I briefly mentioned in the November review that our plans for this stretch of the trip had been thrown badly into disarray by the withdrawal of the boat service we'd planned to take from Bonifacio (in Corsica) to Santa Teresa di Gallura (in Sardinia).

In a nutshell, instead of a quick 50-minute boat ride from one town to the next, we had to:

1. Catch the bus back to Porto Vecchio (the same one we came on, which takes 30 minutes, and costs EUR 9 per person per direction).

2. Fill in several hours in Porto Vecchio, because the replacement boat service doesn't go until 1700. And that filling-in involves taking your pack with you, because there's no left-luggage facility.

3. Overnight in Golfo Aranci, which is where the boat arrives (at 2100). We stayed at the Hotel Maria, which is pleasant. Fortunately, we'd been able to cancel our accommodation in Santa Teresa.

4. Take the bus that's currently replacing the train to Olbia, and book to stay two nights there. We had been due to change here for our next destination, Sassari, so getting ourselves to Olbia gets us back on track with the itinerary, although it was a pity to miss out on Santa Teresa, which is apparently very nice.

This all sounds pretty simple, but it involved two transition days back-to-back. Days when, for several hours in the middle, you're adrift with all your baggage, and without any base. We ended up walking 24 km over the last two days -- well over half of them with packs on our backs (and fronts).

Long story short, it was a pity we had to reschedule, but at least all the towns involved are pleasant places to be, and at least we had good weather. Doing this in the rain would have been miserable (and, no doubt, expensive).

Anyway, here's how it went down...

We got to enjoy a bit more of Bonifacio:







The bus lands you back in Porto Vecchio at 1245:




We spend a good hour over our excellent galettes. But there's a limit to the amount of time you can occupy a restaurant, and we've still a number of hours to fill. We weren't rapt about the idea of climbing up to the old town -- perched, as they so often are, on the top of a big hill -- but we found the most relaxed route up possible, and it was very much worth the effort:














Finally, we'd reached a point where we thought we could decently enquire whether we could get on the ferry... Answer: Not yet. So there we are, stranded for a while in one of those soulless holding-pens that transport companies seem to love. But finally, we're heading off to the ship. Our ticket gets a quick zap. But when I proffered my passport (the sign said you'd need to show ID), the guy waved me on with a smile. "I can see you've got one," he said.

There aren't many places to sit on the boat, and everyone ends up in the cafe. We buy some coffee, and some water, and a couple of croissants, just to rent some space. But nobody is too bothered.

The four hours pass fairly slowly. It's not too comfortable being sat at a table, and we regret all over again that quick little 50-minute crossing we'd been hoping to do. But finally, we arrive in Golfo Aranci, Sardinia.

There are hardly any foot passengers, and we disembark with the big lorries, dwarfed. We head for the edge of the broad stretch of tarmac that the vehicles are trundling across. There don't seem to be any signs, but finally someone hollers to us from the terminal building, and points us in the right direction.

It's 2100, and the town is quiet, the Christmas market deserted:


Our hotel doesn't have late reception, but they've given us all the instructions we need for getting in, and eventually we piece the different bits together, and are able to access our room.

Such a relief. It has felt like a long, long day...



A nice breakfast (that you don't have to forage for) is always a little boost. Far too many carbs for our overall good, but we remember all that walking we did yesterday, and decide it's probably all right for once.

Having arranged to leave our luggage with the hotel, we head out to explore Golfo Aranci. Which is lovely. You can't go wrong with sea and mountains...




Sculpture is a big theme here, some of it ever so slightly strange:





In particular, there's a bit of a mermaid thing going on. A passer-by kindly explained that we couldn't see the sculpture known as The Siren's Song because it only rises from the waters at certain times, and we weren't there for any of them. Interesting idea, though.



Golfo Aranci is perhaps the shuttest of the places we've stayed in so far. It must be curious living here. In the summer you're inundated with tourists. In the winter, you have to put up with the various reno operations that are getting places ready for the next onslaught.

But we managed to grab a quiet cup of coffee and a piece of cake, and then headed back to pick up our rucksacks.

There are no trains running from Golfo Aranci at the moment. Instead, there's a substitute bus. It costs EUR 2.50 per person to do the 30-minute trip to Olbia. And note that you need to buy your tickets not from the driver but from the machine in the otherwise deserted station. We didn't know this until the bus had rocked up, and we'd stowed our luggage underneath. Bit of a panic, but all ended well.

It's a nice little run into Olbia. We'd been alone on the bus to Porto Vecchio, and we were alone here too:




We didn't have much time to explore (it had been a long day already, and we still needed to go shopping), but it's a picturesque place:




The last couple of days have been pretty exhausting. I'm not sure how we could have organized things differently, given the massive spanner of the broken boat. And we survived. But you wouldn't want too many days like these.

Anyway, we can kick back tomorrow in Olbia, and hopefully get ourselves back on an even keel.