In November 2024, my dad and I went to Sardinia to ride part of TET Italy with our dirt bikes. TET stands for Trans Euro Trail and is a community project with the aim of publishing a route using predominately unpaved gravel roads and unserviced trails through every European country. While the idea is that the TET is rideable with middle-weight adventure bikes, we chose to ride our dirt bikes (my KTM 350 EXC-F and my dad his Husqvarna FE 350) since we opted to get there in the van instead of on the motorcycles anyway and we chose to do only day trips, meaning we didn’t carry any gear for overnight stays with us.
The trip started with us driving my Sprinter van with the two bikes in it to the ferry terminal in Genoa. The Moby Lines ferry from Genoa to Porto Torres was very convenient since it left in the evening at around 20:00 and arrived in Porto Torres (in the northwest of Sardinia) at around 8:00 the next morning.
Part I – Staying near Stintino
We used the day of our arrival to get to the accommodation that we had booked for the first two nights, an Agriturismo near Stintino in the very northwest of the island, albeit not far from Porto Torres. Parking the van at the Agriturismo, we had the better part of the day left to start exploring on the bikes. Stopping first in the town of Stintino to get gas and something to eat, we cut into the TET and started heading down the west coast for a bit. It didn’t take long till the GPX track took us up to a spectacular lookout post, on a cliff dropping off into the sea. We followed the TET until we reached the coastal town of Alghero, from where we headed back to the Agriturismo.
As we had reserved our room for two nights, we went on another day’s ride in the island’s northern part. To save a bit on road riding (which is pretty boring and somewhat uncomfortable on Enduro bikes), we decided to drive the van to a small town called Ittiri. This allowed us to continue more or less where we left the TET the day before, and we continued riding it towards the east and then the north. Coming across a short technical section (that was marked on the GPS track so it could be avoided), we were glad to be on the lightweight bikes instead of adventure heavyweights. Not long after that we found ourselves on the top of Monte Rasu. With an altitude of 1259 m, it is the highest peak in the province of Sassari. Finally, with the sun setting and the temperature dropping, we rode back to Ittiri to the van.
Part II – Staying in Uras
For the next part of the trip, we decided to head south but stay on the west coast. We drove down to the area of Oristano and found a holiday home near Uras on booking.com. This allowed us to ride some of the TET in the mountainous southwest of the island (see day 3 and 4 on the map), as well as explore the section that goes through the very green area around Monte Arci.
Having covered the roughly 180 km from the north to Uras in the van, we went only for a short ride in the afternoon of that day. However, a short branch off of the main track leading to a fire lookout tower surprised us with an incredible view.
On the second day of staying in Uras, we headed out on the longest day ride of the trip, covering about 160 km. We followed the TET as it makes its way south along the west coast, crossing lots of hills in very sparsely inhabited areas. Along the way, we stopped at the Dune di Piscinas, a dune area adjacent to a beach. There wasn’t a lot going on at the Spiaggia di Piscinas beach since we were visiting it outside of the main seasons. We talked to a German couple traveling in an off-road camper, they had the whole place pretty much to themselves. We rode the same gravel road to get there which we drove 10 years ago with the whole family in my dad’s Jeep Wrangler. Other points of interest in the dunes’ vicinity are the remnants of mines, which operated from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1960s and supplied silver, zinc and lead. We eventually made it to a small town called Fluminimaggiore, from where we headed back north to Uras on the pavement after grabbing a few snacks in a bar, following the long day of riding without a proper lunch break…
On the third and final day of our stay in Uras, we explored some of the TET going through the area around Monte Arci, as well as Capo San Marco, west of Oristano. Since it looked like it was starting to rain in the morning, we did not stop much to take pictures until we got to the coast, where it was sunny again. The whole trip sure did not lack places with nice views, however I would definitively rank the one from the watch tower at Capo San Marco among the best.
Part III – Staying in Lanusei
After riding on the island’s western side for three days, we decided to head over to the east coast for our last two nights of the trip. We stayed at an Agriturismo outside of Lanusei. November indeed seems to be a very calm time of the year in terms of tourism, we were the only guests staying there. Nevertheless, our host Sergio cooked very delicious Italian food for us. We certainly enjoyed our stay there, albeit we found out that it was quite cold in the mornings and evenings. In terms of motorcycling, we did an afternoon’s worth of riding down from Lanusei to the coast in Tortoli where the eastern leg of the TET ends. On the following, final riding day of the trip, we did a more extensive ride heading into the mountains. While we were never too far away from the TET, we followed a dual-sport motorcycle track we found on wikiloc.com. The track itself was following the now (seemingly) abandoned Arbatax-Mandas narrow-gauge railroad for a bit and used the railway line as a trail for some parts. Again, this ride didn’t disappoint with spectacular views, as the track incorporated a number of peaks above 1000 meters, such as the Punta Erdorru.
After 7 days of riding, we loaded up the van again and drove back to Porto Torres, where we caught an overnight ferry to Genoa. Driving back home to Switzerland, we took a detour to my friend Matteo’s home on Lake Como, where I picked up the helmet that I sent to his place on my trip to Greece (see 24/09 – Motorcycle Trip to Italy and Greece).
