After flinging all our stuff off the train in a hurried fashion and re-loading the bikes we were ready to set off. Just one minor problem. Which Way?!?!? Thankfully I have my mother to thank for getting us out of this mess; if she had not forced me to be a cub scout I would have never had brought my compass. So we headed off in a general Easterly direction. I spent a bit of time in Marseille as a teenageer on French exchanges. I am glad to discover that I was not so stupid as a teenager and my judgement was not too bad. My memories of Marsielle as a shit hole were confirmed. The place truly is most unpleasant. So after negotiating our way out of Marseille we found the coast road and things were instantly looking up! We decided to head for Cassis for lunch.
Lara decending down to Cassis for lunch.We had not realised it was a French public holiday and the port area was heaving with people mincing up and down the front with fancy paper bags plastered with designer logos. So us in our lycra fitted in a treat.
Our bikes in port of Cassis above. Time was getting on and we wanted to get a bit further along the coast. so jumped back on the bikes and off we went. We continued to Sanary Sur Mer where we found a campsite with a bar and stayed the night. Day 1 = 70kms.Saturday we started off early and cycled through the old town which was real France to me. High old streets with little shops and I think I even saw an old geezer with garlic on his bike!
Lara cycling through the old town. This was going to be a long day so we got cracking on, we stopped for lunch in Hyeres Port, another very affluent and lovely port.
Back on the bikes and the sun had really got hot, the temperature was up in the 30s: I was hot and lara was in her element. In the afternoon we managed to find some offroad trails and get lost in a naval base. All in a day's touring for us. Lara was very happy with the attention she got from the sailors. I thought they were all a bunch of poofs to be honest. We got as far as Cavalaire Sur Mer. Another great campsite with bar! 95km travelled.
Sunday we had to get a wriggle on, as we had planned to stay with our friend Yango (old friend from Chamonix) who lives in Villeneuve Loubet (a little past Antibes). So set off early, and stopped off in St. Tropez for a coffee. Was not as great as we had expected but we were well entertained by the Harley Davidson convention going on. 
Lara's bike in amongst all the 'Hogs' we did however get one person take a picture of it! Respect! So wary of the time we downed out café and inhaled our croissants and jam tout de suite and headed for the open road (shared with many noisy American motorbikes).
It was a long afternoon but a very pretty one. Below is Lara by the Sea.
Cannes itself was getting ready for the film festical next week, so the place was heaving, another quick coffee stop and a bite to eat and then the last few kms to Yango's place. Finally after what seemed like a lot of pedalling (I think we were slowing down considerably by this point) we got to Yango's after 126km of riding that day. Was great to see him, even though we have not seen each other for over 5 years it was like no time at all. We went out and had pizza and went to a few cool bars on the sea front and had a great night. Cheers Yango, till next time buddy.
Awoke on Monday morning a little worse for ware, but no real concerns as we only had a few Kms to Nice to get our ferry over to Corisca. So a leisurely start and rode the thrity odd Kms to Nice along its beach which was lovely that time in the morning, full of people out running or enjoying the early morning sun.
GRRRRRRRRR
So after a lovely Monday morning ride along the length of Nice Beach, which is considerable, we got to the port. Lara had checked the timetables on the net previously and the boats were every afternoon. We casually walked into the ferry terminal and asked what time the next boat was. The reply of "Friday" came as a bit of a shock and took a while to sink in. "Bollocks" I said out aloud, the cashier looked confused at my sudden outburst, thankfully I don't think her grasp of british naughties was that great, so I made my apologies and we made a retreat. A coffee was definitely needed to think through our options. So after two, we decided it was out best option to get a train back to Marseille and get an overnight ferry that evening. So we did. We spent a night on a wierd French cruise ship full of purple rinses and woke up in Corisca!
Monday, landed at 7:30am and got off the Ferry at Bastia (North East corner)
Lara getting off the ferry, time for coffee (can you see a trend?) and make some rough plans for a route. Plans done, and off we go. Now we knew that Corisca was hilly but was not quite prepared for the wall we had to cycle up. Something we had better get used to. 
Lara sitting on a rock at the Col de Tighime. From here we had out first proper downhill with the laiden bikes. What great fun. Lara decided I am fat as I rolled a lot faster than she did. I corrected her and told her it was because I was carrying most of the weight!
Lara interjecting here, we were both carrying the same weight! Oh except Dave forgot his pants so I guess he may have had a little less there :o) !
So we carried along the coast to L'Île Rousse, were we rested for a few hours as the mid day sun was too hot to cycle in. Got going again and rode to Calvi. To get there we had to ride through the Desert Des Agriates.
This was not a real sand type stereotypical desert, but it is was bastard hot none the less. After a few more hours we got to Calvi, a lovely seaside resort with a great beach. Had some food and walked along the beach at sunset like all good honeymooners should.
Woke up on Wednesday and the weather was gorgeous, today we had the coastal road which is supposed to be one of the highlights of the trip. It did not disappoint, the traffic was very light and the road was great fun to ride.
We had some amazing views as well.
Got to around lunch time and we could not find a place open that was serving food, suppose it really is the start of the season, so we kept on going up a long climb to the Col de Palmarella. It was not a steep climb just long (12km) but strangely enjoyable.
From there it was a short descent and another small climb to the Col de La Croix (Lara above) which was amazing as there was a small sandwich shop, I don't think the owner had seen two people as hungry as us! The best bit about the Col is the descent, it was very slight so went on forever! 
We descended down to a place called Porto which was to home for the night. 
We had a great sea food meal on the seafront and had some wine before retiring back to the tent very tired.
Thursday woke up and immediately congratuled Lara for making it to Thirty! Today was Lara's 30th B'day. I jumped on my bike to the local shop to buy her breakfast and managed to serve it to her in bed, with the obligitory cup of coffee from our camping stove. Today the idea was to ride to Plage d'Arone, a small beach around the bay and spend the day there. But the weather crapped out and was overcast and therefore not a day for the beach. Consequently, our idea of a rest day on the beach went out the window.
Our route from here left the coastline and took us into the mountains proper.
Lara starting up the long climb ahead, you can see the sea being left behind behind, the climb took us through a deep vally called the 'Gorges de Spelunca' which was impressive with its dark red walls.
Half way up the climb was a town called Evisa, we stopped here for a well timed lunch as it rained as we sat in the cafe. The afternoon was spent finishing off ourselves and the climb up to the Col de Vergio, this road was full of animals, we passed some fighting goats.
Corsica's highest road pass at 1467m. Was great to get to the top and was great to give our bums a rest.
It had taken 35km of solid climbing to get to the top. Murphy with his law book was with us that day, just as we started to descent it started to piss down with rain. so for the first time we had to put on jumpers and jackets for the descent as it was freezing. We went past some more wild life though!
Wild boar, although Lara did demine it by shouting "PIGGY" at it as she went by.
Nearing the end of the descent in the Gorge Scala Di Sta Regina. From here it was a short climb up into the hills again to Corte - our destination for the night.
Once we arrived at Cortes we found a campsite and showered and hot footed it into town as it was Lara's b'day night. We went out to a great restuarant and found a lively bar. There were loads of young trendy people in the town, far more than we had previously experienced in Corsica. After a while we discovered that Corte is the only university town in Corsica. When people found out we lived in scotland we got minor celebraty status, every one wanted to talk to us. Lara by the end of the evening had a small fan club of dribbling highly sexually charged Corsican young men, I however had none (females that is). I took great pride at the end of the night in walking off with her giving them the 'knowing' look.
Friday was to be our rest day. Both woke up hung over and the weather was rubbish. so we decided it was a day to sit in the cafés and watch the world go by. So that is what we did and it was great.
Saturday came with a bump, and whilst unpacking the tent we found this little fella.
Found him on my t-shirt that I was using as a pillow. Not sure how long he had been there. Lara went berserk and did the normal screamy thing. I did what any decent husband would and killed it.
So the cycle back to Bastia that day was pretty easy going as it was mainly on a down hill gradiant and passed fairly quickly. Thankfully we managed to arrive at port and there be a ferry that evening. Got the ferry back with the purple rinses and got the train back from Marseille the next day to Gap. I would like to point out that over all our biking travels this trip the only place I got a puncture was in Marseille).
Corisca was great, a very interesting place travelling through it and seeing its fairly nasty history of recent violence that has troubled the island for the last 50 years. A very beautiful place, it is by no means flat and all the roads are windy. So what look like 30kms is actually 50km - at least! We loved the place and quite fancy going back to see the south of the island. Was good to test out our equipment for India, only had a few minor mishaps. Cycled 700km in 8 days, Lara's bum got very sore and I got stupid cycle tans!
You may be pleased to knwo that the scorion was non poisonous; big claws and little tail = not going to kill you. Well done for killing a harmless creature!
ReplyDeleteI thank you. it was eyeballing me, so it got what was coming to it!
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