Friday 30th and Saturday 31st May
Fertilla, Alghero Sardinia
Friday 30th May
This morning the temperature was as promised, so we packed up and headed into Alghero for a walk around while it was relatively cool!
The people who run this Sosta are just lovely. Letting them know we were leaving, but coming back later, and should we pay for our 2 nights so they didn’t suspect us of doing a ‘runner’, they said no, no just pay when you leave at the end of your stay.
Very trusting.
Alghero is only a 15 minute drive away and as we were early, we managed to park up in the big central car park, right opposite the marina.
Interestingly, there was a lot of activity on the promenade, then we noticed that today was the opening of the beach soccer season, a 4-day competition involving a cup final too.
Gosh! There were going to be some hot bodies out there today!
The construction of the fortress of Alghero was started in 1102. There was work ongoing to restore and protect areas, but mostly it is still standing.
After a quick refreshment stop on the smart and tidy marina promenade, we wandered into the Fortress.
There are many towers in and around the fortress, I’m not sure how many but one in particular, the Sulis Torre has walls at least 6 metres thick! What? Why? It must be tiny inside.
It was renamed after a conspirator who was imprisoned in solitary confinement there for 22 years.
We stopped for another refreshment opposite the tower and while we were admiring the area, we noticed a police presence, oooh something was going on. Motorbikes with flashing lights were next, so I got up to check it out and caught a cycle race on video 
. It was hard work just thinking about cycling in this heat 
.
Googling the cycling, we discovered that tomorrow, Saturday, the World Triathlon Championship Series is being held in the city!
Blimey, so much going on, thank goodness we popped in today as we’re not sure we would have got parked tomorrow.
Anyway, back to our tour. The old town is within the fortress walls, little lanes, cobbled and tiled and lots of lovely little shops.
The cathedral is a little different, having huge columns at the front. Not something you’d expect in this lovely old city.
All along the old walls there are relics from the past, trebuchets, slings and rusty cannons. There is also a shopping street specifically selling coral 
, and outside the walls near the harbour we saw a model of an old ships anchor entwined with coral.
Checking this out, we find that red coral or ‘red gold’ as it’s known locally has grown in the waters here for centuries.
Fishing for coral is strictly licensed and policed, and is still worked today into jewellery etc.
After another refreshment stop for ice-cream and a local aperitif 
, I tried a Cardinale, a campari soda and bitter orange juice mix. Different but very very refreshing . Gareth tried a new flavour of ice-cream, an Amalfi Lemon cheesecake, it was delicious 
.
The sun was high in the sky as we made our back to the very hot van. Aircon was on immediately as we headed towards the Sosta.
It was too hot to take Meg to the beach so we waited until after dinner.
We had managed to get some gas from Decathlon, so a BBQ was on the cards, with lots of lovely salad and a homemade tzatziki. Yum yum.
By 18:30 it was a bit cooler and we headed down to paddle. There weren’t many people left by the time we got there so Meg had a little run off of the lead, bless her. The sea was a perfect temperature too.
Saturday 31st May
We have done bugger all today, apart from a couple of walks around the site for Meg. It was 26° at 9am and has been up at 30° for about 5 hours 
. Meg has been on her cooling mat for most of the day and we have just been reading our books.
At about 18:30pm we walked down to the beach. We couldn’t believe how busy it still was. Luckily enough the little bit of beach we wanted to take Meg only had one guy on it so off came the lead.
She was very happy. We paddled and she came in to save us, cooling her down at the same time.
On the next segment – separated by a low line of rocks – was a small group of young Italians and a Jack Russell puppy. She was so cute and just wanted to play with Meg.
They had a little run around before Meg got protective over her water bowl! 
It was still very warm, 19:30pm and still 26° as we walked back. The sun was starting it’s descent but we have learned from experience not to be around sand when the sun goes down. If you have tasty skin you will know what I mean.
Back at the van, we went for showers and then had salad and a bought lasagne – heated up in the air fryer – for dinner.
I’m off to London tomorrow to see Kylie on Monday with Ellie Cove, so Gareth and Meg will be fending for themselves until I return on Tuesday.
Hopefully he’ll find a nice spot by a beach where they can hide from the sun and enjoy a little peace and quiet 
, until I return with renditions of….’I just can’t get you out of my head bless him.
While Kelly was away, Meg & I made my way over to an ACSI campsite on the East coast near a town called Budoni. The campsite is called : Camping Village Pedra e Cupa
We’ll stay here for a few days as it’s closer to Olbia, the airport Kelly is flying back in to.
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