Sitting at the pub on the beach drinking Singha and watching a little elephant walk by on the beach 😛
Life is good 😊
Sea Kayak Adventures
Sitting at the pub on the beach drinking Singha and watching a little elephant walk by on the beach 😛
Life is good 😊
We had a fantastic time paddling in Raja Ampat Indonesia. I’ll load the daily paddle posts and pictures when we get home. The Paddle Tracks are up and you can tell paddling vs moving on the Jakare very easily.
Right now, we just checked into our beach front cottage on Koh Chang Island, Thailand. The water looks great and we are excited to start paddling on Saturday. We’ll paddle south on the west coast and then cross over to some smaller island for a couple days, then up the east coast, around the north end and back south to the start. These posts will follow the Raja Ampat posts. Paddle Tracks will be live on Saturday so you can follow along as desired. They will be real time.
Happy Paddling
We were all up and done with breakfast so we could get an early start. The plan was to drive to the north side of the island and do the crossing to Isola Santa Maria then to Isola Buddeli to see the famous pink beach, Spiaggia Rosa. Check out the paddle tracks to get an idea of our days paddle.
Then we do it all in reverse. After a great paddle, we got back to town, had a gelato snack and beers then off to a great spot for drinks and dinner.
That’s it for our last paddle day in Sardinia. This is a fantastic place to paddle and I would come back anytime. Tomorrow we’ll load up and drive to Olbia to drop Lou off at the airport. Then, Marco, Lidia, Julie and I will catch the ferry back to main land Italy. Julie and I will spend the night and fly back to the states the following day.
We launched not far from our starting point yesterday and paddled the north east side of La Maddalena. Not too many pictures for today. Just enjoying the paddle.
We loaded up and went back into town. Dinner and gelato topped off the day.
We launched on the east side of La Maddalena and paddled under the bridge and over to the island of Caprera where we paddled the north west side of the island. Here are a few pictures. The rock formations and little pocket beaches were fantastic.
That’s it for this day. We all got cleaned up, had dinner in town and hit the sack.
We all packed up our gear and the kayaks and after a good breakfast headed into Palau. We spent a little time wandering the market and then caught the ferry for La Maddalena. It’s a short hope over and has beautiful views of places we had paddled. Our accommodations in La Maddalena are a really nice B&B in the middle of town.
After unloading we explored town a little. I found the best gelato shop right around the corner from where we were staying and would visit multiple times over the next few days. This is a great little town and not so busy as yet. We were told that it would be jammed with people next week as the the tourist season gets going.
We were told that the Italian Navy training ship would be pulling in later in the day so we’ll keep our eyes out for it. The Amerigo Vespucci is a three mast square rigged sailing ship and is beautiful. Julie and I hung out on the pier and were able to see the ship come in. We are hoping to be able to do a tour tomorrow.
After a little rest we headed west of town to another beautiful beach for a short evening paddle and then a seafood dinner overlooking the beach. What a fantastic way to start our stay on La Maddalena.
After dinner it was back to town and visit the gelato shop. They always give me a hard time for not trying multiple flavors. All I want is chocolate 😛. After gelato we all went in different directions to explore the town some more. Julie and I went down to the pier and found the Amerigo Vespucci all lit up in the color of the Italian flag. What a sight against the night sky.
Back to the B&B for some good sleep and that’s it for this day.
Another excellent day! Julie and I launched the kayaks from the same beach as yesterday and headed out along the north coast to the west. We paddled from Porto Rafael to Port Puddu which had a nice beach with a restaurant so we could get lunch. Marco and the two ladies went out for a sail with Andrea on his little sloop. The cockpit has enough a space to accommodate four people so the arranges are working out perfectly.
That’s it for this day. It was great that the rest of the team had a good sail and Julie and I had a fantastic paddle.
We got an early start today and drove ti the village of Porto Rafael. There was a little bit of a walk to get the kayaks down to the local beach but it was a very nice paved path and beautiful launch spot.
Our plan is to do the crossing out to the island of Spargi and circumnavigate the island. Spargi is an island of Italy. It is situated in the Maddalena archipelago, in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia.
We explored the batteries with Andrea giving us a great tour and explaining the history. It was a relatively short hike up to the fortifications of Petrajaccio and Punta Zanotto, old military batteries embedded and camouflaged in granite rock.
The plan for the day was to do a nice evening paddle and land at a very remote restaurant for dinner.
We started the day walking around the little town of Santa Teresa Gallura. Definitely a tourist town but really nice. Julie and I hung out a a cafe for a while. We had the best view overlooking a beach and across the water to Corsica.
That’s Corsica in the distance. And, Marco and I paddled around that shore line a while back.
I did find some excellent gelato when we walked back into town. Yum 😋
After that, we all met up at a great little pizzeria for lunch and then the drive back to the agrotourismo for a short rest.
After collecting all our paddle gear and hooking up the trailer we headed back to the water. Our launch location was very close to the town we had visited. After getting everyone situated we were on the water at 1700.
We paddled along a magnificent coast with late afternoon and evening colors from the low sun. What a great place to paddle.
We loaded up the kayaks and headed back “home” to get some good rest. Another fantastic day.
We had a great breakfast at the agroturismo and the headed out to the coast.
Our destination was the little town of Paula which is right across from the island of la Maddalena.
We had a great launch spot where we parked the van right next two the beach.
After getting all the kayaks unloaded we walked around the harbor and got sandwiches and fruit to take with us. Back to the kayaks and we were off. The plan was for a short paddle day and picnic on a beach along the way.
Before we rounded the point and headed south, the wind started blowing big time and the waves picked up pretty good. The wind and waves were being funneled between the two islands and made for great down wind rides. So much fun. No good pictures as I was having too much fun paddling the conditions.
Another great paddle day on Sardinia.