Lisa discovers that sheep are much better in traffic than cows.
Sardinia has a long history of sheep rearing, allowing the natives to persevere through centuries of exploitation and occupation by numerous invaders, severe droughts, famines, reoccurring epidemics of plague, and living on largely barren and uncultivable land.
Even today, sheep farming and dairy production is the cornerstone of the Sardinian economy. Our minivan driver confirmed that more sheep inhabit the island than people. With cheese as the main export product, it employs the most people of any industry. However, as life changes elsewhere with globalization and modernization, shepherds continue to live a fiercely independent and remote existence.
Surely they wouldn’t have known, for example, that a bunch of cyclists from the continent had invaded the quiet roads just inland from the sea and were at the moment riding down the curvy descent into Lula (love that name, Lula). Disaster loomed, as we saw four dogs and a dozen sheep bound out into the narrow road 50 feet in front of us. The seven of us froze, not sure which line to take around a milling obstacle. Just then a car zoomed by horn blaring, sending the animals back up into the pasture. Besides being small, hardy and yielding large quantities of milk, these sheep aren’t stupid and know how to get the heck out of the way of oncoming traffic. (unlike their bovine counterparts in the U.S.).
There may have been some ancient gods looking after us. After all, there are very old granite structures scattered around the island that were carved out of massive granite rock sometime around 1100 BC. 7000 of these squat circular towers, called Naraghe are historically registered and may have been used for defensive fortresses and/or burial sites. No one knows for sure as these ancient people left no written record.
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