the town centre of Tharros ;-)

It's not often that you find yourself moored opposite an archaeological site - that of the ancient ruins of Tharros. The town is of punic-roman origin, founded in the 8th century BC by the Phoenicians near a Bronze Age settlement and nuraghic (large stone structures) village. The area is now an open-air museum and an active excavation site.

Our outboard decided to let us down just as we left Flirtie. We wanted to visit the site in the morning to avoid the hottest part of the day so we rowed ashore to a small beach where yet again we found a huge boulder complete with holes (it looked volcanic) which allowed us to lock the dinghy. Having paid the €5 entrance fee we walked around the grounds trying to make sense of the layers of different civilisations - Punic, Phoenicians, Romans and even Christian.

Despite the comprehensive detail on the information boards, a good deal of imagination was needed to recognise the structure of the town and the changes made by each civilisation over the periods. The ancient town is spread over some distance and includes aqueduct remains, tophets (a sacred burial place), Roman baths, temples, water towers, moats, houses and workshops. We found it fascinating, despite the heat.


some ruins

Afterwards we headed off down the path to the little village of San Giovanni di Sinis, a seaside resort with few restaurants, tratorrias and bars where we tried the local brew named Ichnusa (which happens to mean 'Sardinia' in the Roman and ancient Greek language) accompanied by a Calzone (oven-baked folded pizza). Tasty!

Having returned back to Flirtie we spent some time snorkeling around watching the fish feed on the sea grass below and generally cooling off.


snorkelling whilst towing a bright 'see me' float. It obviously works as I didn't get run over by any RIB's!

Stripping the engine followed where our resident mechanic soon found the cause of the problem - the smallest particle of debris in the fuel carburettor - well done Captain Bruce!


Bruce taking a look at the engine, just before giving me the 'thumbs up' :-)