Lured by deserted coves and lagoons in Sardinia

A COUPLE of weeks ago I found myself, rather unexpectedly, visiting Sardinia for the first time.

It’s a beautiful island most of which is completely undeveloped and it has some fascinating wildlife.

Unfortunately, in early January some of the wildlife has flown to Africa and some of it is hibernating. But there was still enough left to keep me entertained for ten days.

Eleonora’s falcon, one of the most beautiful and intriguing birds of prey in Europe, nests in colonies along the east coast of the island. Unfortunately they were all still in Madagascar. But for a few days we rented a house in the unfashionable but rather attractive town of Tuelada in the south-west. The house had a courtyard where I used to go after breakfast to drink coffee and smoke. The courtyard had a rough stone wall covered in creepers that faced the morning sun. As the sun struck the stones and the temperature rose towards 20 degrees I noticed sudden rapid movements under the leaves of the creepers.

I settled down with the dogged tenacity of the field naturalist and a fresh cup of coffee. My reward was a clear view of a long, slim, olive-coloured lizard progressing in little darts to a suitable place to soak up the solar energy and zap a few of the flying insects that were attracted to the creepers. I had no internet access and bringing reference books on Ryanair is an extravagant habit so it wasn’t until I got back to Ireland that I was able to establish that my after-breakfast entertainment was provided by a species called the Italian Wall Lizard.

Sardinia in winter is breathtakingly green, far greener than Ireland. Much of this is provided by evergreen shrubs and small trees but the grass is also lush and scattered with many herbs and flowering plants, even in the first ten days of January. I still haven’t been able to identify one of the commonest wildflowers, though I think it’s probably some species of anemone. The leaves are clover-like and the flower head, on a long stalk, first produces pale yellow trumpets but these eventually open out into something resembling an Irish primrose in size and colour. Can anyone help me to identify them?

We had a hired car and one day we decided to drive to the capital of the island, Cagliari. This was a brave decision because driving in Sardinia requires nerves of steel, and I was the only person legally entitled to be behind the wheel. It’s not just a matter of driving a strange car on the wrong side of the road, going the wrong way round roundabouts and changing gear with the wrong hand. There’s also the fact that the average Sardinian road consists of kilometres of hairpin bends separated by medieval villages with streets only millimetres wider than your car and that road rage is the default position for all local drivers.

Anyway, there I was driving white-knuckled along a road on the outskirts of the city. The road was on a causeway. Ahead was a rather grim industrial complex, on the right the Mediterranean, on the left a complex of salt-marshes and lagoons. I was trying not to be distracted by the egrets and grebes on the left. There were also what looked like a number of swans. Then the sun came out and a surprised voice from the back seat exclaimed: “They’re pink!”

I chanced a quick look at the swans. They were pink and they were flamingos. Dozens of these crazy, Alice-In-Wonderland birds wading about on the outskirts of the city with nobody paying any attention.

If you enjoy the same kind of things I do and you get the chance to visit Sardinia, then jump at it.

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