Choosing a guide is important. Sylvie is exactly what you want – fit, informed, passionate about Corsica and very generous with her time- but she has one fault when it comes to guiding through the mountains. She is a marathon runner who has completed several of the sections of the GR20 – a walk (climb, struggle) across Corsica in 15 sections.
Along with Jean, we headed up to the mountains, to a place called Col de Bavella on the road between Solenzara and Zonza (S is on the coast North of PV and Z is South West from there). Amazing mountains, red granite, boulders, shear faces, crisp sharp edges and trees, trees, trees. We stopped in a French parking space (I am starting to recognise them now) and walked into a small, almost invisible gap in the vegetation onto a path which was mostly clear, narrow and on the edge of a sheer cliff, and the rest of the time was indistinct or non existent, on slippery sloped rocks, on the edge of a sheer cliff. Once or twice it seemed to be straight down a sheer cliff. At each new achievement along the way I felt I like I had conquered a major mountain, only to meet a family or a group of school children with minimal supervision strolling along ahead of me.
We found ourselves a spot on the rocks in the middle of a mountain stream and ate a full lunch, before heading back the way we came.
It was a great day with great scenery, but my knees and heart are both complaining.
The pictures from the day are here.
 |
| The Mountains |
No comments:
Post a Comment