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Sinis Peninsula
The Sinis Peninsula is a protected marine area on the western coast of Sardinia. The area consists of several excellent beaches (san Giovanni di Sinis, Is Arutas), and a large lagoon bellow ancient village ruins of Tharros. A coastline is pretty untouched and presented with geographical beauty.
Going north, the coast is sandy (here you can find the famous beach of Is Arutas formed by small white quartz sand), and it alternates to rocky cliffs that become high and imposing at Capo Mannu. Beyond, low reefs are alternated sandy coasts till the great complex of dunes of Is Arenas that stretches inland for 8 km forming a true desert area. In front of Capo San Marco, at approximately 7,5 miles, there is the Catalano, an ancient volcano of 230 m in diameter, nearly completely cracked in the middle by a deep fissure.
This is how hikenow.net describes this area. There is nothing wrong with this description of this area – once again - blesses with beauty and a bit of ancient culture. But there are a few more things that might attract you to this area.
The peninsula faces west and sticks its head right into the racetracks that the Mistral and Tramontana winds like to take. Same with the swells created by these winds, who roll over remarkable distances of up to 1000 km through deep water. Add to this the southwesterly winds of approaching depressions and you get an idea about how much wind and swell can reach this area in the autumn and winter months.
In contrary to coastal areas further north and south who get mother nature’s forces straight onshore, the headlands of the peninsula bend the swell and offer places that get the predominant winds side to side-offshore. The result are excellent windsurfing conditions and the odd place with cliffs offering enough wind protection for a decent surf even during strong winds.
As usual for the Med, waves come mainly together with the winds that create them, so looking for a place sheltered from the wind is a necessity for a surf session. At the end of a Mistral or Tramontana period you have maximum a day with remnants of the windswell and light winds.
When conditions come together the wavesailing can be some of the best to get in the whole Mediterranean Sea and the surfing on the reefs or points can match Atlantic standards. The Capo Mannu area (including Mini Capo) offers the most quality and variety surf and windsurf wise, Mandriola is good for less experienced windsurfers (and kiteboarders) and can have some fun surfing when everything else is huge. Funtana Meiga has a nice reef and good side-shore to side-onshore windsurfing conditions.
The area has a wide range of campgrounds and apartments to rent. As the hikenow guys already mentioned, nature is very beautiful here and nearby Oristano has all you need to feed yourself plus a decent nightlife.
Continue here for some more impressions of the peninsula >>>
Check related stories: quite a few episodes of the Me(d)thadone blog, Bella Italia, Sardegna 1986, Deep Down South and the Bella Italia video.
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