Majestic sights…
There is a little stretch of water between Sardinia and Corsica that has blown us away! We had heard that Bonifacio was a ‘must see’ – we were not disappointed!
The approach to this harbour is spectacular with sheer cliffs rising up from the sea, I don’t know whose crazy idea it was to build a town on the top of these cliffs, but I’m glad they did! Even the kids (who are beginning the get a little blasé with new wonders) were captivated as we motored down the steep sided channel with tall cliffs either side. The channel itself was like a motorway on water, every shape and size of boat you can imagine, from cross channel ferries to small zippy motorboats all travelling down this narrow stretch of water, I felt like I needed an indicator to make the left hand turn across the traffic into our ‘marina’.
I use the word marina lightly as our chosen overnight stop was actually a hole in a cliff. We tentatively backed our way into a spot -having never moored up to a cliff before we had no idea how to secure the lines to the shore. Only after paying close attention to the other boats did Ryan realise with some horror that he would have to swim the lines ashore, and so he did, and not without some aplomb by all accounts. When safely docked we were told by the boat next door that it looked like we knew what we were doing, result!
Bonifacio’s splendid geography was matched by her splendid visitors, massive super yachts the size of blocks of flats, jaw-dropping to watch when entering and leaving the harbour. It is customary for all yachts, big or small, to show two sets of flags, the right (starboard) side of the boat shows the country that you are visiting, the left (port) side of the boat shows the nationalities or family flags of those onboard, so when we saw one of these ma-hoo-sive super yachts flying the Ferrari flag, Ryan pretty much lost the plot!
After a couple of spectacular nights nestled up to the sheer cliffs, bumping shoulders with the rich and famous we motored (yes-wind has been something of an enigma) an hour or so to the Maddalena islands, a croppy outpost off the northern tip of Sardinia with pink sandy beaches and remote islands. We picked our way past the big and small super yachts through a very busy anchorage into a sandy bay with 7 ft of water and dropped anchor, azure blue sea as clear as anything that the girls splashed into immediately!
I was just about to lay on some lunch when what should pull up beside us but a boat with an actual pizza oven onboard cooking and selling fresh pizza!! Only in Italy – now I have seen it all! The pizza was just too tempting and was absolutely delicious!
We moved from there to a more remote anchorage which now, after the only other boat left yesterday, we have all to ourselves! The girls went on an intrepid exploration by paddle board to the nearest beach and walked for over an hour along the waters edge, helping each other over streams and rocks, all spyed on by us from the boat, but what an adventure for them, just like ‘Swallows and Amazons’. It made me proud when they finally returned to the boat with a bag full of rubbish they had removed from the shoreline. I was not so enamoured with the crab’s head and strange looking sponge thing, but good exploring girls!!
So we are heading north to the island of Elba and then down the Italian coast, there will be a more historical feel to the next part of our adventure… Pizza will probably feature heavily too! Yum.
I have just come across your recents posts and it’s no exaggeration to say that I am in awe of your amazing experiences and have an overwhelming feeling of wishing that we were still with you to share such delights!! BUT, keep the blogs and pictures coming as they are the next best thing to actually being there with you!
Love to you all xxxxx
What a wonderful life you all lead! Love and miss you! XXX
Love reading about your adventures & looking at the photos. Soooo happy & excited for you all.
Love from Lynne & Michael xx
What an amazing place……loved hearing about it.
Sue and Philip
Such an amazing adventure. Love following you and feel so proud of you all. Lots of love.
Amazing pics. Not jealous at all teehee…… we all miss you heaps. You’ve done so much already and been to some beautiful places. Hows boat school going?
wow awesome 😉