Living in the Zone

After all the driving to farms, mountains, and villages, I thought it would be nice to do a short, relaxing hike from Cala Gonone. I got out the map that the car rental agency had given me, and looked at what the agent had circled. I used Google maps to look up distances and found a hike that was only thirty-one minutes walking distance. I laced up my hiking shoes and put a couple of bottles of water in my backpack and headed out. From what I had looked up online, this trail would lead to a must-see grotto (a cave). To get to the trail I had to walk up the mountain road for about a half-mile. I guessed that the minutes I walked up the road didn’t count in the thirty-one-minute hike. At the trailhead, I turned around to look back on Cala Gonone and what I had just walked. I was above the clouds!

My husband, Todd, and I started up the trail and after a while, we were passed by another couple. They had to be in their seventies, and they passed us like we were standing still. In fact, we were moving so slowly by that time, that it probably seemed like we were standing still! We must have hiked for at least an hour when I lost signal on my phone, but I was certain we were close to the end where we would find the grotto. It was hot and humid and we only had two half-empty bottles of water so Todd suggested we turn around. I told him we had come too far, and if we turned around now, we might be turning around right before we got to the cave. So, we continued to trudge up the trail.

Eventually, we got to a railing with a sign that had an arrow pointing downwards which said “Cartoe”. Spiaggia de Cartoe was the name of a white sandy beach we had driven to on one of our exploratory excursions around the island! Two hours into this hike, we had not found a cave, but if we climbed down and went just a little further, we would be at a beautiful beach. Past the fence-railing, the trail became rugged and narrow like a goat trail. Todd was reluctant, but I insisted on checking it out. As we were discussing what to do, a couple came up from the trail laughing and speaking Italian to one another. He was wearing flip-flops and she was wearing sandals so I figured it couldn’t be that difficult of a climb down.

We walked around the railing and began the trek down the trail. After the first turn, I realized that the laughing couple had not hiked the trail! Evidently, they had gone down a few steps and realized it was ridiculous to try doing it in the shoes they were wearing. Todd and I had on hiking shoes so we kept going. The trail got more rugged and treacherous with each step we took until we were hanging on to tree roots trying to navigate the steep climb. When we got to an opening in the treeline, I looked out and saw the white beach far away in the distance. It was then that I realized we had to turn back. We were nearly out of water, and even if we made it to the beach, we had no money to purchase any from the beach service.

I turned around and looked at where we had just come. We started climbing back up the steep trail and headed back towards Cala Gonone. Our thirty-one-minute hike had turned into a four-hour hike! We never found the grotto we were looking for that day, but we did have a surprise adventure.