Sunday

We left Carloforte early on a dull morning with rain still in the air. To be honest, we weren’t sorry to be leaving. Rod Heikell raves about the place in his pilot book. All I can say is that it must have been different in the eighties when he originally visited. The pictures on the postcards also seem unrecognisable. Neil did find a good walk in the hills but we were unfortunate with the weather during our stay. Perhaps we were expecting too much.

Having a fishing monster next to us on the harbour wall did have its advantages, however. We’d noticed a steady flow of visitors leaving with carrier bags, buying their fish straight from the boat. When a German couple further along the quay suggested going halves on a kilo of prawns we jumped at the idea. So lunch was a bit more interesting than usual – the freshest of prawns tossed in a hot pan with butter, olive oil and garlic for a few minutes, accompanied by crusty bread and a glass or two of vino bianco frizzante. We’ll be picking up prawn legs for weeks.