New and old ARST units at Macomer
Thursday 12.10.23
Activities today re a little mixed as we head off for a drive along a coast hugging road as we head initially southwards with our first target the town of Bosa. Whilst the town, like Alghero was ruled from Spain the fortress is of later origin being built by a Tuscany family in the thirteenth century. We have a walk around the lower town but can see that the route to castle is many steep steps and decide that as it seems to be even warmer than yesterday that the effort is probably not justified.
Bosa – river Temo
When we arrive we spot a horse and trap providing rides around the town – but when we return to the starting point I suspect that the owner has decided it is either too hot or too many people and has replaced it with a Dotto train, so we decide not to take the trip. We have lunch in the square and then return to the coach for our onward journey.
In theory we should be on a train as there is usually a service from here to Macomer – as we progress by road we do cross the railway and the lack of service at present is because significant sums are obviously being spent on track maintenance as we pass a track maintenance team at one point and at another a stack of replacement track panels. We do find both the closed Bosa station and the still “open sometime” Bosa Marina station which is the limit of operation. I rather think that the railway probably lies largely under a newish looking road!
Tinnura art
Having taken a more direct route we cross the railway just before Tinnura where there is an impromptu stop as the town has a large number of paintings all over the walls. We have a planned visit to another location later on the trip but I believe I prefer the paintings here. Our current destination is Macomer where the two stations, one for the main line and one for the little branch lines face each other. We have a lot of time to kill as the service onwards is by train. Macomer is about 1800ft above sea level and as we turn through 180 degrees so that we are heading east we are high above a river valley. The line then follows the contours of the countryside as we head towards Nuoro which is at about the same elevation but we need to climb back into the town from the lower levels. There is a modern station here – again evidence that whilst services might be relatively few there is money available for the infrastructure.
We rejoin our coach for the final stage to Arbatax a fishing village on the east coast – so we have effectively crossed over the centre of the island. Some dozing during the first part of the journey whilst we are on the main roads heading generally in a south easterly direction. The last five or six kilometres are however very much slower and twistier as we descend from the mountain ranges to sea level. The hotel is very well appointed and might make an ideal location well away from it all – there is a buggy to get us to our rooms although it disappears and it turns out our room is walkable. There are extensive grounds, pool and the sea – but we are out all day tomorrow so cannot participate.