The beach of Cala Luna is billed as one of the most beautiful beaches in Italy. To be fair, until the boat loads of hundreds of tourists arrive, it probably is. Rather than join the masses though, we opted for an earlier start and hired our own boat. This also meant that we could explore the coastline along the way, rather than just take a water taxi direct.
It started off as a pretty bumpy ride, due to some strong winds, but thankfully it calmed down enough to explore in and out of the caves.
About half way along the coast, we got a real bonus when a couple of dolphins swam right by us!
Some of the caves were big enough to drive the boat into, and one even had a landing jetty in the back of it!
It brought back some god memories of when Clare and I had explored this coastline by sea kayak about ten years ago. There's plenty of climbing at Cala Luna, but none of it is particularly easy. Overhangs and tufa features are the name of the game here.
This crag (below) is bolted up and looked good but we didn't have time to climb on it though. After anchoring the rib, about twenty metres from shore, we went on land and had a look around. After finding a nice shady cave we lay out for a bit of a relax. I was just getting into my book when the cry went up that the boat was drifting out to sea!! A rapid change into my wetsuit ensued as I wasn't confident that I could swim out that far fast enough without the security's and buoyancy of a bit of neoprene. Drama was averted half way out to the stricken vessel when another boat ferried Ian to it. We kept a much closer eye on it after that!
We climbed a new steep route that had some decent looking resin bolts. (Many are looking a bit rusty from the sea salt! We didn't know the grade, which made it even more exciting. I used a clip stick to do the last move, (which of course turned out to be fine!), rather than risk a fall. My foot was aching from the boat/swim drama too.
Headed home late afternoon. Thanks to my James Bond training, I was able to drive the boat for a bit and on the way a huge swordfish lept out of the water!!
Back on land, I made straight to the humble bakers for some sustinance in the form of some basic local produce...
And then washed it down with a quick brew...
After dark, our day continued with a night climb back at Cala Fuili. The stars were all out and just before we finished, the moon rose big and orange over the horizon. It was an amazing moment - made all the more amazing by a long shooting star streaking right overhead and out to sea! Bed just after midnight...
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