Our travel tips today take you to Porto Pino, along the south-western coast of Sardinia through hiking trails between pink flamingos, sand dunes shaped by the wind and the sour scent of coastal vegetation. An excursion that is not mountain, but very fascinating, ending on the beach. A spectacular coastline surrounded by the ponds of Mistral, Porto Pino, Brebeis and Foxi, where the elegant flamingos will be in a beautiful pose waiting for a photo. The laws that protect the wetlands and the often discussed presence of Teulada’s Permanent Tire Polygon, have made sure that this strip of Sardinia survived the typical building speculations of the coastal areas. Here time has stopped: vegetation and fauna are still undisputed landowners. If the pools of water are colored red due to the Salicornia, a plant with numerous nutritional properties, the undisputed “King” is the Aleppo Pine, a plant species responsible for the name of the place, once called also Phoenus Portus (Phoenician Port). It was he, the Aleppo Pine who attracted the Phoenicians to these coasts around the 8th century. They founded here a city and dedicated themselves to the extraction of the sandstone present on most of the coast. The Phoenician great navigators understood the validity of this tree species whose wood, resistant to salt and wind, is excellent for the construction of boats. From the pines they also obtained tannin to color the fishing nets, and the resin was used for medicines and perfumes. In short, a useful tree that since then resists the centuries and the vast use.
Another very important species is the “Ginepro Coccolone” (“Juniper Cuddly”), (do not be fooled, the leaves sting … better not to embrace it) whose term derives from the name of the fruits the “cuddles” of which many birds are eager. This species plays a serious role in the conservation of the dunes that colonize because with its roots it prevents erosion.
But what fills the view is the contrast between the blue waters and the white of the dunes of “Is Arenas Biancas”. It is forbidden to pass over it, even if the temptation is so great, as they constitute the sand tank from which the beach naturally draws in the summer season, to recover what the winter storms have taken away from. The dunes are in fact one of the elements that participate in the conservation of the beach. Without them in a short time you would not know where to spread the sheets.
The sight, the smell, the touch, the hearing and at the end of the walk, why not, even the taste … Yes! we can call this path, the “five senses“, because crossing these places will allow you to use them all and we suggest you not to spare yourselves.
Thank you for the photo @simon_red_bass
