Home-to-Sardinia

Hermitage to Nice and Corsica

Monday, 18^th September 2000 95 miles

Before we even left there were problems in England and France with shortages of fuel due to strikes, and there was even flooding in Portsmouth where we were going to leave from.
We had been at Paul and Nicky's for the weekend, it being Adrian's birthday yesterday, which was sunny, with Hilary & Doug, Tom & Nuria, Emma & Stuart and Felix and a visit from Renee and Lena and we had fun in the hot tub.
Monday turned out to be wet wet wet, all day. We went in for breakfast and then left for our journey to Portsmouth. We had a big hold-up at Salisbury for roadworks where we stopped at this point and had tea coffee break and had a phone call from Tom who told us the hot tub had stopped working. We arrived at Portsmouth about 1 o'clock and headed for the Post Office to get a new E111 form (it turned out we really didn't need it as the one we had was still valid), then to a Nana bank for Adrian to pay in a cheque. And finally we went to get an International driving permit, but the place where we had got one before was no longer there, so we will have to manage without.
It was then a rush for the 14.45 ferry where we had a sandwich as we passed through the docks.
It was a rather dull crossing, and as we'd expected it to be rough we had taken travel pills, but it turned out to be unnecessary and all it did was make us sleepy later on. Rosie read most of the time and had a swim later when the pool opened.
We’d fortunately taken some light refreshments with us as we didn’t arrive at Le Havre at 8.30 (now 9.30 French time). We drove to a car parking area just north of the town where we had a quick supper of bacon & mushrooms and then to bed.

Trip to Italy September - November 2000

Tuesday 19^th September 149 miles

We awoke to a morning just like yesterday, grey, rain, absolutely yuk and not at all the sort of weather to put us in the mood for this trip. We had a cup of tea and breakfast, it's never so exciting when you see the rain pouring down outside and we left about 9 o'clock English time (10 o'clock French time). We set off through Le Havre but as so often on our trips to Le Havre we had problems, especially in the rain. Adrian's back was bad and I gave him a mint and the filling of his tooth came off. So things weren't looking too good and we hoped they would improve. With the past memories of all disasters in Le Havre I wondered why we ever go there and then we found ourselves not on the road we wanted but on one going towards Rouen. Nothing looks so good in the rain and spirits weren't terribly high, but it all looked very French. The annoying thing I find with it raining is that I can't see out of the bit where windscreen wipers don't wipe, in front of me so I was constantly looking down. At St. Romain-de-Colbosc, which was smaller than we'd imagined, we initially missed the road and had to turn around then take the right road down to Pont de Tancarville, but it did mean that we went back through St. Romain, which was very pretty decked with flowers and we stopped to go into a Champion supermarket. I had put in the Paddington tape, which we'd remembered to bring this time and we will enjoy listening to when we get on our way again. In the shop we bought a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of bottles of beer for me, some paté, some Camembert, some Roquefort, a French loaf fromage frais and some Dindi - that was about it. And although being in France, most of those things we could have bought in England, we were trying to think we were on hols and getting in the mood, which was very difficult. We returned to the Tiv and had our morning coffee with a piece of Adrian's birthday cake and found we'd got some candles, so we lit those and the rain returned rather hard. We continued to listen to Paddington. The Paddington tape ended just as we approached the Pont de Tancarville looking magnificent despite the torrential rain. To add to our frustrations now, the road on to Elbeuf was closed so we had to take a diversion, it was very pretty, but we could have done without the rain. We came to a place called Montfort sur Risle and then Grand-Bourgtheroulde which was also very pretty. Then it was on to Elbeuf where we had a bit of trouble finding our way out but did so eventually and made our way to Louviers. We'd been looking for somewhere for lunch, but found nowhere, negotiated Louviers still raining and past Gaillon, and just outside Vernon, we had to be content with stopping in one of these awful pulloffs just beside the road. We made our way, crossing the River Seine to Giverney and to Monet's Garden and by the time we got there it had nearly stopped raining. It was a bit hard to see at this place where to park as it was very wet and muddy, evidence of a lot of coaches, and we pulled into a level layby area beside a stream, which actually was the one that came out of Monet's Garden. We followed the directions and had a really delightful time in these gardens that I'd wanted to visit for a long time. There were quite a few other visitors despite the weather, lots of coach parties, lots of Japanese, other people seemed to be English or American, and a smattering of Germans. I hadn't realised how much I would enjoy the gardens and the house which had a predominant blue feel about them. No photographs to be taken in the house, we got quite a few pictures and postcards afterwards. The kitchen had a particularly nice blue tiled range. The gardens were an absolute mass of colour and even on a day like this, looked just fantastic. Crowds and crowds of colours, lots of blues and pinks and mauves and also yellows of sunflowers. I preferred the bluey shades and the water lily pond as it's called, so famous from his paintings, was actually a long sort of stream with the weeping willows around it and water lilies in it and other delightful shrubs and plants around it, so that I took many a photo but didn't really take any that summed up the feeling of it, but still looking delightful.

The rain came on again, often quite hard but didn't seem to spoil things at all and perhaps kept away some of the visitors, so all told an absolutely wonderful time. We went into the shop which was also interspersed with some black and white prints and a huge one open on the wall and it's one time I've gone into a shop and liked just about everything I saw. I bought mostly some cards and then we returned to our Tiv in our muddy spot to have a cup of tea. I perused the various postcards and things that we bought and then the sky looked a bit brighter. We retraced our steps to Vernon, and crossed the Seine again and then went south following the River Eure, through, Pacy and Ivry to Ezy, which wasn't easy as we had to do a diversion. And then we came to Dreux where we stayed with the Morris in 1996 and then headed for Chartres where we knew there was somewhere that we could stay for free in the town, but all we had was the name of the Boulevard. We had a good view of the cathedral as we approached the town, standing out on the skyline from a great distance.

Monet's Garden at Giverney

In Chartres, we found a map and I located where the place was and between us, we found our way there which was on a busy road, but very close to the cathedral, in fact it was also parking for the cathedral. Unfortunately by now, the rain had returned but the actual location we were in was quite lovely. We opened a bottle of wine, and I got supper of dinde and Adrian had a creme caramel for after and I had a banana and creme fresh and some of Laure's myrtle conserve. Then at about nine o'clock, French time, I still haven't been able to alter my watch, we walked up into the town, and it came on to rain again but what a wonderful town, it's got so many of these brilliant places. Apart from the Cathedral, which was just magnificent, there was just so much, it's just exquisite to walk around, and at night there's nobody else about. The river running by, ancient buildings, the restaurant over the water, which reminded us of the Holy Brook in Reading at one point. We went right up to the cathedral and almost around it and that in itself was just so splendid, so huge, so much carving on the outside and we remembered our trip there in the old Morris in 1996. As we walked back to the Tiv, in the rain really, it was still wonderful.

Chartres Cathedral

Wednesday 20^th September. 106 miles

A grey morning, but a great improvement in that it wasn't raining. We came too a bit late. We’d heard two noises in the night and we realised the fire station was just along the road. My alarm went off in the middle of the night - we'd been playing with my watch. Adrian managed to fix it, eventually, or at least fixed it to put it an hour on, but the alarm still went off during the morning. We had breakfast and realised that Adrian had managed to tune into radio four and midweek which had some interesting people on it, notably, Donald Woods, who left South Africa for his anti-apartheid views but had returned and written a book, called “Return to the Rainbow People” and I'd particularly wanted to listen to that. Another person was somebody who'd brought a child out Romania and adopted the Romanian child, and another person was an Olympic high jumper - a woman in the 1930s and picked for the Berlin Olympics in 1936 when she was 16 years old. It was very much an emphasis on racism with a discussion, so I'd wanted to listen to it.
So we didn't get going until 9.45 which of course was 10.45 in French time, when we walked up into this wonderful old town of Chartres. We tried to follow the tourist walking route, but the signs weren't very good, so we soon lost that, but we just enjoyed walking around, it was just so wonderful. The sun came out and we had a coffee in a little pavement cafe. It cost a lot of money for our tea and coffee but it was a nice thing to do and then we made our way up to the Cathedral which we wanted to revisit remembering our visit there in 1996. I still found the stained glass there the most wonderful place in the world for stained glass. We enjoyed walking around the vast Cathedral with stained glass everywhere you looked, just fantastic, just wonderful. We hadn't realised that the labyrinth as they called it, was actually the centre of the floor with all the chairs on it - there were lots of pictures of that. So having really enjoyed our return visit there, we bought one or two postcards, but nothing can do justice to the stained glass.

We made our way back down to the Tiv, we should have bought some bread but didn't want to carry it all around with us. We now proceeded to leave Chartres in the Tiv, we went the wrong direction at first and we couldn't find anywhere to get petrol or bread. We did a tour and found ourselves on the road to Orleans, where we were heading, but we had to go back in and eventually found an Intermarché with a petrol station attached. We got diesel as we left, but it was the woman in the kiosks, first day and she wasn't sure how to use a Visa card! We had lunch just around the corner from Intermarche listening to the last (2nd) side of Paddington.
We then headed for Orleans and it wasn't long before Adrian became dozy and we stopped for a snooze, and I decided to make a cup of tea, having mistakenly thought the time was quarter to five when it was quarter to three. By the time he woke up it was after three so we had the last of his birthday cake and then continue to Orleans through a continuous a line of little villages mostly very pretty with their flowers, and looking very French. The weather which had been very cold this morning, gave promise once or twice of sunshine, but even a drop or two of rain. We had to negotiate Orleans which had nothing to commend it except a lot of traffic and roadworks. We headed off towards Gien through Chateauneuf and continued through pretty villages with fluctuating weather sometimes more sunshine, a couple of drops of rain and even a rainbow. One village to mention with all its flowers was Dampier. And then we came to Gien which we'd stayed at in 1984 and this is twinned with Malmsbury, which we had visited this year with Harry and Maureen. We had intended staying at Gien, our book told us that the car parks were for tourists and you could overnight in them, well that's what we understood. We went along beside the river looking across to the campsite where we stayed at and the bridge looked splendid, it must have had a good clean up.

Chartres Cathedral

Around Chartres

The bridge at Gien

But we didn't see anywhere obvious to park so we crossed the bridge and then realised, that as we remembered in 1984, there were queues of traffic going northwards on the bridge to the campsite, so we turned around the went south of the river now passing Briare on the northern side to Chatillon and it was a pretty ride along there. We crossed The Loire and drove back to Briare because there there was a place, at the commercial port it said, where you could overnight. When we got there we could see the place and there were some motorhomes there and more came in during the evening. A really pretty spot beside the canal and right at the end of the canal bridge over the Loire, so we parked ourselves there and by now the sun was shining and it was quite a pleasant evening. So we took a little walk out to the canal bridge and along round about beside the Loire

. The bridge reminded us of our lunch stop there in 1985 after the ferry strike. It was very pleasant, very peaceful and Adrian commented that you just can't beat rural France, quite lovely. We came back and got supper with some Frankfurter sausages with a bit more of the turkey breast and my new tomato chutney and then we walked out into the town. A boat had come in which must have be doing a trip down the canal and had stopped for people to have their evening meal. It was moored right in front of us, a long boat they and they were obviously staying there the night. It looked great fun and seemed quite nice idea for a trip we thought. We walked out in the last of the light and then it got dark and like we always did on our camping holidays, we just enjoyed walking out into the French town. We passed the pretty dinky church in Briare.
We came to an area which was called 'Port de Plaisance' which was a massive area of water and walkways and we were able to cross a little a bridge and walk along a sort of little island with low level lighting and finished with trees with virtually nobody about. We commented why was it so different from South Africa when there was no one about and we obviously felt perfectly safe. We really enjoyed this town which had such a lot to offer, very attractive with all the pots of flowers and the geranium on the bridges.

The peaceful Loire at Briare

By one of the bridges we walked down to see some strange sort of statue things and walked across a little lock gate. We really had a very good walk out and did very much enjoy it.

'Statues' by the bridge in Briare

Thursday 21^st September 120 miles

When we awoke it was chilly but it was fine and the sun was just coming up, there was a lot of condensation on the windows, but it promised to be a good day. We heard on the radio of a lot of rain in England. We had our breakfast and decided to go for a cycle around there, it being relatively flat with all this water and the canal system. The weather was perfect and we hadn't realised what a delight this would be. It was quite chilly initially, and we started off wearing our gloves but it was warm by the time we got back at just gone 11.00 am. We started by cycling over the canal bridge, the ‘Pont du Canal’ and we'd been quite brave crossing high above the river.

We saw that this was the cycle route to Gien but this was mainly on the road, so we went in the other direction where we'd driven last night, along to the bridge across at Chatillon and which we did passing asparagus growing in the fields. At Chatillon we went on the towpath, not the road which went back and around the village and we then went back across the Loire on a really attractive bridge which we'd seen yesterday.

Rosie cycling across the 'Pont du Canal' across the Loire

We then cycled back to Briare on the north side and when we got there, we decided to go a bit further to the area about Port de Plaisance where we were last night. It seemed very much like the place we'd stopped in 1985 after the strike. We saw the pretty bridge which they called ‘Pont de Rialto’, decked with flowers. There was a little plan there but it wasn't terribly accurate. We thought we could cycle right round this water area which in fact we did, but it meant us cycling along the canal for a long way on a rough track and then crossing a lock gate and back to Briare. But it was a delightful cycle, just so lovely, and on the way back we stopped at the pretty little church which we’d looked at last night and in the light we could see it was pretty colourful on the outside of it, like the one in Florence. In front of it, were lots of stands of flowers and a little fountain.

Adrian by the bridge across the Loire at Chatillon

Adrian on bicycle by the 'Pont de Rialto', Briare

Opposite there was a boulangerie and we bought our 'pain' and an 'escargot' a sort of yellowy French Danish pastry. As we were returning on our cycle trip we passed a circus being set up and there were two elephants playing with some straw which was rather fun. We had our coffee and ‘escargot’ sitting on the bank of the canal, our legs dangling just above the water and then Adrian did some emptying and filling which entailed him reversing along to the tap because the one motorhome there was parked right close to it making it difficult to get there. I did a bit of cleaning and by the time we left Briare it was almost midday, but we had really enjoyed our stay there. It was now warm and I even put on a skirt.
We went on a road which was mostly a fast road in the direction of Nevers, past Pouilly with all its vineyards, and turned off to la Charité, which was the place we'd stayed at on our fateful trip after the strike in 1985, and had arrived at the campsite and stayed there two days - we had very happy memories of it. We crossed the river and it looked an ideal lunch spot, looking back towards the wonderful old town which we'd driven through and looking up to the ramparts which we remember visiting. We had a lovely lunch there, sitting outside and enjoying the French bread and smelly Camembert cheese and other goodies, and after sitting in the sun soaking it up for a while - I was really enjoying that - we walked across the bridge to the old town. We couldn't remember a great deal about it except the ramparts already mentioned and two huge churches. We looked inside one and then made our way to the ramparts, but there now seemed to be a school there, and this came right up to the edge of the ramparts but we still managed to walk around part of it and took a photo looking back across the River Loire to compare it with the previous one taken in 1985.

The pretty church at Briare

We now made our way back to the Tiv and drove a short distance round to the campsite, again trying to picture it all and relive our memories of that time. We then left La Charité, it now being 2.45 and thinking like Briare that La Charité had lost none of its charm.
We now continued to Nevers, which we went a bit closer to than we'd intended and soon after that at Imphy I located a post office and stopped to get some stamps. Then we continued to Saint-Léger-des-Vignes on a Loire tributary on the outskirts of Decize and we stopped down by the water to have our afternoon tea. We now made our way to Digoin also on the Loire and a place we'd never heard of, but a very attractive town again with a 'pont de canal' - an aqueduct - older than the one at Briare. There were three places in fact where we could free camp there and we settled on Place de la Republic which was near the canal.
Having arrived there we walked out around the town, past the other camping place which we had called in to first and along to the aqueduct and then back round to our parking spot, in the warm sunshine, now turned about 6.45 pm and under a clear blue sky. After our meal, of the rest of the frankfurters and some bacon and we fried some Camembert cheese because we had to get rid of the smell - we'd nearly used it all up by then. We had a shower in the van and wrote a few family postcards. We had a little walk out which was very quiet, apart from the noise of people on their scooters roaring around and we came back and had a couple of text messages on the phone, from Nuria and Tom, the first time we'd had that, so replied to them.

Adrian by the bridge across the Loire at la Charité

Rosie on the ramparts at la Charité

Friday 22^nd September 191 miles

It was quite a fresh morning, some blue sky but quite a lot of clouds. After breakfast, we walked along and found the boulangerie and bought a baguette and palmiers for later and we posted the cards I'd written, in the post office just along the road. We left at 9.40. The first town we went through was Paray and at this point, we were following the Canal du Centre for a while, and then crossed, pretty country past Charolles, and soon after this, we turned off on 'route touristique' to Cluny. This was the area that we were in last year and were crossing our route of then but because we didn't have a map at that time, we didn’t have our exact route drawn on it so we didn’t know exactly where that was. Also we had got all our routes of trips to Europe except last year with us! We saw cattle in the fields, which we presumed to be the Charolais breed, a lightish beige colour. I'd wanted to stop in this beautiful country for elevenses, but before we knew it, we'd arrived at Cluny, and we weren't quite sure what to expect there,we just knew it as a place to visit with a large monastery. We were able to park so we had our coffee and palmiers, and then wandered around this old town, which must have once had a really vast abbey, there were lots of remnants of it and obviously you could spend a long time there if you were really into that sort of thing. But we enjoyed our walk around the town. There were sign posts to some Roman houses, but we never actually found them and we returned around about midday and set off on the main road towards Mâcon.

Soon after, we were able to take the tourist route, which was much prettier, probably the old road, and then we joined a fast bit of road to just south of Mâcon and continued south. We tried to take one road to cross the Saone but it had a height restriction which wouldn't do for us and didn't seem to be mentioned on the map. So we continued a bit further south and turned off and crossed the Saone River just before a place called Thoissey and there beside the river, we were able to stop and have a lunch in the hot sunshine right beside the water. It was as Adrian said, too hot really to sit in the sun! I photographed two old barges with wood on them and then we left and headed into Thoissey, the road going through a wonderful avenue of tall maple trees.

The Abbey at Cluny

We then we came to St. Didier, and then continued towards the really flowery town of Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne. We stopped for me to throw away the bag of rubbish there, so hopefully that's goodbye to the smell of the Camembert! After some pleasant flattish country and through Chalamont, we came to a large hill with lots of hairpin bends going down, and in the distance we could see the mountains with snow on them. We now followed the Rhone Valley, they called it the Blue Valley there and it was quite beautiful, with the blue sky and high cliff sides covered in green vegetation but with some sheer rock faces, and a lot of trees just showing early autumn colours. We continued on our way, turning off for tea about 4 o'clock but the little track we were on was used by big lorries and it wasn't very peaceful. We were now getting into hilly country as we continued south in clear blue sky and at Voiron we stopped for some fuel. The mountains certainly looked beautiful capped with snow against the clear blue sky. We got onto the motorway towards Grenoble, where when we reached there, we got stuck in the traffic. But we were soon on our way towards La Mure up the long long hill that Laure had told us about and found the place where they lived at Nantizon about 7.00 pm. Laure greeted us, her father and her younger brother Gerald were there, her Mum was still at work. We put the Tiv into their driveway and went upstairs for aperitifs and chat, which went on till after her Mum had come home and then we had supper. During this time we'd gone down and put the washing in the machine and hung it out onto an airer.

Wood barges on the Saone at Thoissey

Saturday 23^rd September 0 miles in Tiv

And a wonderful day. we were woken by Laure just after 8 o'clock, we'd slept through to about 7.00, hadn't realised it was that time and dozed off again. We went upstairs and had breakfast. The reason for us being up early was that we were going on the Chemin de Fer de la Mure, the tourist train which runs up to La Mure, and Laure was going to drive us down to St. Georges de Commiers and this was quite a long drive down. We then had to get our tickets and we joined the crowds of people - it was very busy, we were surprised how busy. We wondered how it would be as the carriages had wooden seats, but actually weren't too bad in the end. We didn't get window seats, but in fact our middle seats were quite good as we could look out both sides, one side of the train was much better than the other as side was against the mountainside for most of the time. We had a 1¾ hour trip which went very quickly, looking at this splendid scenery and it really was such a beautiful area of mountains all around and the clear blue skies. A beautiful day, cool at first, but it turned hot by midday and we had a very pleasurable time looking out on several lakes and the beautiful scenery. The train runs right past Laure's house and the family were there to wave to us and then they all jumped in the car to drive along to the station at La Mure, which is only a couple of minutes along from them, so they could bring us back again.

Laure then phoned Simon in Jo’burg, so we spoke to him. The weather there wasn't at all nice at that moment. We then had lunch quite early as Laure's Mum was working this afternoon, but it was again quite a long meal with a sort of courgette flan followed by green beans from the garden and pork. We did have just one glass of wine with this and plenty of water and cheeses, yoghurt and fruit and whatever else we wanted. We felt pretty full and in the afternoon, we'd planned to go for a walk and Laure's Dad, Albert, drove us to the place we were going to walk from which was much further than I'd realised. Again we had this splendid splendid scenery and looking so wonderful with a blue sky. We started walking with Laure, Albert stayed behind and just walked around nearby, he had hurt his back fairly recently and wasn't going to come on the walk with us. It really was the most wonderful walk with lots of other people initially walking with us or near us. It was quite steep, but nothing too bad for me, quite puffing, quite exhausting and quite warm. It was absolutely beautiful and I took several photos, particularly of the snow topped mountains, although we wore T shirt and shorts, as it was beautifully warm all the time. Near the top there were several lakes and by one of them we stayed beside for a bit, and Laure waded through a bit of it and we had a few biscuits and sat and just enjoyed the lovely surroundings. We then decided to come down by a slightly different route but this meant it took a bit longer and we weren't always quite sure where we're going and hoped we wouldn't get into difficulties At one time we had to jump across a deep stream in a deep ravine and another time we had to wade across a quite wide river which meant taking our boots off. It was all really beautiful. There were no birds to speak of, one or two butterflies, hairbells and the myrtle looking lovely after it had turned red.

Le lac de Monteynard from the 'Chemin de fer de la Mure'

Laure's house at Nantizon from the 'chemin de fer'

It was a lovely walk down and by the time he got to the bottom and rejoined Laure's Dad in the car in the car park it was 6 o'clock and we'd had a three and a half hour walk. Albert then drove us back stopping briefly to view a house which Laure liked beside a little waterfall. By now it felt cool out of the sun and we then drove back to the house to be greeted by Gerald who hadn't come with us. The afternoon train on the railway outside went past us.

We had a good time chatting, with Laure translating often as our French wasn't very good and their English wasn't too good either, looking at photos, eating salad, stuffed tomatoes, lots of cheeses, and then a cake. Laure's cousin had come in, and then she had gone off with Laure's brother - he was going to play the drums in a band. Some time towards midnight we went out to the Tiv, there was clear sky above us and stars.

In the garden at Nantizon with Laure and her family

Our walk in the mountains with Laure

Sunday 24^th September 72 miles

We awoke to hear lots of car doors slamming and then it appeared today was when there was a cycling and running race around Nantizon and La Mure. We went in to have breakfast with Laure, her parents had already breakfasted and we then set off with her first of all into La Mure itself to buy a map for the next bit our trip south and then went back to walk up to a hill with a rock on the top called "La Pierre-Piercée", the pierced rock.

Then we had showers and organised getting in the washing that was now dry and prepare for the evening. Another pleasant evening followed with a nice meal this time chamois and lots of chat. Laure's Mum's friend Suzanne from Chamonix was also there for the evening but her brother had gone out to a music festival. We looked at lots of old family photos and went to bed in the Tiv sometime after midnight.

The train on the 'Chemin de Fer de la Mure' passes at Nantizon

This was again a really pleasant, it was an absolutely beautiful day and we looked down when he got to the top onto the surrounding scenery. We heard the little train and then could see it by lakes below, as we walked down we could see these moraine lakes - there were four of them.

Rosie and Adrian at "La Pierre-Piercée"

We got back from this delightful walk at about midday, when we had said we would have lunch and then leave, but it didn't quite happen like that. It was an aperitif first, a beer, sitting on the balcony and then a protracted lunch with Laure, her parents, her brother Gerald and a friend of Laure's Mum, Suzanne. Earlier in the morning, Laure's grandfather had come in to say hello, he was 88 and walked with the aid of sticks but seemed pretty game for anything. So we had a long lunch and eventually left at about 2.20, through La Mure, where we stopped to buy a baguette and then on south towards Gap. We stopped to view a reservoir and a bit later for the snooze and I made a cup of tea and we perused the map and the route we would be taking. We continued to Gap and then through it and then the road just followed down through a long valley, the Durance Valley and the Route de Napoleon - the route that Napoleon took after he'd escaped from Elba. We came to Sisteron, an amazing town with a citadel high on the hill and a lot of very ancient looking buildings and ramparts and where we hoped we might stay and some very angry looking mountains around as if the earth had ruptured itself right there. Today was the day when people were supposed to be voting in a referendum but we saw no evidence of it and it seemed as Laure had told us that no-one was very interested, although we did see the voting places in the Hotel de Ville there. We parked in the carpark in the Place de la Republic , we couldn't work out what the different signs meant - some of it was paying. One bit we thought it meant motorhomes, but we eventually decided it meant not motorhomes.

View from the "La Pierre-Piercée" and looking down to the moraine lakes

We then walked out into the interesting old town and its huge Citadel above it. We climbed up to it but it had just closed or was closed anyway. We saw a museum to Baden Powell, a Scout museum, closed of course but a rather surprising thing to find. So we made our way back down and through the old town. There were lots of old houses hiding under huge rocks and a town seemingly on lots of different levels which go up quite steeply. We came back to our car park and had evening tea as we'd had quite a large lunch. Later in the evening, we walked out again through this wonderful crumbling old town which one could just imagine stories of old being re-enacted there, particularly as on our way back we saw a rat playing and then zooming down into the drain hole! There was a message on the phone from Tom saying he was going on holiday to Cairo!

Our 'overnighter' in the carpark at Sisteron

Monday 25^th September 146 miles

I didn't sleep well and it was quite cool when we woke up, but a clear blue sky and we had breakfast in our town position which had been quite noisy. We left Sisteron at around 8.30 in the morning. There was a SuperU where we stopped to get a bit of shopping but not hugely successful. There we no loose potatoes, only big bags of them and no Camping Gaz. We didn't mention yesterday the valley of Durance was a food growing area,. There were acres and acres of netted fields, we were also in to the lavender growing area. We crossed the River Durance at Les Mees and headed eastwards for a little distance. At Bras-d'Asse, we crossed the River Asse and then ascended by lots of hairpins, to a viewpoint, on the map, called Poteau de Telle and we looked down over the Asse valley.

We had our coffee stop there and had some pain au chocolat which we’d bought that morning and started the video. We soon came to the town of Moustiers Sainte Marie looking very dramatic with its sandy coloured houses, clinging to the huge rocks above and where we managed to get some Camping Gaz We then came to the Grand Canyon du Verdun there were lots of hairpin bends and we looked down to Lac de Ste. Croix below for a long time and then went on through the little village of Aiguines .

Looking down from the Poteau de Telle

We managed to find a flattish area away from the gorge where we sat in the warm sunshine and had our lunch at the Pont de l'Artuby. We stopped at the Balcons de la Mescla where it was a very steep down to the gorge with a turquoisey river way way way down below, it was very hot now. We now left the canyon and it was on through Comps-sur-Artuby and then at a little place called la Bastide. Adrian noticed a 'flot bleu' sign and there we were able to empty the loo and the dirty water. We were now on the N85 road towards Grasse and we stopped briefly at Col de la Faye at 984 metres and gazed at the scenery looking very misty in the distance. We stopped at another viewpoint where there was information on the Route de Napoleon in French with splendid views of just mountainsides covered in virgin vegetation. An Autosleepers van passed in the other direction and the people pulled in across the road and came back. We had a chat, they came from Leeds and were on their way back from having been in the Mediterranean for six weeks and also said that they'd had their motorhome stolen from their garden last year! We had already just decided to have a cup of tea there so we did that and then continued at 4.20. We began descending to Grasse, the views were superb down across this attractive undulating country and in the distance, the sea, but there were houses large and small as far as the eye could see and Grasse looked enormous. We managed to negotiate it and headed off towards Nice and soon we were in the heavy traffic going along an awful road through towns and habitation We eventually managed to reach the road by the coast although you couldn't see anything much except some palm trees and more cars and then it was on to the Promenade des Anglais along the front at Nice. We wondered why people would want to come here, the beach was pebbly and nothing to write home about and okay it was sunny. The buildings were nice but it was just packed with people and cars, not our scene at all, but the actual location in the bay was attractive. We managed to make our way right along the front and down to a big carpark in the port. Adrian went to investigate and found that we can stay where we were which was right down by the port with smart blocks around and very nice houses on the other side of this little port. We had to pay £8.50 for it, but we were in the right place for our boat to Corsica in the morning.

We then came to the Col de l'Illoire at 967 metres and stopped in the carark - not very good for my vertigo there, it was a long, long way down. The carpark was bustling and the voices were foreign, Dutch, German, Swiss, English but where was the French? We continued along the southern side of the Grand Canyon on a road that's called the Corniche Sublime, stopping wherever we could for views of this superb, stupendous gorge beneath us. There were quite few cars today, I wouldn't like to think what it would be like in peak season. Quite vertiginous in places, quite dramatic with the river way below at the bottom and the leaves on the trees just turning colour.

Lac de Ste Croix

The Grand Canyon du Verdun

Our lunch stop (on the left) at the Pont de l'Artuby (streetview 2023)

We went for a walk out around the port, harbour, there were many boats of all sizes there but it was very pleasant, we really enjoyed it. We came back and cooked more chicken breast with the last of the English Bacon, lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, very nice French beans and rice - of course we couldn't get any potatoes today, but it was nice. After supper we walked out in the other direction, saw where our boat was going from in the morning and then along the front a bit looking out towards the port. We saw planes taking off and landing non-stop from the airport back along the front. Lit up, Nice looked really pretty and the temperature was really warm, so that was good.

Adrian on the harbour at Nice where we overnighted

Tuesday 26^th September 37 miles

We'd set the alarm for soon after 6 o'clock, but we were awake, got up and had breakfast and left just after 7 o'clock to drive just around the corner to the ferry 'the rapide' to Corsica. The sky was clear blue, it was just getting light and there was activity going on all around. The ship was there, we'd seen it last night and had large bags of cement ready to be loaded and that was now being done. Next stop Corsica.
Then the fun started, there an announcement to say that only the driver could drive onto the boat, the passengers had to walk on. So this I proceeded to do and when I got up to the boat there was a notice to say for passengers with tickets only. I hadn't got a ticket with me as there was only one piece of paper which I'd left Adrian. I toyed with the idea of going back for it, but waited. When my turn came, the man said wait there and he asked me my name and the vehicle and said 'yes I remember you, okay'. I then proceeded on to the boat and a little television screen said you had to find a seat in the lounge. So I did this and sat beside a window looking out onto Nice, looking delightful in this early morning light.
But all of that, must be a thing to give people anguish, because it was about half an hour before Adrian arrived. I had thoughts of arriving on my own in Corsica without any money. But he duly came along and said the van was packed in like sardines and there wasn't room for more than the driver to get out, although the boat is very uncrowded today. We then actually set sail a few minutes early, just after 8 o'clock. We then had the sight of the coast along from here which certainly is magnificent, but it was very hazy, the misty sun was splendidly shining down, a beautiful pink light on the water. We saw along to what we thought was Monte Carlo and then it was just the sea which was like smooth glass.

Adrian had taken a pill but even he needed have done and we were soon lulled to sleep. We sat in seats rather like an aeroplane and like we had when we went to see Robben Island in South Africa, but this was rather a smoother crossing than that and we actually slept for a couple of hours. So around 10 o'clockish, I walked around the boat a bit, but there wasn't a great deal to see. I thought we'd have a coffee which was a bit disastrous, as mine was miniscule size and the man didn't seem very keen at serving it. That was only 6 francs and as I suppose was the tea and we had one Danish pastry and it came 30 francs and I hadn’t quite got 30 francs in change! But replenished with that we proceeded to Corsica. We both sat down and read, me reading Tom Sawyer and Adrian was reading and MMM which had an article on Corsica. We realised after a while that we were going down the coast, of Corsica, so we proceeded to the other side of the boat, and glanced up every now and again to splendid scenery, which I'd vaguely remembered from our previous visit. Before we knew it, we were coming into Bastia at 11.40 on the dot and the engines turned off and we were all allowed down to the deck into our vehicles.
As Adrian was the last vehicle to drive on, we were the first vehicle to drive off, which was great, except of course, we weren't sure where we were going. But we found our way out to the road, and a signpost to Cap du Corse, the the northern bit where we were going - however we wanted to stop in Bastia to buy some bread and get a book of campsites from the tourist information. Bastia didn't strike us as very attractive, we remembered this from last time - the setting was lovely, but it's just a conglomerate of buildings and bustling and busy. We pulled into the side to park and found our way back, walking, towards the main part of the town. And there we did find the tourist information and we're given a book on campsites and on our way back we bought a loaf of bread, not quite like French bread, it looks a bit like it, but rather heavier. In a large hypermarket entrance, we found a telephone shop and Adrian was able to get a lead for the phone, which hadn't been working as we weren't able to charge it. So for £10 we got one - the next thing was lunch. So back in the van the heat had hit us, it was a really warm.
We drove northwards, the scenery was just beautiful. Clear blue sky, clear blue sea and this wonderful rocky coastline with a road winding its way up, which rminded us of the Yugoslavian coast road, but often it was way above the sea. We'd liked to have just stopped by the sea and would have liked some shade, but this wasn't to be and if ever there was a parking place it had a height barrier. There weren't even many parking places, those that were there, were mainly just places beside the road. We eventually stopped at a place just after Marine de Sisco, where we just pulled onto a little rocky headland and had our lunch in the shade of the van, looking down on this exquisite view and in a beautifully warm temperature. There were little lizards nearby and butterflies, a bird of prey, it really was lovely apart from the nuisance of a wasp which Adrian eventually killed.

The sun rises as we leave Nice

Just around the corner from there we came to an idyllic little spot which seemed to be called Marine de Pietracorbara a very low key sandy beach with some pebbles and very few people and a very calm sea. So we had our first swim and we tried to remember when the last one was, but it seemed to be in February in South Africa. It was quite wonderful with very few people but by the time we left about an hour later, the French were arriving and as we sat on the beach thinking we ought to go, it suddenly it became quite rough and for a few minutes, there were some quite big waves and then it went calm as calm again. There were some yachts anchored in the bay and to me, it seemed very much like Greece as we remembered it in days of old. So if this is how it's gonna be, it's gonna be good. There was some seaweed on the beach there, like strands of dried paper stuck to it and in looking back on our past diary, it was in Corsica in 1992 that we first came across this type of seaweed, which we've such a lot since.
As we continued north it became less and less inhabited, but we stopped at Macinaggio which is where the road goes across to the western coast and just beyond this was a harbour with a mixture of boats, some fishing and some yachting. We walked along in the warm sunshine and bought an ice cream and sat and ate it, before continuing on our way.

First lunch stop near Marine de Sisco, Corsica

Rosie after her first swim at Marine de Pietracorbara, Corsica

We then started across to the west coast and we stopped up in the hills and took a photo and a bit of video looking down into the little harbour where we had just been at Macinaggio. The road wound on through the very hilly northern bit and we stopped at Col de la Serra. From there we could see down the West Coast, very misty, it looked really lovely with little villages tucked into the hillsides and Adrian took a bit more video. We made our way down to one of those little villages which was Centuri and Adrian had read there was a campsite there and as unfortunately there wass no wild camping allowed in Corsica, we made our way down the winding road to it. The campsite was in fact by the port, several kilometres away from the little village. When we got to the site, we weren't that impressed and thought the price was horrific and seemed to be £8 something. It was very dry and terraced but we managed to put the the van into a little place there and put the kettle on.
After a cup of tea we decided to walk down to the beach, there was supposedly a footpath from the campsite, which we found with a little bit of difficulty. The path was not easy to walk along perhaps they were working on it and when we got down to the beach, it was like a tiny village of days gone by. It had a few very old houses and the beach nothing much to speak of, it wasn't sandy or pleasant, it was rocky underneath so we couldn't get in and swim. There were a few people with their children paddling in the water so we walked on a little bit further towards the port, it looked wonderful, the sun was low in the sky, but we decided there must be easier beaches to swim from so we decided we wouldn't be going down there in the morning.

View to Macinaggio near Cap de Corse, Corsica

We walked back up and went to have showers and then went back to the van, it was beautifully warm still, but cooling down slightly. We had some lamb which Adrian cooked on the stove outside, there were no barbecues allowed there, which probably applies to the whole of Corsica, we seem to remember that from before. After eating outside, the temperature had dropped slightly. It was just below 70°F and when it got down to 65°F we went in! We phoned Tom.

Evening at Centuri Port, Corsica

Wednesday 27th September - Happy Birthday, Jilly 44 miles

We both awoke about 6.45 am and I was thinking of getting up then but the next thing we knew it was 9 o'clock and the sky was blue. The sun had just come from behind the mountains but we had a tree behind us so we were still in the shade. We had our morning cup of tea sitting outside, the first time for a very long time that we'd done that and then breakfasted outside and listened and watched the other campers there.
By the time we left it was nearly 10.45, so would we get elevenses in? I wasn't sure but just in case I’d bought a pain au chocolat! We left and climbed up on a little road through Morsiglia and just after that passed a whole lot of cyclamen growing beside the road and there were stunning views down to the sea, very little habitation just a mountainside. We'd managed to pull in beside the road high above the sea, and I was able to photograph some of the little cyclamen - the scenery really was staggering in this misty sunshine. We wound our way around to Pino, a coach had stopped there and people all emerged from it, so we didn’t stop, but we did stop just past the little village set high in the hills and the scenery was just wonderful - the tower of a monastery and the roofs of the houses.

A car pulled in behind us and three chaps with fishing rods said hallo and were presumably going to walk right down to the sea to fish. We continued winding along these roads way way above the sea, sometimes it was just sheer down to it. Not for me really, but spectacular scenery and so remote, just 'maquis' growing everywhere and occasionally a little bit of habitation, little villages perched way up. We past two huge coaches on the little tiny roads and then took a little road down to a beach to have our morning coffee although it was nearly midday. There was the seaweed that we’ve already mentioned piled on the beach and there was a the little tiny harbour there. We sat on this pebbly beach and enjoyed our late morning tea and coffee and pain au chocolat, which we shared. It was just pleasantly warm and were able to sit in the sun, it reminded us of a beach in Kefalonia which we'd climbed a long way down to. There were a couple of wasps which annoyed us! The beach was called Giottani.
We'd only done 15 miles, but it certainly seemed a lot more. It continued to be hairy with a sheer drop to the sea on one side, occasionally a very low wall, or more often just nothing and with the road gouged out rocks on the other side.

Cyclamen

Pino, Corsica

Just after that we passed a derelict factory and restaurant looking rather sad, we were amused to think of anything happening in this remote area. And then we came down to the Marine D'Albo where there was a large beach of what looked like shale, not particularly attractive, but it wasn't really shale and looked a bit like coal dust but it was grey as opposed to black and mixed with quartz, sparkling, very heavy, a bit like lots of iron pyrites or something . It was all a bit incongruous because the hills around were a lightish coloured orange and pale greeny white, and the pebbles on the little beach were very dark grey and looked a bit like they were covered in tar, but they weren't.
We sat there and made up some baguette rolls and had our lunch. Two couples who were camping opposite us last night came and had their lunch on the beach too and two fishermen came in with a little boat. It was a pleasant stop although the wind was blowing in from the sea and didn't entice us in for a swim even though the water around the shores was such a clear clear turquoise blue that you can see the rocks and everything beneath the water. We went through a wine growing area a Muscat grape, Muscadet and very soon came to St. Florent, which is where we'd come through on our first visit to Corsica when we'd come across the island from Bastia, and stayed there a couple of nights. We had very little memory of it. We parked by the port, lots of grand boats there and had a little walk around. It seemed to be eating places, eating places and eating places.
We walked up to what was called the Citadel but just appeared to be a car park and feeling very warm we returned to the van. We drove on through St. Florent to the area where we'd camped in 1992. At first we didn't find the right road we needed, we sort of remembered the campsite which was just across the road from the beach. We parked just along from there and went for a pleasant swim, the water quite shallow. We tried to have recollections of staying there, the view across to St. Florent was really lovely but our memories were very hazy about it all.

The road along from Giottani, Corsica (streetview picture )

We now drove up to a little Cathedral, in the Nebbio, which we'd visited before, and was only just outside the town of St Florent, not up in the hills as we'd remembered. It was something like 6^th century and men were varnishing the pews, making a very nice job of it, so the doors were open and we were able to look inside.
Back in St. Florent, we stopped, and went into a Spa shop and bought some fruit and veg and pork chops and then made our way to the campsite - U Pezzo where we had stayed the previous time and hadn't thought that much of, but it's right across the little road from the sea, and the other one nearby was more expensive, so we opted for the cheaper one. There was no sort of grass or anything, so it just seemed very dusty, which was what we thought last time, but of course, it was now less busy. We were able to take a position at the far end of it, where there was a little hedge of oleanders one or two still in flower and underneath some large eucalyptus trees. We had a cup of tea sitting in the shade from the warm sunshine.
We walked out along the beach right as far as St. Florent, the sun was pleasant now but certainly not hot. We returned to the campsite, the sun was misterly going down behind the hills, it was not quite 6.30. Adrian cooked a meal of pork chops outside which is what I think we had there before in 1992, but by now we knew there are no barbecues allowed, which was probably in the whole of Corsica. We sat outside for this but Adrian had already realised that there were lots of mosquitoes which weren't there last night. And as I sat out for the meal, which was quite delicious and the wine was superb, unfortunately, I got bitten rather badly despite having covered myself up completely with trousers and shirt, putting on anti mosquito stuff . So we came in not long after 8 o'clock, it was getting dark, but it had been lovely out there, it was just a nuisance about these mossies. We had a text message from Emma and later we phoned Tom who was off to Cairo the next day.

Adrian about to swim looking to St Florent, Corsica

The old Cathedral at St Florent, Corsica

Thursday 28^th September 47 miles

The sun didn't get to us at first and it was actually fairly cool or at least not hot. We breakfasted outside as the sun was coming up, with views down to the sea looking like a mill pond and by the time we were ready to leave it was 9.45. Our route initially today was where we had gone wrong a bit yesterday, up and over the hills looking back to St. Florent looking really beautiful with this mirror sea. This actually was the route that we took in 1992 up through the mountains with the Desert of Agriates to our right, which was just an area of mountain type desert, with a lot of maquis and a village here and there along the route.
We stopped at Bocca di Vezzu, names here are in French, Italian or Corsican so Col for pass, and we looked back one way to the desert side and the other side looked more green. It was pretty misty but we made this our coffee stop and during that time the sun came out really hot, so it was into vest and shorts. While we were there, a local car was next to us, which Adrian had discussed and said they were locals and then realised it was a hire car, which was a British couple who actually lived just outside Edinburgh, but certainly no Scottish accent. They were there for a week, and we stopped and conversed with them, a very pleasant couple, and obviously envied our lifestyle. We set off on our way at 11.15.
We came to a junction and turned right for short distance to the sea at Anse de Peraiola, in 1992 we would have gone left. This bit of road was quite fast - fast in comparison with the others - and when we reached the sea it looked rather beautiful.

We then continued south-westwards around more splendid coast with a very clear turquoise sea, towards L'Île-Rousse, but before there at Losari we came to an absolutely idyllic beach, what dreams are made of, blue sky, turquoise clear water, white beach and hills in the distance. We stopped there, had a lay in the sand with a delightful swim and then came back and made up some rolls for lunch - the only annoying thing again was some wasps, but it really was a lovely place and we had to force ourselves to move on.
We drove down into L'Île-Rousse, the roads were very narrow and crowded and we didn't find our way to the island but we continued along the next bit of road which took us down to Algajola which wasn't what we thought we were doing - we thought we were going down to a little harbour. We walked around this quaint little village by the sea, it had Citadelle which enclosed much of the village and came back to the van, it was very warm by now. We were about to leave when the phone went and there was an email message from Alan Williams and while we stopped to read that, a woman put out a little chain fence across the level crossing and train came along, so we had to wait before leaving.
We now proceeded to Calvi, this we could see from afar with the Citadelle, high above the town. We were able to park and we made our way walking up to the Citadelle, I was surprised how large it was when we got up there. It was in quite a good state of repair and afforded wonderful views, Calvi was in a superb position with a semicircular harbour and bay and so you could see mountains in almost all directions. It was very hot and blue sky and so it was good for the photos and video. We descended and walked through some of the little streets, bought a couple of postcards and ice creams, I had limone and Adrian pistachio.

Looking to Desert des Agriates from Anse de Peraiola, Corsica

When we got back to the Tiv, we drove out a bit and stopped at a Super U and bought a few things and then proceeded to a campsite. The one we found was called La Pineda - pine trees - actually those in the campsite were eucalypts but the pine trees were between us and the beach. Rather like all of them on Corsica so far, rather grubby and expensive and nothing seemed to work. There was a swimming pool there which we thought was good, as it cost £10 or so to stay there, but when we located it, it was closed - most things seemed to be, it seemed to be the end of the season. Everything had a grubby appearance. So we had a cup of tea and then we walked off to the beach, which is only a very short distance. This was an absolute delight, a semicircular white sandy beach, with Calvi to the left hand side of it and round to the mountains the other side. We walked quite a long way along the beach and back in the direction away from Calvi.
We'd gone in swimming costumes with shorts, and I couldn't resist a swim although we'd got no towels or anything, but it was a beautiful beautiful setting. We went back to the campsite and I had a shower, whilst Adrian dealt with loo. I cooked tonight's meal in the oven trying to do dauphinoise potatoes and the chicken breast and squash and courgette which we ate outside and then decided to go for a walk along the beach into Calvi. It was really pleasant but took quite a long time, it was lovely looking the lights of Calvi as we walked along. We actually walked right into the little town and along the front. It was not bustling, but there were quite a few people about, lots of eating places and we thought about having a drink but didn't, but we did find a place to get some money. We then made our way all the way back again along the beach. It wasn't so good going back as we didn't have the lights of Calvi in front of us, as we had going, but there were lots of lights still and there were some laser beams coming from somewhere not that far away from us, lighting up the sky continually. When we got back it was 10.15 pm.

Streets in Calvi, Corsica

Roofs in Calvi, Corsica

The Citadelle in Calvi, Corsica

Friday 29^th September. 57 miles

We slept well and woke up around 7.30 am. It seemed a bit cloudy but blue sky did come but there were some white clouds. We actually had breakfast sat inside. I went to use the loos and found that they were closed - perhaps that was the end of the season - we later found out they were only closed for cleaning. Adrian did the filling with water and then we drove off and stopped by the beach so I could photograph Calvi, by which time it was 10.15.

We stopped at a Casino supermarket just along the road, and I got some Corsican veal and mushrooms and some bread, so at gone 10.30 we headed off down the coastal road to Porto. It looked a very small road on the map and promised to be rather like the road around the Cap de Corse. In fact it was rather like that, no habitation there, just the stark rock covered in maquis or low shrub. But the rock here was different, a type of granite, whereas up in the north it seemed to be some sort of limestone. We found it difficult to pull off for our morning coffee finally doing so in a not to brilliant spot, we could see down to the sea, but today's sky was rather more overcast than other days, so it didn't look so turquoise and enticing. We continued up now to the Col de Palmarella and there we went to cross what must have been the boundary between North and South Corsica because the road on the way up was newly surfaced and quite good. We noticed the difference as we went over the pass and the way was a patchwork of little bits of tarmac here and there.
We continued down and were now having a wonderful view to the peninsula called La Scandola with Punto Rossa, the red point and the rock did look extremely red.

Looking acros to Calvi in the morning light, Corsica

We descended and crossed a dry river bed and imagined that the road was going to go level from there to Porto but we were mistaken. We climbed up high and the road clung to the edge of the cliff, it had been built on the outside of this vertical pink cliff using the pink rock for the little wall beside it, and then we had the view of Porto way down below us looking very pink and attractive. In fact what we were looking down to was Marine de Porto, the actual village was set back a little bit and even the Marine part was in two sections.

Looking through our picture window of Tiv to Golfe de Porto, Corsica

We now, continued wandering above the sea and the forested slopes, not as steeply sloping as those in the north of Corsica. but reminded us of the Marquesas, sloping right down to the sea with green vegetation. We made our way to Col de la Croix and I took a photo of the red point. There were no real places just tiny villages here and there which obviously had access by sea or small tracks across the mountains. We saw a couple of little boats come in, they looked rather splendid, white in the dark sea and against the colour of the rocks. We stopped at Partinello and looked down a long way to the sea, there was a little road that went down to the beach there but it was a long, long way down for many hundreds of feet.
I should mention the number of Corsican cattle we'd seen on the road - we were having veal tonight! We carried on a bit further and stopped for lunch which we sat inside to have, looking through our large picture window to the Gulf of Porto.

Punta Rossa, Corsica

We drove down to the first one which was really a little tourist village mostly recent buildings although there were a few very old ones, a tower built centuries ago. We drove up to Porto and down to the beach side, we we're looking for a campsite and had been to tourist information and Adrian was particularly annoyed to find the municipal site, which was in a position behind the beach was closed and the others all seemed to be halfway up the mountain side. We arrived at the beach which was a vast area of coarse sand but then ended just before the sea with beautifully coloured pastoral pebbles. These must have been from the different granite rocks around which were in varying shades of pink and grey and green. We had an absolutely most delightful swim, it was a little bit difficult getting over the last little bit of pebbles into the water, but the surroundings were just stunning with this deep pink granite and high cliffs all around us. We lazed around on the pebbles which were surprisingly comfortable - they were quite small pebbles. We then left in search of an elusive campsite.
We tried one and it was very terraced and closes tomorrow and pretty unloved and not very exciting. So we tried another nearby which was equally terraced which we knew about from an article in MMM that month. This was open and we found a spot with difficulty, which we thought would do as so many of these are just tent spots and walk in ones rather like the terraced bit at Budapest. As we pulled into the site, the phone had gone and when I'd switched it on again, we had an email from Simon saying he may well be going to work in Calgary, so a lot happened in a very short time. We settled ourselves in and I took the washing down, the washing machines there looked cleaner than yesterday's.
It had become increasingly humid and we sat outside with a beer and it wasn't long before rain drops started and my goodness did they fall and a river ran down the little camp road beside us. We cooked and ate inside and we were very grateful that we were in the motorhome - the rain was just merely an inconvenience to us and life carried on. We attempted sending emails to both Alan Williams and then later to Simon. We listened to part of our South Africa tape of St. Lucia and up into Swaziland which brought back very vivid memories for us.

Porto, Corsica

Saturday 30^th September. 56 miles

We had rain or rain dripping from the trees a good bit of the night. We came to at about 8 o'clock, it seemed really dark, partly because we were under the trees and partly the dark dismal morning. So after our cup of tea I went up and had a shower. We had breakfast inside and got ready to go. We felt sorry that we hadn't seen more of the site but it really is on a mountainside and the weather wasn't conducive to us looking around.
We set off about 9.45 and headed for Piana and stopped to look down on this fantastic view, even with the cloudy sky and the spikes behind us looking like Ua Pou in the Marquesas. As Adrian started to video, two cars pulled in, one in front and one behind, their engines running while one woman proceeded to lengthily video stuff herself! We eventually did get a bit by which time the spikes were covered in cloud. We climbed higher and higher hugging the edge of the cliff, looking down to the Calanche, a strange rock formation reminding us of Remarkable Rocks in Oz, but in a brilliant orange colour. We pulled in once or twice to view these and then stopped a bit further on to have our coffee stop and it started to rain at this point.

At the little village of Piana set high above these rocks, we went into a supermarket and took a long time to get some potatoes and some meat, but by the time we came out, the sun was shining. So we walked around this little crumbling village before descending again, the way we'd come and the rocks looked even prettier in their pink with the sun shining on them. We stopped on the way down to have our lunch with the wonderful view of the spectacular bit of coastline but now sitting in the sun. I put the washing out, hung out the knickers on the back to dry in the sunshine! We had an email from Emma, saying Stuart had hurt his back and we sent one back to her. There were lots of little cyclamen beside the road there too. [Rosie doesn’t say and I can’t remember why we went all the way up to Piana and then came all the way back down again. It can’t have been just to visit the village, but somewhere deep I my mind I think we found we shouldn’t have missed visiting the beautiful River Porto Valley, so we returned - Rosie would have remembered].
We descended now to Porto and took the road towards Évisa in the most amazing scenery, sheer sheer rocks with the river in the bottom of the River Porto Valley. We looked across to the village of Ota stuck on the hillside and we were able to see the bridge, the Pont de Pianella, apparently a Genoese bridge bit like a Roman bridge way down in the valley below.

Les Calanche near Porto, Corsica

We were now approaching the Gorges de Spelunca and they were pretty gorgeous. Corsica is known for its chestnut trees and we saw lots of them up there in the mountains. We stopped to view these gorges and at that point it came on to rain again. We saw several pigs beside the road and I wanted to photograph a little piglet and got quite wet in the process of opening my window because it came on to rain rather torrentially.

Genoese Bridge at Ota, Corsica - (streetview 2023)

We did stop at a supposed viewpoint where you could see right down the valley to the sea, we'd come quite a wiggly route to get to where we were, but it was raining too hard to really appreciate it. Streams and rivers appeared everywhere in all sorts of unexpected places. We went through Évisa, on from there were Cascades d’Aitone - well there was no chance of going to see those, so we ascended right up to the Col de Sévi and as we reached this Col at 1100 metres, with water gushing out at the side, we went into thick fog so we didn't know what there was - we couldn't see anything. We now descended to the sea at Sagone stopping on the way in the hills, for a cup of tea.
We went down a long straight valley and the straightest road we've been on in Corsica. We found there was a site at Sagone but it was back where we'd come from, we hadn't even noticed it. So we continued along beside the coast, the scenery here was very pretty much lower and the lighting was quite wonderful with a very mixed sky, some blue sky and the sun shining on the water and a beautiful, long sandy beach, making us think of prettier bits of Portugal or Spain. We passed a beautiful sandy beach at Leamonie, the river came out there, and there was absolutely nothing on the beach, no campsite, nothing at all, just a few old vehicles - it would have made such a lovely place to stay.
We continued around the coast and came to another lovely beach ahead of us at Liscia and we're surprised to see signs to two campsites. We sussed them both out, they were very expensive, but we decided to go for the one on the beach. It cost us 111 francs (£11 or so), but it was on the beach, a beach made of coarse sand and across a little grassy area to get to it. The weather was rather erratic, but we walked out onto this beach where the waves were really large, reminding us of Australia or South Africa. There was a man with four young children who were enjoying these rather large waves. We hope that it will be a little bit less rough in the morning. It was quite hard going walking on this very sloping, gritty sort of beach and on the way back, we had taken our sandals off and got quite splashed by the waves.
The sun was shining across and the steeply sloping hills covered in dense vegetation made us think so much of the Marquesas. As the sun was shining down so beautifully, we thought it was the time to go and take a sunset type picture so we made our way to the beach, got my camera ready and at that point the sun went behind a cloud. It looked a tiny cloud but then grey cloud built up underneath and that was that so a disappointment, but it was a very pretty bay. We had to make do with cooking the pork chops inside but they tasted good anyway and we then listened to the first tape of this trip, then put on Shania Twain which we really enjoyed and I finished reading my book of Tom Sawyer, which I had also really enjoyed.

Pigs in the hills, Corsica

Sunday 1^st October 70 miles

A mixed sky when we woke, part cloud, some blue sky, a helicopter kept going back and forth. After breakfast, we walked down to the beach. I was keen to try and have a swim, I put my costume on, but he waves were really too much for me and they were breaking onto a steeply sloping beach. It was ‘steep to’ for Hil! And although I paddled in it and got to pretty wet when the huge waves came in, I didn't actually get right into the water. I decided to go for a shower but even that wasn't very successful, the women's block was closed so with a flimsy curtain between me and the men's block, I did have a shower but it was cold so I didn't wash my hair. It seemed to take us a long time this morning then it was 10.30!
We left and began immediately ascending Col de St. Bastiano on the route over to Ajaccio. I was looking for a place to take a photograph having missed out on the sunset last night and having finally decided I'd have to take one, which wasn't very good, we then came to a place which was much better and we could look right down to the bay below where we stayed last night.

At the actual Col de St Bastiano there was a view down over the Gulfe of Ajaccio in the distance.

Liscia, Corsica

There was an enormous amount of traffic on the road today, it being Sunday, is obviously the day that Corsicans go out in their cars and race along the road, there was also motorbikes and bikes. At this point it was actually the Golfe de Lava that we were looking down over.
We stopped for some diesel on the outskirts of Ajaccio. This was a huge town and on a Sunday was just packed out so it wasn't much fun. We eventually got through and down by the sea I located a boulangerie, where I was able to get a baguette and a pain au raisin and opposite we were able to pull in right beside the sea. It was a wonderful location there on a huge bay and it was a beautiful sandy beach looking right across the Golfe of Ajaccio. So having had our late morning coffee, sitting on a seat beside the Tiv and beside the sandy beach and sharing our pain au raisin, we had a swim from this beach. The water was the dirtiest we'd seen, it wasn't really very clear and it was rather mucky, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt of the rain washing stuff into it, but the setting was very nice.
So we then got going again towards the Punta de la Parata, going westwards from Ajaccio. This was a road along the coast to a tower at the end on a rocky promontory, then looking across to the Sanguine Islands, there seemed to be a lot made of them there as they were meant to look a sanguine colour at sunset, which we wouldn't see, but it was quite a nice little road. It was pretty looking across the sea and the bay, it made me think of Galway Bay. The hills on the other side weren't huge mountains like they were in the north. We stopped at the end and walked a little on a rocky footpath, to view these islands, it was really pleasantly warm and the sun was shining, though there were lots of little clouds about.

Gulf of Ajaccio, Corsica

We came back and had a really enjoyable lunch sitting in front of the Tiv above this rocky bit of coastline with the really fresh baguette, which I’d bought earlier and finishing up the smelly cheese which I'd bought thinking that it was like one that we had Laure's but it didn't seem to be anyway. We now drove back to Ajaccio. From a distance I'd seen what looked like lots of little roofs in front of all the blocks of flats etc, but as we got close we realised that this was a graveyard and they were little pink roofs of all the graves, it was a very large area. We got through Ajaccio much more easily this time, there seemed to be less traffic and we were on the road right by the sea and we found our way right around it on the south side.
We decided to follow the coastal route round this next part south rather than go across the hills, but in fact the first bit there was a new road, which wound across the hills and zigzaged this way and that and we did occasionally get a good view across the Golfe of Ajaccio and back to Ajaccio and right down to the Sanguine islands. We could then see down to the Island of Isolella on our side. We reached the sea again at Plage d'Agosta, where there was a beautiful long sandy beach. One thing we must mention a distinct lack of, and we particularly noticed this at the end by the Sanguine Islands, that there was no birds. We would have expected to at least have some sea birds there but not even a seagull, nothing, Adrian reckoned they'd all been shot. We drove onto and around the little Peninsula of Isolella, but the views weren't as good as they might have been, there were hedges and things all around. It just looked like a few nice residences there. We stopped briefly on the beach in a little bit called Port de Chiavari, the wind was quite strong there but it was still warm and the sea was the most wonderful colour as it broke, it looked like glacier mints, it was quite lovely.
We now began ascending and had wonderful views down over the Golfe. As we ascended, I attempted to take two photos to make a panoramic view looking back to Ajaccio. We continued winding our way up above the sea but nothing like as treacherous as the Cap de Corse and other places in the north and as we rounded the corner to look to the Golfe de Valinco of which Propriano was the town, the view was equally stunning with its grey forested slopes, ending in the turquoise sea and some white beaches, just beautiful. The first bay we looked down to was the Bae de Copabia, and we stopped again at a place to look out on this exquisite view and Adrian spied some motorhomes down in this bay.
So after quite a distance of wiggling along the road, we found the road that went down to it, and when we eventually got there we found it was actually a campsite, although not in our book, but the most pleasant situation of any we'd seen. So we decided to stay anyway and made our way down. We came into a little sort of meadow with a few trees and right on this beautiful, unspoilt white sandy beach surrounded by green hills covered in vegetation which ended at the sea so rather like the north coast of South Island in New Zealand, so very lovely.

Adrian looking to Sanguine Islands from Punta de la Parata, Corsica

We decided to go for a swim, the unfortunate thing was the wind was blowing off the sea. The waves were not huge, but biggish and it was quite draughty on the beach. I was a little reticent at getting into the water, but we had a little buffet in the waves and came back to make a cup of tea and Adrian to have a shower in the Tiv, having voted the showers there, not a hit.
We had a walk along this wonderful beach in both directions, quite isolated. The sun came out some, but not all the time and shone down on us. We returned to the Tiv for our aperitif and looking out from our Tiv window we could look right onto the beach and the mountains edging it. We hoped for a sunset because this was just an idyllic place for a sunset, but the sun did exactly as it did yesterday and sunk into a bank of unseen cloud and that was that, goodbye sun.

Baie de Copabia on the Golfe de Valinco, Corsica

So it was eating inside again this evening. It was quite starry tonight, and we walked out down to the beach again before bed.

The sun setting Baie de Copabia, Corsica

Monday 2^nd October. 81 miles

We were woken at 1.30 by heavy rain, so had an unsettled sleep for a while. When we woke in the morning, about seven it still looked unsettled outside and in fact thunder boomed out at sea, it felt
cool. We had breakfast sitting inside and looking out towards the beach from our slightly elevated position of sitting the van. We had a lovely view onto this absolutely idyllic spot, so unspoilt, but looking a little wet this morning. We walked down to the beach before leaving.
We now continued on our way towards Propriano, at first looking down to the cove, where we'd been staying, the Bae de Copabia.

It looked very green and lovely and remote and the scenery looked so attractive as we went over the next little bit and then along by the Golfe de Valinco where Propriano lies, but the storm clouds gathering meant it didn't look at its best. We arrived at Propriano and headed down towards the port where we stopped for our coffee, beside a sandy beach and rain began to fall lightly. We left Propriano which seemed a characterful little town and not one for the tourists and after a fruitless search for a Casino supermarket we left in the rain and headed for Sartène and Bonifacio. We foolishly drove into the little grey stone, hilltop town of Sartène and got rather stuck in roads that didn't go anywhere. We took a turning and found we were going off in completely the opposite direction from where we wanted to be and in returning we had to go through a narrow road which had parking on either side, plus other odd parking which made life very difficult.
Adrian managed to manoeuvre it and as we reached the outskirts of the town and the signpost to Bonifacio again, we came upon a superU supermarket. So that replenished our stocks and we continued southwards through the hills, and then got some delightful views down to the sea at this very remote corner of Corsica where there are few roads and no houses, just the wooded slopes ending at the sea. We stopped for lunch overlooking one of these delightful little coves called Cala di Roccapina, above which there was a rock, called the lion rock, which sort of resembled a lion

Looking back to the Baie de Copabia, Corsica

There was a hotel at the end of that little promontory and just a superb bit of coast all along jutting out into the sea - the weather continued to be erratic. Initially, we sat out on a low wall and had our lunch with a delicious, fresh baguette, but the rain we could see out to sea, got nearer and nearer and we eventually came inside, but the view was just spectacular. It wasn't long now before we got close to Bonifacio. We thought the scenery around there was reminiscent of Connemara - just bare rocks with Maquis growing on it and making it look green in places and totally unspoilt with nothing built there at all.
We took a road down to the sea at the edge of the Golfe de Ventilegne, which was where we thought we'd come for a swim in 1992. We had been to Bonifacio then, but we couldn't really see anything to make us know it was the same place and the weather wasn't being too kind, as it was trying to rain and there was a very erratic sky. The beach that we'd come to in 1992 was where we'd first seen the seaweed which dries to look like strips of paper and certainly there was plenty of that around in this area. We reached Bonifacio and then the fun began. To begin with, it was raining although the sun did come out after a short while.
We wanted to find out about the ferry, which we were hoping to catch in the morning. There are three a day to Sardinia and we arrived at something like 2.30, the next ferry was at 3.30 and we managed to park. Bonifacio is very steep and it was a place we really loved on our previous visit, but we didn't see it in its best light this afternoon. There was a fairly new terminal building and in there was a whole mixture of people and unlike us British who were used to a queueing system, that didn't seem to be the case. There was a group of people standing and one woman behind a glass barrier, but nothing much seemed to be happening. We hung around and waited in this circular building, lots of other people around at the time, but gradually they went and the boat started loading. There were lots of lorries loaded with cork bark stashed high on them and we felt we had to hang around to see what the situation was. Different languages, French and Italian, predominantly were being spoken, but there was nobody to ask what was happening. It felt a bit like arriving at the little terminal at Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas and suddenly finding everyone had gone except us. When the boat was almost loaded, the woman started shouting out a name through the little hole in the glass barrier and the person would come forward, she'd give them a ticket and they'd run like hell to their car and go for the ferry. And each time that happened, and a person's name was called, it took them quite a while to fill something in and pay and then off they went.
The boat finally set sail with the last car stashed on at right angles to the others and amazingly, the rear door was pulled up and off the boat went just after 3.30. Then she called a name out to the group of people standing around and each person went running off with a bit of paper. When she'd used up all her names on bits of paper, there was still a small group of people and we must have been there the longest and we went to the front. So we wanted a ferry for tomorrow hoping for the 9.30 one in the morning and she had a long discussion. There was one other man who kept coming into her office who had a large stomach and who didn't seem of a very good temperament, and they had a little bit of a shouting match and he went out the door and then she turned to us and said 6.30 tomorrow evening.
We asked her that was she quite certain there would definitely be nothing before that, and it would appear that we were lucky to have got that. So we paid our money 430 francs, and were given a ticket, so unexpectedly we have another day there in Corsica. We then wondered what to do, as the wild camping signs have gone up everywhere and campsites as we'd said before were not very exciting. We set off on the road eastwards, where there was a sign to a campsite, which didn't look anything at all when we passed it, even if it was open.
We carried on down until we came to the Golfe of Santa Monza, which was a long, narrow golfe, very beautiful because now the sun was shining, but the wind was blowing across quite freshly. There was just green vegetation, low hills around with taller ones in the far distance. We made a cup of tea and decided what to do with this extra day and to make the most of this time. We drove a little bit more along the golfe, and then back a bit and down to a place called Calalonga, where we walked down to a little beach, where we had a couple of cats for company some of the time. The sea was calm there, it was sunny, but the sky was pretty erratic. We made our way back to the Tiv and drove back to the little road that went down to the Golfe of Santa Monza and then took the D60, which reached the road which would have gone up to Porto Vecchio. From there we took another little road which took us to the other side of Bonifacio and near there was the ancient Ermitage de la Trinité.
There was a campsite back on the other road which we didn't think much of and there was supposedly one there also, but we didn't really see it. So we ended up by this ancient Ermitage and the road went right up a sort of rocky promontory, and there was little chapel and what would appear to have been some ancient remains and things to Notre Dame and all that! Way up on the rocks above, there was a cross and at one time there were some mountain goats up there. There was a superb view down to Bonifacio and the islands and Sardinia all looking clothed in green at this end of Corsica.

Adrian having lunch with the lion rock, Roccapina Cove behind, Corsica

We hung around there for a bit and waited to see today's 6.30 ferry leave. There were a couple of cars around and we waited for them to leave and then made our way up the road a bit further, where there was a rather hidden area which we hoped would make a ‘camping sauvage’ place for us tonight. It was surrounded by trees and mighty rocks, many of which were like the Remarkable Rocks type in Australia and did make an excellent place for us to stay. We of course had to cook inside and later in the evening we phoned Emma, but only got Stuart, Emma was feeding Felix. I rang again later and we used the time in between to play yahtzee.

Adrian looking to Bonifacio from Ermitage de la Trinite, Corsica

Tuesday 3^rd October. 18 miles

We had a good night's sleep waking around about 6 o'clock, and dosed a bit so sometime after 7.00 had a cup of tea. I looked out to clear blue sky but little clouds built up in the next little while. We walked out around the site which was really so lovely, quite quiet - just one car came and went. There were the huge rocks, lots of trees and shrubs and the little church type buildings, little sanctuaries and with views down to Bonifacio and across to Sardinia it was another top spot. We moved across into the sunshine to have our breakfast and sat outside and thought it really was lovely.
We wanted to take a little track near there down to the sea which we'd looked down to, but that was a no go, as when we eventually located it, it had a very bad surface and we had to go through pools of water and then came to a height barrier. There was a surface on it after that, but I think it was on army land. So we then headed towards Bonifacio , I bought a baguette and we went round to where we were yesterday, which was on the Golfe of Santa Monza. We took a different track to it initially, but that said, no motorhomes, so we went back to where we were yesterday. There were lovely views from there, and we decided to go for a cycle along this road beside the inlet. We went first in one direction to the end, which wasn't far and then back in the other direction on what seemed a relatively flat road but as we knew from driving along yesterday, it was quite up and down and was made like a patchwork of odd bits of tarmac, so it was very bumpy and the wind was blowing quite strongly. Nevertheless it was pleasant and the sun was shining. We came back at just gone 11 o'clock to have elevenses and Adrian put the bikes back on. We got the tea and coffee and took them to go and sit on the beach.

At this point Adrian could see a large cloud coming and it was already sprinkling with rain as we sat by the Tiv. Opposite us there was a beautiful bit of rainbow against the white cliffs that we were looking at, they were alternating with the red ones in this area. Adrian dashed for my camera and I took a photograph.

Then the rain hit us and we dived back into the van and watched as it just fell down huge spots. We sat and viewed it from inside with the wind howling and the rain dripping down the windows. We listened to our tape of Swaziland and Kruger in South Africa when the weather was a bit similar to this. By the time we had finished listening to that, the sun was out again and I went for a refreshing swim. We then had lunch sitting outside watching the many wind surfers there and their expertise and then we lazed around for the afternoon and I actually sat in my relaxer chair. We walked out to the headland it was pretty breezy there, but back in our little spot, it was hot. We both washed our hair and had a cup of tea and decided about 4.15 that we aught to head back for Bonifacio.
We parked in the same place as yesterday down by the port and walked the many many steps up to the Old Town and walked around for a bit. It didn't somehow have the attraction that it did last time, perhaps because we'd already been there, although we didn't really remember anything distinctive about it. There were lots of a little buttresses joining one house to another across the narrow little roads. After a walk around there we made the mighty descent and by now it was 5.15 and drove straight through to wait to board the ferry.
Well, why there were so many people last night or yesterday afternoon, we don't know because on our ferry, there were only three or four very, very large lorries, three motorhomes and about half dozen cars, which meant that on the ferry, there were very few passengers. I found it a really enjoyable journey. The weather was beautiful, we left at 6.30 and it took 50 minutes. So it was just the end of the day with the sun going down and just before we arrived in Sardinia, we sat outside and looked out to Bonifacio and Corsica. We could see the wonderful cliffs and we looked up to where we'd stayed last night and took a photo remembering that and then we could see the islands between Corsica and Sardinia and all the lovely different lighting from the sun. They played music, which wasn't to our taste, it would have been really nice if it had been some music we'd enjoyed.
There were just the smattering of people - the few lorry drivers who seemed to be very jovial folks having lots of laughs. There was a young Swiss couple with their two little boys in a small motorhome, the smallest boy went to sleep and the daddy was taking the other little boy around all the time, showing him things. He looked to me like Mr. Stock of the Downs School. Then three young people who were backpacking, came down on their scooters - by this I mean, scooters looking like scooters we had when we were kids, they are crazy at the moment. There was one chap and two girls, all of them looking a bit like models, and the girls fancied themselves and looked very young and youthful and enjoying life.
We got to Sardinia, nothing was said, people made their way back to their vehicles, and we had to back off. We had a huge, huge lorry behind us and when he had backed off, it was our turn -t here wasn't a soul to tell you where to go or what to do. When we had come onto the boat, the only people who were involved seemed to be the woman who was around yesterday, and the man that had been shouting around a bit - nobody else at all, they were the land crew, as it were. We'd looked out before we'd come in to land to see where we should go, as it said in our book of ‘Free camping places in France’ (which also had a section on Italy), that there was a place to stay at the port.
But as we got there, the only way we could go was through a tunnel and it was quite long tunnel. It was just about dark by now, so when we emerged from it we didn't know where we were, but we did manage to find our way back down to the port and found our way into a waste bit of land there and assumed that this was the place where we could stay. It was practically dark, so we put up the blinds and got a meal going, and so it didn't really matter where we were. After the meal we walked out around the port, the paving of which had been recently done and was very smart and posey while the area we were on was very derelict looking, it seemed to be a little redevelopment area. There were some boats there which seemed to be used for trips as they had seats in and maybe they went out to the islands, but not one soul did we see.

Adrian by the Tiv after our cycle ride at Gulf of Santa Manza, Corsica

Rainbow at Gulf of Santa Manza, Corsica