The breath of the petrified whale

There is a place, on the Oristano coast, where it is possible to intercept the breath of the whale. It is not the giant of the sea made of big eyes, mammoth mouth, with an enchanting voice that with its song rises from the depths of the abyss. It is a different whale that appears on the promontory of Cuglieri, not far from S'Archittu and Santa Caterina. It is the Whale of Torre del Pozzo, the coastal village of Montiferru, which in the violent storms fed by the mistral, offers a unique spectacle. The gigantic petrified lungs hidden inside that profile are probably an incredible homage of nature to that great creator of images that was Antoni Gaudi. To his architectural solutions in the Casa Batllo, in Barcelona, a true apology for fantastic aquatic forms. Waves or mythological beings that animate the walls of that spectacular and living house. So even in those sandstones on which the ancient watchtower is located, the submerged walls come to life and come to life, releasing a thunderous jet of water towards the sky on days shaken by the sea wind. It is the awakening of the petrified whale.

THE PROMONTORY The Aragonese tower called Torre del pozzo, or locally Torre Su Puttu, was built in the late 1500s and is part of that vast coastal system of communication and defense against the Saracen incursions carried out on the island by the workers of the Crown of Spain, mostly between the end of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the seventeenth. Torre del pozzo rises above sea level a little less than twenty meters, in a position that can be visually connected with the towers of Capo Mannu, Scab 'e Sai and Pittinuri. So with a wide range of control from S'Archittu-Santa Caterina in the north, to the vast bay of Is Arenas in the south. The tower, with its characteristic circular plan and truncated cone volume, has an elevated chamber accessible from an entrance positioned at the height of the curb-frame that runs round it. Despite the restoration work, the last in 2002, the structure is compromised by continuous collapses. Not far from the fort is the well. An opening from which, pushed by the wave motion, the salty spray comes out, similar to the breath of a whale. A magical door created by the sea that connects the fantastic way, the submerged one, with the real.

THE ADVENTURE Diving, no matter how simple and at low depth, always requires maximum concentration and respect for the rules that every diver must take into extreme consideration. The entry into the water takes place from the shore, here you get ready and put on the equipment. Cylinders on the shoulder and regulator in the mouth you reach the bottom which as a maximum immersion altitude is between 12 and 14 meters. After a small stretch of sand and submerged rocks shaped by the strong currents, you walk a short distance keeping to the right and then slowly rise again until you reach the mouth of a large underwater cave dug into the limestone rock. A semi-submerged cave carved by the sea that goes up in the open air up to the slope of the great rock whale, an opening that the water has shaped vertically and that comes out a few meters from the tower. In strong storms the sudden puff makes the rocks tremble revealing the unexpected vitality of that promontory asleep in days of calm. The submerged route is full of ravines and tunnels, an orographic feature that always requires particular attention. The submerged entrance to the cave then emerges into the voluminous body of the Whale. The seabed of Torre del Pozzo, given their mixed conformation, sand and rocks, offer many ideas to those who like to dive with photo-video equipment. And there is also a good presence of marine fauna especially in the quieter months of the year, happily orphans of the massive shouting of bathers. Some precautions are required. In particular, it is better that those who have to take shots or photos, reach the center of the cave first, and from the entrance skirt the sides of the ravine, moving the fins very little to avoid lifting the suspension. The night dive at the Whale is equally impressive. The paths in the ravines are an exhilarating moment of kicking in the dark sea crossed by the yellow light from the torches. The great charm of the underwater night always gives encounters with wonderful beings, small but deadly predators.

Once you reach the heart of the cave, during day dives it is possible to see the light cone projected from the opening on the surface on the dark sandy bottom. At that point, you can re-emerge in complete tranquility: the show takes your breath away. The force of the sea, that tireless work over the long geological eras, has shaped the stone creating an infinity of polyform embroideries, irregularly perforated and handcrafted smoothed. Almost plastic, as if suddenly you were inside a humid lung with alveolar pockets of sandstone that animate that gigantic rock, as in the Casa Batllo.

Jacques Mayol, the great freediving champion, was right about everything. For him, intellectual of the sea and lucid visionary, water is the call and the atavistic memory of our origins. «Man does not die as long as he knows how to dream. And the dream of Homo delphinus will live until man has completely destroyed the sea ».