Last Saturday the sun was shining, so, in the afternoon, I took my bike and cycled to the pond of Santa Caterina.
This is a nice place located between my village and the island of Sant'Antioco: an ancient pond formed thousands of years ago, then became a salt pan at the time of the ancient Romans.
In 1992, European Union declared this area a Site of Community Importance and included in the Natura 2000 network with the aim of protecting its biodiversity, through habitat conservation, the flora and fauna present. In fact, there are turtles and many species of fish and birds, including a beautiful colony of pink flamingos.
I like to take pictures of flamingos because they are challenging, very suspicious animals, and it's not easy to approach them. Just one wrong move, and they fly away.
The bike path that connects my village to Sant'Antioco is less than 10 years old. It's not very well maintained, typical problem here, but it's lost in a suggestive scenery of beautiful open landscapes and old abandoned buildings.
A light mistral was blewing, bringing to my nostrils the fragrances of Mediterranean spring: the scents of flowers, mastic and pines, wild fennel.
Route 66, ehm... maybe a bit too much, uh?
I soon lost track of time, but after a while I finally reached the sea. The pond of Santa Caterina is located in that area, at the end of a straight. This point is very exposed to the wind, and pedaling was more difficult.
Finally, at the end of a long straight on the bike path, the landscape opened to my left giving me a beautiful view of the pond of Santa Caterina, with the crumbling buildings of the salt pans in the background. I immediately noticed the flamingos: they were there, they were hunting undisturbed in the shallow water.
You can also see them, on the left side of the last picture.
At that point I stopped for a while, observing the scene and enjoying that moment and every little thing, the color of the flowers, the scents, the view, the salty air carried by the wind. I felt alive, close to nature, a part of the landscape. I took some photographs.
From this point onwards, following the bike path you have three possibilities. You can turn left at the first bend, entering the area of the pond of Santa Caterina, or at the second, entering the salt pan itself. Otherwise, going straight, you reach the bridge that leads to the island of Sant'Antioco.
The bridge leading to the pond of Santa Caterina.
The access to the salt pan: for some unknown reason it is formally forbidden, but everyone can enter simply by climbing the gate and it's also part of the Mining Trail of Santa Barbara. You're also allowed to collect salt for free.
The island of Sant'Antioco.
In this post, I'll just focus on the first area, the pond of Santa Caterina, giving you a little spoiler about the salt pan. You'll find this spoiler at the end of this article!
Pond of Santa Caterina
Once I entered the pond, I had to pedal a little on these improvised streets. The wind in this area was very strong.
Besides me, there was no soul around... no human soul, at least.
I expected to see only flamingos, but at some point, I ran into these guys.
The one in the right looks particularly judgmental...😆
After stopping for a second to take pictures of these cats, I continued on my way, moving towards the center of the area, closer to the pond itself. I love the wild beauty of these streets.
As I said, the whole area was totally desert.
The thin layer of white foam you see in the background, a bit similar to snow, it's probably produced by some algae and blown away by the wind.
Footprints of birds gathered to drink in a puddle. They remind me of some primitive painting drawn on the walls of a cave.
And finally, when I no longer hoped to approach them and was sure that they would fly away, some flamingos let me get closer.
Checking the photos, at some point I noticed that many animals have a small band at the knee. The only thing that makes me think is that somehow they are monitored: probably a team of experts checks their state of health and the extent of their migrations along the Mediterranean.
In fact, it seems that these flamingos travel between the south of France, Africa and Turkey, stopping in Sardinia for some time.
Otherwise, it could be a proper cure received after an injury. Those legs look quite fragile...
This is the best I managed to do in the pond of Santa Caterina.
But things went much better in the salt pan, where I actually managed to get much closer to flamingos, and in the meantime I discovered an incredible place. Here it is:
Plus, I lost my way back and risked to spend the night locked in here 😆
I will tell you this story in the next article. For now, as always, thank you for your time, your attention and your support!
Say you soon on the road,
Alessandro