Well, before I fill you in on the latest activity in Badesi, I need to go back to Cala Gonone. Melissa noticed from my Facebook picture that I was low on gas as I was leaving....Absolutely! I really had no idea how low I was, because I didn't stop to look into the Lancia owners' manual. But once I left, getting gas was my #1 priority! Luckily the GPS can help me find a gas station, but once I'm going in the wrong direction, it then takes me to a station farther away! So I turned around and went where I was supposed to, and the station was very close. But often even the gas stations close for three hours, and it was about that time. Luckily the station I came to was a self-serve, so, with a little help from a motorcyclist eating his lunch there, I could pay and fill the car and be on my way home.
And even though I am here and not seeing any US papers (so if there is a crisis,let me know!); I knew that it was 9/11....
Yesterday I went to the little museum, Museo Archeologico, in the next little town of Viddalba. I learned more about the Tombas, etc. The museo actually goes back to the Pre-historic and Protohistoric periods. It was all in Italian, but there was a 70page booklet in English to help me understand all this information.
I went home for lunch and headed to the beach for two hours. It wasn't a perfect beach day, so there were not many people. However, I saw a 50 something couple I'd seen before with their chihuachua(sp. tough to correct on an Italian computer!) This dog comes to the beach in his/her Louis Vuitton dog carrier!
In the morning before I had left I met Carol and Patrick, the British couple, who arrived late last night and are staying next door. They are from Somerset, which is apparently quite rural, so she thinks the road traffic is loud!
Today I had a longer chat with Carol, as we are just separated by a small brick like fence. I told them I was headed over to Valledoria to check out the Bird Watching trip I'd learned about-in case they were interested.
Well, I signed up for the 5PM trip even though it was very windy and looked like rain! (Dejà vu all over again-oh, but it was not a rubber raft-aluminum flat bottomed boat!) So for the first time since I got here, I put on long pants and a sweater and went to Valledoria.www.focedelcoghinas.com. It was really a great trip, and I am not a "birder" by any means. There was a young German couple, Olaf and Bettina, from Frankfort and an Italian couple with 8 year old Gabriel. (Yes, the Germans did speak English!)It was a two hour trip going about twelve km. We saw coots, grey and purple herons, marsh harrier, mallards, cattle egrets, wooded crow, great white egrets, and kingfishers. The driver/guide did speak some English and had a DK bird book so he could tell me the birds in English. By the way, he went out ALL BUNDLED up, so Olaf and I thought it was going to be brutal. However, it turns out that he has some condition so he has to protect his neck! He had told me that the next few days would be windy, and then it will be better, but I'm delighted that I went today. I hear it raining right now....Buona sera!