Sunday 04 June Oristano to somewhere high in the hills

We leave the old palazzo around 10, and after a circuitous trip around Oristano, even ending up back at the railway station, where we arrived from, eventually find the road that heads south. Carabiniere outriders with lights flashing herald the arrival of literally hundreds of Harley Davidson motorbike riders coming towards us. We pass a stagno and see flamingoes really close up, and something else, which turns out to be (we think) a black-crowned night heron. Later by a canal we come across a nesting spot for these birds and egrets, amongst the bamboo, making quite a racket (though not as much as the Harley Davidsons). The roads are flat and hot with abundant fragrant oleander. We also see very close up,black winged stilts, with their delicate long red legs. One even has babies nearby. Coffee and coke stop at Merceddi, before we cross a long narrow bridge and the hills begin. Having gained quite a bit of height we take a 3 km detour down to the coast for a swim and picnic lunch. We are rather worried about the ascent to the agriturismo and the 2.5 km dirt track to get to it, so don't linger too long on the beach. The road to our destination is intermittently rough (mainly), smooth (occasionally), and upwards (pretty much relentlessly). We find the turn off to the agriturismo and have to push our bikes along the long steep dirt track to get to Oasi del Cervo, where we arrive by hot, sweaty and dusty. We hope it's worth it! Supper is a marathon. It starts at 8:30 and we can hardly keep our eyes open at midnight when we finally finish. We all sit at a long table. There is a lot of food including Sardinian ravioli with goats cheese, potato and mint and then suckling pig, served on a large cork dish.The owner of the farm sits near us and eats the head and a trotter....grappa and coffee finally finishes us off!