Sardinia - Photos and Tales

30 Apr

After visiting Sardinia in 2017 for my lovely friends’ beach wedding (omg it was stunning), they invited us back for a little holiday with them. So of course we jumped at the chance.

Despite visiting Sardinia twice now, I feel like I’ve only experienced a small portion of the island, and there’s so much left to explore. It’s a place I see myself coming back to time and time again, not just because it’s BEAUTIFUL, but also because of the memories I’ve made there with the people I love.

We flew in to Olbia, then drove to our base in Capo Testa. We then spent a few days exploring the coast, stopping at small towns, beaches, and coastal walks. It’s the sort of place where you can come with a plan, or you can drive around until something takes your eye. For instance, we were in a lovely town — Isola Rossa — and across the way we noticed a huge stretch of white sand. We hopped into the car and after a short walk we found ourselves on a completely empty beach. It must have gone on for several kilometres and ours were the only footprints in the sand!

I found driving in Sardinia an absolute breeze — especially when compared to Sicily or Portugal for instance, where it’s a bit more cut-throat, and the town roads are smaller and parking is like a fight to the death. It could be that we were out of season this time, but the roads were easy to navigate, and — frankly — bloody great fun. So many twists and turns! I’m trying to get as much left-hand driving experience in as I can before my American road trip in September. But anyway.

Sardinia is amazing because the coast has both epic beaches and really cool rocky areas too. They’re super interesting to look at and photograph, and they’re also really grippy to climb on. Honestly, you can lose hours just scrambling further and further down the coast. Which is exactly what we did for about half a day.

At the bottom, by the sea, the wind was up and the waves were wild, and we felt like the last people on earth. We spent a good long time just taking it all in.

Sardinia isn’t the greatest place in terms of light pollution, but on a clear night you can get some good results for some astrophotography. I took some night-lapses from the terrace (fuelled by a bit of wine…) and I’m quite happy with the results. This was taken on my Lumix GH5 with the 7Artisans (super affordable!) 7.5mm f2.8mm fisheye lens. It was 30 second exposures at 40 second intervals for just over an hour. I wish I’d have kept it going a bit longer, but you know… wine happened.

We also visited an animal sanctuary, and I made a friend in a sheep called Mint. She has been brought up to think she is a dog, so she’s always curious and happy to see humans. There was a pig, and some donkeys too. It was such a little haven.

So here are my favourite images from my trip. I took a very minimal kit: