We struggle to tender in between vast superyatchs on both sides, only to disembark right into a Range Rover showroom. Clearly today’s destination is a millionaires playground!
Earlier we’ve enjoyed another breakfast in Fil Rouge, officially our favourite breakfast destination. Next we pick up a tender ticket, just a two minute wait and we’re sat on the tender expecting to head off. Sadly, we are thwarted at this moment as a chap had an epilectic fit and in the following few minutres we were effectively ring-side to an episode of Casualty.
We have complete praise for both the regular staff and emergency response team, which was exceptionally rapid. The medical team charged in to care for this man, meanwhile once it was obvious he wasn’t able to move we were all evacuated back to the ship.
Although we were no longer witness to the events it clearly took a while to help him and it was about 25 minutes before we were taken back to the tender.
Finally on land, we arrived at the marina of Porto Cervo on the Italian island of Sardinia. This is a new destination to us and we are pleasantly surprised at how lovely it is. The quayside is fabulously appointed, as previously mentioned there’s a Range Rover dealership right on the dockside, along with a multitude of exquisite resturants to cater for the yatching cummunity. A little distance away we spy a fabuouls five-star hotel, and elsewhere there are some gorgeous villas surrounding the marina.
However our adventure is focussed on the nearby national park, which has loads of walking routes. We head off in a southerly direction to the nearby areas of Piccolo and Grande Pevero, a beach, an hotel and a load more fabulous villas and apartments. We walk on into the park and follow a route to our intended destination, another beach called Spiaggia del Cervo. It’s a surprise how incredibly hot and tough the journey is, and we are briefly relieved when we see a small kiosk on the beach stocked with beers and juices.
This is short lived when the agreeable young man explains that it’s only for the privileged hotel guests who are ferried here by motor-launch, thus avoiding the madness of the public beach. He does however give us two cartons of mineral water to refil our flasks, a welcome gesture.
We return via a little detour for Madonnina, which we correctly guess to be a small shrine, it’s quite a scrabble to find her but we manage, both sustaining some minor damage on the way. We also use the beach to cut off a mile of countryside, and finally retrace our steps back to Porto Cervo, losing count of the Ferrari, Lambourgini, Aston Martin and of course Range Rovers that pass us.
Just missing a tender we wander around a while, have a quick chat with Sophie and Claudio. Our return tender is very bouncy, it take four attempts to berth against the ship as the swell has dramatically increased, and we just make it back for lunch, a well-deserved burger after ten miles of hard slog.
The afternoon brings on some blogging along with some other bits and bobs, until it’s time to dress for dinner plus a cheeky Chardonnay as well.
It’s our first visit to Marble & Co, the ship’s steakhouse, which is curiously dark. In fact we really didn’t appreciate the atmosphere as it was also very noisy. However the food is fabulous, from a whisky laden lobster bisque and various salads. We know the M’d from Seabourn and he insists we try a lobster brioche between courses! Then it is various incarnations of steaks before fabulous puddings.
The turn is a brilliant magician, but TBH it’s quite hard to concentrate after all that food!
