Sardinia 2010 – Punta Cupeti (17th July)

Our first whole day on Sardinia. In the morning we set out for a trip to Punta Cupeti (1029 m ASL), located above the town of Siniscola. We had the tip for this track from our favourite guidebook “Sardinia: Rother Walking Guite”, written by Mithra Omidvar. We used the 3rd Czech issue of the book (from year 2003), and this track is listed there as track number 41.

Punta Su Pizzu

Punta Su Pizzu

We set out from the camp shortly after half past nine. Getting to the start of the track wasn’t too hard: At first we drove south the SS 125 road (there was a minor detour due to “men at work”) to exit “Budoni mare”, where we get on the highway. Then we drove in the direction Nuoro – unfortunately a little longer than we should have, ’cause we missed the exit located just before Siniscola and had to get off the autostrada on the next one. After a little detour we finally got (back) to Siniscola and then continued in the direction to Passo Santa Anna. We parked our car in one of the serpentines before the pass, where we arrived at about quarter past ten after 33 km long ride.

Then the hike itself began – we were leaving the car at 10:25). It was quite hot (about 33°C), but luckily the first part of the way led through the forest, so we weren’t on the direct sun. Still, it was necessary to drink a lot, together we carried 9 litres of water and drank it all. Since me and my dad were taking a lot of photos and we weren’t in a hurry, it took us almost three hours to get to the rocky plateau at about 940 meters ASL. On our way up we passed two springs, Ft. Grazianu and Ft. Su Ulidone – water in them was probably drinkable, but we didn’t try it.

Ovile (under the summit of Punta Cupeti)

Ovile (under the summit of Punta Cupeti)

According to the guidebook, there should’ve been an iron cross on the top of Punta Cupeti so when I noticed (from the plateau) some summit with a cross I didn’t hesitate and set out for the way to its top. When we got there, I was very happy we made it, but soon I realized that something was wrong. According to my GPS altimeter, we were at 975 m ASL – but Punta Cupeti has 1029 meters. The difference was too big to be just an inaccuracy, so we were pretty sure we were not on Punta Cupeti, but we couldn’t check it since we had no map. Despite that, view from there was very nice, I liked especially the view of the shore, of the town Siniscola and of nearby sandstone quarry.

After short discussion what to do, we decided to hike to another summit that seemed higher than “our” one. After short descent back to the plateau and a short hike we got to the crossroad that we somehow missed on our way up. From the signs there we learnt that the summit we visited before was Punta Su Pizzu and the summit we were heading for now was (finally!) Punta Cupeti.

Few meters below the top there is an old sheepfold (ovile). We went to quickly look at it and continued in the final ascent to the top. We reached it at about 2 PM, 3 hours and 35 minutes after our departure from parking lot. There was a sign there, but no iron cross at the top – the cross was only on the top of Punta Su Pizzu. The view from Cupeti was great, one of the most interesting things to see was IMO Lago di Posada lake in the north.

Punta Cupeti

Punta Cupeti

Return way took us shorter, about 2 hours and 10 minutes. I liked the trip a lot, even though I was quite tired especially thanks to the heat.


I had my Oregon 450 GPS device with me and so I recorded the track and marked a few important waypoints. Following table contains info about the track and link to the GPX file containing the track.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Download link
Parking under Passo St. Anna Punta Cupeti 12.2 km 1029 m 352 m link

You can also look at the elevation diagram of the track (generated by GPS altimeter and processed by Garmin Basemap application). Please click to the miniature to see the diagram in a full size.

Elevation diagram - trip to Punta Cupeti and back

Elevation diagram - trip to Punta Cupeti and back

And last but not least here’s the list of some important waypoints. You can download all of them in one GPX file.

Name Description Approx. Elev. Latitude Longitude
PARK. ST. ANNA Parking place; serpentine under Passo St. Anna 352 m N 40° 34.762′ E 9° 39.185′
FT. GRAZIANU Spring 448 m N 40° 34.546′ E 9° 39.022′
FT. SU ULIDONE Spring 751 m N 40° 34.309′ E 9° 38.404′
ROZC01 Crossroad; (left: Punta Su Pizzu; right: Punta Cupeti) 961 m N 40° 33.993′ E 9° 38.663′
PTA SU PIZZU Punta Su Pizzu summit 974 m N 40° 33.982′ E 9° 38.905′
OVILE01 Ancient ovile 986 m N 40° 33.931′ E 9° 38.501′
PTA CUPETI Punta Cupeti summit 1029 m N 40° 33.908′ E 9° 38.447′

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