Ciao, HIVE friends!
Today I have the pleasure of sharing one of the places that make me feel like a child again: the Giara di Gesturi, a plateau spanning about 4,400 hectares in south-central Sardinia.
This unique, isolated area, shaped by strong winds and ancient volcanic eruptions, is famous as the home of the Giara horses, one of the last populations of wild horses in Europe.
Walking along these ancient paths, eagerly hoping to spot wild horses among cork oaks and Mediterranean scrub, is an indescribable emotion.
These horses have lived wild and free for over 2,500 years, ever since the Phoenicians and Carthaginians brought them to Sardinia from Africa aboard their ships and with their armies.
Until the Late Middle Ages, these horses roamed across the entire island. Over the centuries, they survived solely on the Giara plateau, where the rocky landscape offers a safe and welcoming habitat, almost like a natural fortress. Today, their population numbers around 500-600 individuals, a stable count over the last thirty years due to human monitoring.
Before the 1950s, these horses were captured in early summer to help with wheat threshing and released back into the wild after the work was completed. Their role became obsolete with the advent of mechanical threshers.
Like the Sardinian people, these horses have a fierce and restless temperament.
They live in stable family groups led by a dominant male and consisting of 4-8 females. Each family occupies its own territory, which may sometimes overlap with neighboring groups. Once they reach breeding age, foals are expelled from the herd, while stallions, upon reaching the age of 15-20 years, are replaced by younger rivals and join groups of only males.
The adventure begins
Entrance to the park is entirely free.
I walked along the path for a few minutes, already immersed in the scents of the Mediterranean countryside. On the breeze, I could catch the aroma of lentisk, helichrysum strawberry tree and myrtle. Soon, I arrived at this enormous pond.
In the Sardinian language, these ponds are called paulis. They are shallow, temporary wetlands where the year’s rainfall collects and stagnates before drying out in summer. Believe it or not, in addition to hosting frogs and toads, these paulis are home to a true living fossil — a crustacean called Triops cancriformis, whose genetic makeup has remained unchanged for an astonishing 200 million years.
I kept my eyes peeled, exploring every corner of the plain and scanning the green between the trees for any sign of the wild horses. However, I didn’t spot even one.
Understandably, they stay far from the park entrance, where most visitors gather, and where cars, motorcycles, and campers pass through.
Farther along, the path branches into numerous trails leading to different parts of the plateau. Some take you to peaks or rocks with unusual shapes, while others lead to archaeological sites that narrate the life of prehistoric Sardinia: entire cities, now reduced to piles of stones, sacred wells and the iconic prehistoric Sardinian towers, called nuraghes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to delve too deeply into the park, so I had to skip visiting these places.
That said, nuraghes are not rare: they are scattered across the whole Sardinia. There are around 7,000 of them on the island.
I'm going now to show you the most famous and important of the island, the Nuragic complex of Barumini, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
At one point, I finally spotted the horses in the distance, near the trees, at the edge of a large plain covered in water. I quietly started to approach, even though they didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in me or disturbed by my presence.
I don’t need to say much more. I’ll leave you with the images:
When I got closer to them, the black horse began to look in my direction. Without a doubt, it suspected me and intended to protect its little one, who was peacefully grazing nearby.
At that point, to avoid disturbing these magnificent animals, I stopped approaching and contented myself with watching them, my heart swelling with emotion.
Leaving that group behind, I got lost among the brambles and, besides getting deep scratches on my legs and finding a tick stuck in my underwear, I almost got attacked by some goats 😁
Once I found the trail again, after almost an hour and with great effort, I encountered other horses grazing with their heads low in the tall grass.
I walked for a long time along the trail, but for a while, I didn’t spot any more horses.
I didn’t really feel like complaining about that; I was already very grateful to have encountered three groups of horses. But in the end, just as I was heading toward the exit, under an endless blue sky, streaked with clouds and scented with helichrysum, the Giara and luck gave me one last sighting, the most intense.
Have you ever been to a place like this?
Feel free to share your experience, or any similar one, or an emotion that my article has stirred in your heart.
For now, as always, thank you for your time, your attention and your support!
See you soon on the road,
Alessandro
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