Sardinia is offering free accommodation for young travellers who want to hike the Santa Barbara mining trail.
The Cammino Minerario di Santa Barbara Foundation (CMSB) is offering travellers who are under 35 free accommodation for three nights when hiking the 500km trail.
The trail follows Sardinia’s mining history and goes through sand dunes, oak forests and cliffs. The hike is divided into 30 stages of approximately 16km and would take around one month to complete.
The initiative, Let’s Go Cammino, runs from September 15 to December 31 this year. The trail features the San Giovanni caves, the Piscina Irgas waterfall and the Marganai oak forests.
Sardinia’s mining history spans over two thousand years, from the obsidian mines of the palaeolithic age and the Roman Empire to the industrial revolution and the mining of lead, zinc, coal, gold, silver, iron, fluorite and talc, among other minerals.
Hikers need to purchase a hiking licence from the CMSB for €5 (R100) to receive their token for their free three nights of accommodation, which they can do here: www.camminominerariodisantabarbara.org/en/voucher-request-legs-go-in-cammino.