From Sea to the Summit

Day 25 - August 23

A beach was only a kilometer or so away from the campground, descended there and was in for another disappointment - it was shallow waters, no waves - still, this time I went in for a plunge. Now I headed back toward Bonifacio, first, I spotted the island of Sardinia, it was only some 11 kilometers away.

...and then I was rewarded by probably the most pretty view on this entire trip, the city sitting on an outcrop of limestone, sculpted into unusual shape by the ocean. Here she is:

Here I met a young Italian guy, he told me he was a cook at some rich family and comes to the spot each morning, he can't get enough of it. Roger.

This chalk-white limestone could be seen everywhere, even on the side of the road.

The town had an impressive citadel, which I visited, heading up the wrong way into one-way streets. It was early, no issues with that. The citadel guarded the narrow inlet leading to a harbor.

I took farewell from the city, it was not easy leaving it - emotionally. For those coming there by car, it was not easy getting to it - there was a gigantic traffic jam, I assumed the cars must have waited at least an hour to reach the town.

Yes, Corsica is very varied, now I was riding on a nondescript countryside, with sheep running alongside me. I stopped at a small store selling goat cheese, it was quite tasty (but not as strong in taste I had hoped for).

I reached the town of Porto-Vecchio, it was yet another place which was very pretty.

After visiting this pretty city, I had to take a decision: I heard from other bikers the east coast wasn't all too pretty. I also felt that I wanted to discover more of the interior of the island. There was one thing worrying me and it was the dark clouds gathering above the mountains - it is not pleasant to get wet while climbing. I checked the weather report, it did confirm rain, but not a lot of it. So I made a decision to head for the mountain road.

It was quite a push upwards, though nothing out of the ordinary, the Großglockner is definitely a harder mountain to climb. The view of the sea from far up was rewarding.

Yes, the forecast was correct, the dark clouds became ever darker and it started to rain. Luckily, I had just arrived to the village of L'Ospedale and found refuge in a small church, so did not get wet. I thought the rain would last and started looking for a place to stay and found not less than two B&B's - both run by very friendly gentlemen, but both booked out. The second guy told me that there were hotels and even a campsite in the town of Zonza, still some 20 kilometers away. As the rainfall was dying down, I asked him if he could help me reserve a room at a hotel - and I got a room for just Eur 65! This would be my first room since the Italian coast a week ago. For me, and I guess I am not alone, sleeping in a tent is not quite as relaxing as staying in a bed (especially when surrounded by foxes and wolves)- and while I have camped a fair amount on prior bike tours, I cannot recall pitching my tent 7 evenings in a row. While the campings had showers (needless to day, the wild campings did not...), it is a lot more refreshing using an actual bathroom of an accommodation - compared to doing the same in a camping, where space is usually limited, the water is only lukewarm. Anyhow, it was still a lot of fun - and looking at the hotel prices, I must have saved thousands this way...

Leaving the village, I saw a beautiful rainbow (meaning it was still raining somewhere). Here I met three friendly young French tourists, we chatted for over half an hour about Corsica, the universe and everything (copyright HHGG).

Before the summit, there was a mountain lake, it reminded me on those around Seattle in the Cascade mountains. As said, Corsica has thousands of faces...

I finally reached the pass called Col d'Illarata just below 1,000 meters - it was close to 8 pm. I still had 13 kilometers to my hotel and while most - but not all - of this was downhill, I was counting the kilometers, it seemed to take forever. The atmosphere was autumn-like, I went by the camping outside the town and got the shivers thinking about having to lay on the damp, wet, cold ground. In good weather, it would have been a great place to stay (also similar to the Cascade Mountains in Seattle), but not on this day.

As it was rather late, I was also afraid the hoteliers might think I changed my mind and was not coming - it was a terrible thought coming to the hotel and not finding a room. I pedaled even harder, though my legs were not really obeying the orders from the brain.

I finally reached Zonza, a pretty mountain village, with a nice church. It was also a crossroad of mountain roads leading in various directions.

My fears were unfounded. A waiter at the hotel spoke quite good German (!), he showed me a nice, clean room with a bathroom attached to it. For about 20 minutes, I laid on my bed, not moving, then I changed and went down to get some dinner. It was wild boar stew with polenta (looked better than it tasted….) and then some very expensive (Eur 9) dessert, which was sold as a local delicacy, but reminded me of a Hungarian dessert called Floating Island or Madartej - one which I do not really like. I guess one face Corsica did not really present itself from the favorable side was the cuisine - but it was also me to blame, as I did not really concentrate on finding restaurants.

Here is the map for the day. I did about 70 kilometers, ascended 1,450 meters and descended some 700m.