Sea caves and a boat trip – in Sardinia

One of the highlights of any stay in Cala Gonone is to take a boat trip in the Gulf of Orosei to visit the many beaches that can only be reached from the sea.

We left at the unfeasibly early hour (for the children) of 10 am, in a largish boat, laden down with picnic, beach towels and plenty of drinking water. The smaller open boats looked inviting, but we soon realised that we had made the better choice, as we were able to take in the views of the coastline from the shady lower deck, rather than being fried in the merciless sun. First stop was the Grotto Di Bue Marina, named after the Monk seals (or beef of the sea as the local fishermen named them) that once colonised these caves but are now virtually extinct in the Mediterannean.

You pass through a series of caverns on a wooden walkway, with fanciful names like Organ Pipe cavern and Cave of mirrors and finally end in the Monk seal cavern where the seals once came to breed.

After this the boat took us to the furthest end of the gulf, past more sea caves and beaches which are only accessible from the sea. On the return trip we landed on a couple of the beaches for an hour or two’s swimming.

In your dreams you might picture a deserted sliver of white sand with cliffs rising behind and rocky outcrops for snorkling and diving. Then picture the reality of boat after boat, coming on shore, each offloading a hundred holiday makers ready to stake their claim with beach towels and sun umbrellas.

I’ve heard that the Italians spend their lives always in the company of family and friends and never more so than when on holiday in August. They care little for the space and tranquility that the English might seek on holiday.

in Sardinia a crowded beach means lots of people having maximum fun. Although I’d have liked to have the place a little more to myself, we enjoyed our snorkling in the clear blue water and jumping off the large flat rocks that made a natural diving platform.

Finally we arrived at the largest of the beaches at Cala Luna with more sea caves and a river behind the beach. By now it was late afternoon and we decided we were all beached out, so we hopped on the next boat back to port and back to the welcome shade of our campsite. See all all my photos on Flickr from the boat trip here and from the Grotto di Bue Marino here.

More Sardinia articles to enjoy

A tour of the best beaches in Sardinia
Swimming in rock pools near Gola di Gorrupa in Sardinia
A prehistoric village with a sea view in Sardinia

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

Never miss an update! – Subscribe to receive our latest articles and newsletter