La Maddalena day ride

October 30, 2023

Another beautiful day

We started the day with a fine buffet breakfast, including eggs, bacon, muesli, yogurt, pastries, and of course cappuccino. Breakfast was served on an open air terrace. Wouldn’t be doing that at home right about now.

We’d be doing a day trip ride today, so had nice light loads. It was a warm and sunny start to the day, but definitely windier than yesterday. .

La Maddalena archipelago is home to 11,000 people. Not many of them were out and about on a Monday, but we kept seeing the same tourists all day as we biked around the island.

Our first destination was the island of Caprera, all of which is included in the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park.

We biked the mostly flat route to the south end of Caprera, where there are deteriorating military installations from the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s amazing that members of the public can wander around these crumbling structures. We had fun exploring, and walked up right to the top to the howitzer platforms.

Then we headed back to the sheltered Due Mare beach for a swim. The weather is forecast to get windy, colder, and wet, so we better enjoy the ocean while we can. There were a few other people swimming today, and four sailboats moored offshore.

Following a picnic lunch, we headed back to La Maddalena and spent the rest of the afternoon circumnavigating. It wasn’t too strenuous a ride, but it certainly was stunning. The granite outcrops are beautiful, and there are multiple beaches and harbours around the island. We celebrated with excellent gelato from the only gelato shop open on this Monday. The proprietor told us that there is a lot of English spoken here because of a former US naval base that had thousands of Americans living here; it closed in 2008. We must’ve seen 10 gelato shops that were closed. Maybe some are closed for the season?

There are boats everywhere. Some of them are no longer seaworthy. Today was a great day for kiteboarders - they were having lots of fun. Yachts had very little of their sails out because of the wind.

Heading across the causeway to Caprera Island.

The only trees we’ve seen around here there was a sign describing how and why they were planted.

Delicious local foods for lunch on the beach.

There are fortifications all around La Maddalena. This one is from WW2, we think.

Main harbour of La Maddalena. It’s around the corner from our hotel.

The circumnavigation route is spectacular. Few cars and nice pavement.

It’s clearly lousy for farming on this island. It’d be impossible to cultivate. But the granite is beautiful

Restaurants were also mostly closed on this Monday evening, so we had more pizza tonight. It was very good. But it’s time for some variety.

Let’s hope that the incoming weather isn’t too terrible. The models seem to have mixed ideas about what it will be like. Definitely windy. Maybe wet. And perfect temperatures for riding.

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 129 km (80 miles)

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