I love watching sunsets at a beach, walking barefoot in the sand, having a cocktail while admiring the waves but I'm not so good with being in water. Frankly, I'm not a good swimmer. I can swim but I'm not confident enough so I stay close to the shore and try to swim only until I can still touch the ground. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of fun in the sea but I have my ground rules 🙂
Since I'm scared of deep water I don't enjoy boat trips or standing very close to the edge of a cliff. And these were the two things that were waiting for me the day when we went to visit Capo Caccia and Neptune's Grotto. I was anxious already when I was booking our tickets!
Our plan was to come by a boat to the cave in the morning, take a tour and walk up 654 stairs to the Capo Caccia cliffs. It's indeed a lot of stairs but we wanted to challenge ourselves a bit. However, it was a windy day and our visit got cancelled. We left it for one of our last days on the island, so we couldn't rebook it for another day as the weather forecast was not so good for the rest of our trip. The wind in Alghero can be very strong and it may get dangerous to visit the cave because of the waves.
I must admit that I was not so disappointed even though I really wanted to see the caves but I was so scared of the boat trip that it was kind of a relief when we learned that we wouldn't have to do it. We decided that next time we will skip the boat trip and walk the stairs down as well.
Good news was that we could still visit Capo Caccia!
Capo Caccia is a part of the protected area of Alghero. You can reach it easily from Alghero. It took us about 30 minutes and even the road was an amazing experience. There are some stops where you can park your car and enjoy the views.
The place is also known as the sleeping giant because this is how it looks like when you see it from Alghero.
When I saw it from far away I already knew that it would be challenging for me to stand there without getting a panic attack but I knew my husband would be with me and would make me feel safe. Moreover, it is important to face our fears (from time to time).
There somewhere are the stairs down to the caves. The views must be amazing. Hopefully, next time there won't be that much wind..
And here we go! Just a short walk from the ticket office you can admire this kind of views. I know, it looks peaceful but what you don't see on the picture is where I'm standing. The impressive and equally scary cliffs are almost 300 meter high! It is one of the wildest places in Sardinia. The wind was blowing and the waves were crashing against the rocks. It was fascinating and terrifying at the same time.
I couldn't take more pictures from the cliff as I froze and couldn't move much..
Luckily, there are many hiking trails that you can take which are much safer than the cliffs. The natural reserve was established by Italian Botanic Association in 1970. It covers large area with rare plants and birds.
There are 15 caves in this area which are popular among scuba divers as there are colorful fish as well as red corral typical for the region of Alghero.
Animal lovers who don't like scuba diving should also keep a close eye on the sea because around Capo Caccia is the Isola Piana Marine reserve where you can find dolphins as well as seals! We were not lucky enough to see them though.
After our walk we went back to the beach in Alghero. We were the only two people there. You can guess why 🙂
I haven't been on a beach during a storm before. The waves don't look big on the picture but they were huge! It was amazing! We were sitting there, watching the waves and clouds for some time. After a while it started to rain, so we returned back to the car. We were hungry anyway!
And this is the same beach on a sunny day...
It was just a short summer storm and we still had the afternoon to do something nice. Our host told us about the Sella & Mosca estate and gave us a bottle of their wine which we loved, so we decided to visit the estate and learn more about the wine of Sardinia.
Sella & Mosca in Alghero is one of the biggest vineyards in Europe and we had no idea!
The estate was established more than a century ago by Erminio Sella and Edgardo Mosca from Piemonte. They fell in love with this piece of land and changed it into a profitable business.
In the estate, there are different sites including an elementary school as well as a chapel. You can visit the production site or you can book a tour of the vineyard combined with wine tasting. Unfortunately, we couldn't book the wine tasting as we came by car. There are also rooms that you can book in Sella e Mosca hotel but they were all booked out during our visit. Next time we will come by taxi!
However, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade is one of the phrases that we try to follow, we visited the wine shop in the estate, chose our favorite wine and had a crate delivered to Switzerland. This was our way of the wine tasting compensation 🙂
The small but charming chapel was built in the 1950s for the workers of the vineyard. It's a perfect place to cool down during hot days!
I have always found it fascinating how strong the plants can be! I was sweating like crazy and they are flourishing in this heat!
And last but not least here are the views that we had from our house. We had the sleeping giant right in front of us!
The estate where we were staying is producing olive oil as well, and the house is located in the olive orchard.
There were olive trees as far as we could see (when you forget the sea in the back 🙂) We loved morning walks among the trees and hated the sound of crickets in the evenings! I was wearing earplugs to be able to fall asleep.
I hope that you have enjoyed our trip in Sardinia. You should definitely visit the island as soon as you get a chance.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers, Martina