CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
412 km from Cagliari to Cagliari, about 7 h 13 of riding. On the way it passes Necropolis of Montessu, Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu, Su Nuraxi di Barumini and back through Su Nuraxi di Barumini. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Cagliari is a port city that grew on hills, and that is the key to understanding it. The capital of Sardinia climbs from the harbour up a steep rock crowned by Castello, the old walled quarter, which the Pisans fortified in the thirteenth century with two white limestone towers that still stand, the Torre dell'Elefante and the Torre di San Pancrazio. From the ramparts you can look across the whole gulf, the salt pans, the long white beach of Poetto and the low mountains beyond. The city's history is as layered as its streets. Phoenicians founded a port here, the Romans built an amphitheatre cut into the rock, and Aragonese and Spanish rulers added churches and palaces.
Read the complete Cagliari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cagliari is where the day begins. Next is Necropolis of Montessu.
The Sulcis, in the south-west of Sardinia, is a landscape of cork oaks, bare hills and old mines, and Montessu lies in a quiet corner of it. The necropolis here is a cliff of pale trachyte rock, pierced by dozens of small chambers cut out by hand more than five thousand years ago. The Sardinians call such tombs domus de janas, houses of the fairies, and the name suits them: little rooms with doorways, ceilings and carved details like beams and, in a few, the spiral and horned symbols of a religion we only half understand. The site is managed locally, and opening arrangements vary, so check before you go.
Read the complete Necropolis of Montessu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Montessu comes up 47 km in. Next is Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu.
The south of Sardinia is not all beaches. Inland, on the edge of the Gerrei hills, lies Pranu Mutteddu, a flat upland of granite, cork oak and scrub that holds one of the island's more striking prehistoric sites. The name means something like the plain of the little stones in Sardinian, and the place is known for its menhirs, standing stones raised several thousand years ago by Neolithic people, many of them still upright and arranged in rows or groups across the clearing.
Read the complete Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least 111 km in you reach Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu. Next is Su Nuraxi di Barumini.
Nobody quite knew what lay under the mound outside Barumini until the 1950s, when the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, himself a native of the village, began to dig. What emerged was the most complete nuragic complex on Sardinia: a central stone tower built in the Bronze Age, later surrounded by a bastion with four corner towers and an outer wall, and beyond that the remains of a village of round huts. Su Nuraxi was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997, and it remains the best place on the island to understand the nuragic civilisation, which left thousands of these towers across Sardinia.
Read the complete Su Nuraxi di Barumini write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Su Nuraxi di Barumini, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Su Nuraxi di Barumini write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Su Nuraxi di Barumini sits at 188 km, about halfway. Next is back through Su Nuraxi di Barumini.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Su Nuraxi di Barumini write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Su Nuraxi di Barumini comes up 235 km in. Next is back through Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
282 km in you reach back through Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu. Next is back through Necropolis of Montessu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Montessu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Necropolis of Montessu, late in the day. Next is Cagliari.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cagliari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 412 km.
Cagliari → Necropolis of Montessu is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Montessu → Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu → Su Nuraxi di Barumini is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Su Nuraxi di Barumini → back through Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Archaeological Park of Pranu Mutteddu → back through Necropolis of Montessu is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Necropolis of Montessu → Cagliari is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.