Sardinina 2 trip 4 — morning
After 5 nights in Porto Alabe, it was time to drive east. We wanted to be within an hour's drive of Olbia airport on our last night, and hadn't booked anything for the final two nights of our week, so planned to visit a few places on the way and stop whenever we felt like it.
We drove through the village of Tinnura, and stopped to photograph the amazing murals on its main street. Just about every building is painted!
I'd reasonably good information on sites near Birori, just east of Macomer, and we'd left the area purposely to investigate on the "drive to somewhere new day". It turned out not to be the best decision. On the main road, I spotted a map, and was pleased to find the same map on the info board at out first stop of the day.
We could have spent a couple of days within the few square km shown! There are numerous dolmen and tomba road signs round the village, and we accidentally ended up at a cross roads, with our intended stop behind us, a tomba to the north, and lots more straight across. We went north.
Our first tomba of the day, and an unusual one in that is has two pairs of side cells off its corridor. The entrance to the tomba is away from the road, though the back has fallen so you can see right the way through.
The right hand wing of the esedra has been lost in the field; the left side forms part of the field boundary.
The info board showed a tomba in the field directly opposite, but we couldn't spot it and didn't investigate too closely as there were numerous dogs barking at us from the farm next door, but as usual no one in sight for us to ask.
A quick U turn, and we went south, this time taking the turn signposted to Sarbogadas and various other places.
Sarbodagas fieldnotes here
We dithered, contemplating continuing south in search of more dolmens but opted to head back towards Birori. Checking my maps later, I realised we'd been so close to Nuraghe Porcarzos and the Serbine dolmens we'd looked for a few days earlier.
Back to the crossroads, and I decided to go straight over back the way we'd come, as there had definitely been signs for another dolmen and a tomba. We parked, and tried in vain to find Noazza I tomba di gigante. On instinct, I decided to try the fork in the road we'd ignored on the way to Lassia and Sarbogadas; it's a loop that goes back into the village, and was the right choice.
From the fork in the road, it's just over 250 metres, and just past a house on the right, to the field the dolmen is in on the left. The signpost was lying in the long grass – Beardy picked it up and put in on the wall – but an info board (a little too weary from the sun to be of much use) confirmed we were in the right place.
No one had been here for a while, from the height of the grass and wild flowers!
It actually took us quite a while to find the dolmen ..... from the road, there's a narrow strip before the field opens out. From the end of this strip, there are two distinct clumps of trees ahead – go between them and look for a stone kerb on your left. There's a rocky outcrop at the end of the kerb, and I spotted, buried in the grass, a bright yellow "DOLMEN" sign. Look to your left and you should see the capstone.
Back to the centre of the village next:
This tomba is right in Birori – it reminded us of the cairn circle at Aviemore for its proximity to the houses.
To find it, go to the centre of the village where, at a cross roads, there's a couple of shops. Turn to the north; the first, almost immediate, left turn goes into a parking area – we asked directions here – and were told to take the second left instead, and follow the road round. The tomb is signposted from here, with modern development all around. Look for the pink neon hotel sign to help you locate it, if lost.
The grasscutters were out with strimmers in the village, but hadn't reached the site yet, so we were waist deep in grass at many points.
The tomb is sizeable – approx 17m long and 12m wide; there's no stele, but the corridor has two side niches opposite each other, a feature that we'd only seen at Lassia nearby. There's a bench along the front of the esedra, and the walls of the corridor angle in towards each other.
The esedra in particular is easy to see is of double walled construction, with the cavity filled with smaller stones, rubble and earth.
If you are heading west on the 129 towards Macomer, this is what you'll find at the first junction you come across for Birori.
There's no way in; there are two collapsed small tholos rooms on its south side, so the chances are it's at least a trilobate if not quadrilobate structure.
There are some village huts visible in the long grass around the nuraghe too.
From Nuraghe Miuddu, head to the gate where you enter the field and then the corner beyond it. Follow the edge of the field south – there'll be a hedgerow to your left – and climb the (low) wire fence at the end. Now clamber over the big rocky outcrop to the right. The tomba is on the slope just below and to the right a bit.
Quite ruinous, with a bush growing right in front of the centre of the esedra. There's one capstone still in place – the views from here are incredible!
Beardy was keen to check out a similar pairing of nuraghe and tomba just about 1km back, but we had a fair way to go to somewhere I knew I had to see, so we headed on east and then north, along deserted roads with flyovers to nowhere ....