But on the other hand, as my encounter with the owls attests, Sardegna feels very much wild. In four days of climbing we have not run into a single climber. We have seen far more sheep than people. And the crags are usually a long dirt road away from small towns perched on steep mountainsides. Narrow towns where pious old women in black make their way to daily Mass and old men sit on the side of street, smoking and talking for a thousand years.

We had come to Sardegna in late February to escape what seemed like a perpetual winter in Berlin. We still climbed in Berlin—on old World War II bunkers or at the overly expensive gym—but the cement began to eat at our skin, the cold shriveled our desire, the plastic pulls just a workout. So, for an 18 Euro fare on Easy Jet, we flew south for a week. While sipping a mid-day cappuccino in the sun on our first day here after a hard morning of climbing in Jerzu we knew it would be difficult to leave. By the third day we knew we would be back. 

Originally, the plan was to leave Europe after Sardinia and live in Moab, Utah for a month before settling down for a long spring and summer in Bishop, California where we rent a small cottage each summer. But going over the logistics we realized it would be almost cheaper to trade Utah for Sarda.

All of which warrants an apology for those with real 9-5 jobs. In spite of the appearance of being jet set dirt-bags, we are neither. Thanks to my wife’s academic position in Atlanta at the same school “Alexander Supertramp” of Into the Wild fame attended we’ve managed to eke out a living mostly where there is good climbing during her sabbaticals. My freelance writing career is so unprofitable that it doesn’t matter where we live.

Aside from two semesters spent in the shallow end of the Deep South we have nearly complete freedom to go anywhere as long as we can still get some work done. Of course the flat cornfields of Kansas would be ideal for such concentration. But Caroline swears she gets more done if she can climb nearly every day. And I’m certainly not going to argue with her.