cooler coupled with the sea breeze it’s lovely.

There are many beaches here but the main beach is all sandy and gets deep enough we can swim out for a fair way, others have stones and stay shallow for ages. One of my favourite things to do is swimming in the ocean so it has been bliss swimming daily. The pēpē has been joining us as well and seems to really enjoy floating around (accompanied by an adult) in a cute inflatable flotation suit.

Resort town out and about

It is Italian school holidays, they get a staggering 13 weeks of summer holiday, but they also go to school on a Saturday so deserve the break. Even so Cannigione hasn’t filled up completely yet so it doesn’t feel crowded walking around. Paul and Karen’s resort is massive with pools and other facilities, and acts as a kind of break point in the town. South is where all the shops, restaurants, marina, facilities are (and where our apartment is). North is all resorts and mansions. We’ve all walked north and checked out the variety of beaches there.

Steve and I were also treated to both windsurfing school and yachting match racing plus a giant billion dollar sized super yacht out watching the sailing races. They have green spaces and small groves of trees every few kms with picnic tables for sitting in the shade. The beaches are mostly controlled by resorts but there are also plenty pubic beach options here as well.

Baja Sardinia

We caught the bus today (Wednesday 17th June) to the uber resort town of Baja Sardinia. No marina or yachts moored in the bays here, no houses just all resorts and hotels. The beaches are beautiful and as we stepped off the bus we all said wow to the massive rock formations defining the shape of this cove.

It is a very beautiful wee town, but also very small. I likened it to being like Palm Cove while our town is more like Port Douglas. There are many expensive restaurants and shops above the main beach so after a wee wander around we parked ourselves in the shade for coffees and beers before hopping back on the bus convinced we are staying in the right place.

Butterflies, flora and fauna

This whole region is very colourful with flowering shrubs everywhere all covered in butterflies – I have never seen as many butterflies in my life, it’s wonderful. Properties are hedged with flowering shrubs, garden beds are all flowers and we have even seen a mature pōhutukawa.

The other regular plans is the prickly pear cactus, they are huge, sometimes in pots, mostly around the landscape. We’ve seen lizards of all sizes, large moths, and can hear bird call at all hours of the day and night.

The most dominant plant here is, of course, my favourite the bougainvillea in so many distinctive deep shades of pink.