Lukewarm

Day 19 - August 17

Not sure why no one else decided to camp out there on the deck - it is really pleasant, the mild rocking of the boat, the monotonous vibration of the engines, the light wind made it to be a relatively good night - relatively, as there was still quite a lot of people moving around during the crossing. It is already the coast of Corsica with the picture of my tent, at close to 7 am.

We were headed for Bastia, a port on the north. Julian told me he had been on Corsica previously and that he would recommend circumventing the island, starting towards the north. This turned out to be a good suggestion.

We docked north of Bastia and I did not get to see the city - I set off immediately towards the north, called Cap Corse (Cape of Corsica). It was very light traffic, but it was in the early hours of a Saturday morning. I found a patch of rocks, deserted and went in for my first (and definitely not the last!) swim in Corsica.

The coastal road in the north of Corsica was pretty, but I have to say I was missing the wonderful scenery of the Italian Riviera. I was mildly frustrated by myself - why did I not stay at on the mainland, did I really have to cross to get over here? But then, I thought, let us be patient, there must be a reason for the flood of tourists coming over to this island. I've had this experience before: you have to get accustomed to the new place, give yourself some time to arrive - and this is what happened. It was not love at first sight. The water, however, was amazing, I took another dip (second picture).

Gone were the colorful buildings of the Italian coast, it might also have been the weather that left somewhat gloomy impressions from the first day.

Quite a few buildings were in ruins - at least here in the north.

To make matters worse, I took a huge detour of 10 kilometers, dropping hundreds of meters, only to find a rather uninviting beach front. Further, I visited a local shop, only to find that groceries cost about 30% more than in Italy and the choice was rather limited...hmmmm….

OK, on the way back to the road where I had started from, I found a nice church on the way up.

Covering the northernmost point, now I had a fairly nice view of the western coast - just that it was pretty cloudy.

Things got a little better later, the sun poked out from beneath the clouds and it gave a somewhat merrier mood. Still, I was not at all convinced to have made the right decision. Maybe I should be heading back?

On the below picture you can see the road I was coming from - it is looking back from the west towards the north.

I tried, in vain, to find a hotel, even if they had a room, it cost like Eur 400 or more. Attached to a large rock was a sign to a B&B called "Home of the Fishing Cat" - the number worked, they spoke perfect English but told me they were fully booked. Now was task of finding a place to sleep. The problem was that the main road had a steep cliff to the left and a drop to the ocean to the right. I found a small road forking from it to the mountains and followed it. It was close to being completely dark when I spotted a small terrace, a tiny patch of land, to put up my tent in the wilderness. It was nicely hidden from any potential onlooker, at the same time, I had a great view of the coast.

Here is the map for the day. In the 85 kilometers, I gained 1800 meters and dropped about 1500, so I was still somewhere 300 meters above the sea.