Bonifacio, Corsica > Cagliari, Sardinia.
Distance: 200 miles
This morning we caught an island hopper from Corsica to Sardinia which would take us to our penultimate destination of the tour. We had another little spill today and luckily I got it on film as it was a funny.
Eric pulled up at the ferry queue, put his kickstand down and began to lean the bike over…unfortunately the kickstand wasn’t full extended and before he could stop the momentum of the Crosstourer he found himself falling with it and performed a beautiful ninja roll to safety. Once again, a broken clutch lever and a lightly scuffed pannier was all the damage he had to show for his tumble. I’m beginning to think Honda have made the clutch levers purposefully weak to encourage their dual clutch transmission sales!
Once we made it to Sardinia we shot ahead of the group towards the other side of the island to catch them along any good looking passes we saw. Unfortunately Sardinia was a bit of a let down in terms of it’s scenery and we ended up going straight to the port and waiting for the guys to arrive along one of the more picturesque streets, cameras ready.
We’d also put a GoPro on Robertos bike again to record the parts of the journey that we wouldn’t be present for.
As the guys arrived (on the street behind the one I was set up to shoot!), we got a three angle shot of their procession along the promenade and in to the port car park. It was there that everybody came to the realisation that the boat we would be spending the next 17 hours aboard, wasn’t quite a luxury cruise liner.
Nevertheless, once they’d finished loading on the HGVs and containers (yes…it was a container ship!) we drove on and made our way upstairs to check out our bedrooms for the evening.
In fairness, the cabins were fine. Two bunk beds, a very good shower in a wet room and a porthole to the outside greeted us. I set up our data station, put on some tunes and we were ready for the journey. After an hour of relaxing and a shower we headed to dinner, which we’d be warned wasn’t anything special.
I’m not sure about anything special, this gruel was barely anything edible. I had some pasta in tomato sauce and chips, which were served to me grumpily and then I was pointed over to the microwave to re-heat my meal. I’ve never had an experience like it before and I’d like to think i’m a stronger person for it…well at least my stomach is.
Dinner over (thankfully) we headed to the lounge area where Richie had set up a roulette table. We gathered quite a crowd after a while and we even had a few Sardinian truck driver keen to buy in. It’s now time for bed and as I lay here typing this I’m finding myself gently being soothed by the rhythmic humming and rumbling of the boats engines. Tomorrow we hit Italy and complete the last leg of the tour – I think I’m most looking forward to an authentic italian pizza!
