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.
277 km from Cagliari to Cagliari, about 4 h 59 of riding. It goes by way of Su Nuraxi di Barumini, Necropolis of Mandras, Funerary Tradition in the Prehistory of Sa and back through Necropolis of Mandras. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 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 comes up 33 km in.
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.
66 km in you reach Su Nuraxi di Barumini. Next is Necropolis of Mandras.
Cut into a slope of volcanic rock above the valley of the Tirso, near the village of Ardauli in central Sardinia, the Necropolis of Mandras is a cluster of prehistoric tombs that the Sardinians call domus de janas, houses of the fairies or witches. They were carved out of the rock with stone tools by farming communities, mostly in the late Neolithic, and some of the chambers imitate the inside of a house, with carved beams, doorways and pillars. Folklore said they were built by tiny women who wove gold at night, and in a sense the name says more about how ancient they felt to later generations than any date could.
Read the complete Necropolis of Mandras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Mandras, about halfway. Next is Funerary Tradition in the Prehistory of Sa.
The high country of central Sardinia, between the Tirso river and the hills of the Barbagia, is a landscape of basalt plateaus, cork forests, small stone villages and long, empty views. The nearest places on our list, Nughedu Santa Vittoria and Neoneli, are small villages with only a few hundred people each, and the town of Macomer is some twenty-five kilometres away. The prehistoric story here is about how the island's early people treated their dead, and the title reflects that.
Read the complete Funerary Tradition in the Prehistory of Sa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Funerary Tradition in the Prehistory of Sa sits at 132 km, about halfway. Next is back through Necropolis of Mandras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Mandras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Necropolis of Mandras comes up 164 km in. 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.
197 km in you reach 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, 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 277 km.
Cagliari → Su Nuraxi di Barumini is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Su Nuraxi di Barumini → Necropolis of Mandras is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Necropolis of Mandras → back through Su Nuraxi di Barumini is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Su Nuraxi di Barumini → Cagliari is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.