Corsica Road Trip Part 3

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It’s day 5 and 6 of my Corsica Road trip. If you missed the start and are looking for part 1 of this Corsica road trip , it’s here. Did you miss part 2 ? Don’t worry it’s here. I have managed to work my way round the north quiet slowly and for my Corsica Road Trip I am currently in St Florent. Over the next 2 days I will be heading from St Florent to the gulf of Porto via Calvi. I am looking forward to this part of the trip as it includes, potentially, the desert, the mountains and the coast. 4×4 vehicules are needed for the desert so I’m going to skip the desert which needs more time, planning etc than I have.

Ostriconi beach

The wind is still blowing this morning, but the sun is out. This changes considerably the look and feel of the mountains either side of St Florent. The first stage today is to travel along the southern boundary of the Agriate desert. The area is not accessible to normal cars. Take a guided tour, there are plenty of options, if you feel you need to visit it. You will pass 3 beautiful beaches in this area, the third is just at the end of our road so I’m going swimming there before lunch. Another thing to note is the fairly long, but not too challenging walk from the car park up the hill, then sharply down to the right across the river in the valley. If you carry on the main path you end up out on the headland which I don’t think adds much to the trip.

I leave and continue westwards a short distance for a view of the beach and a Corsican sandwich from the hillside just after the beach. There is parking here and a lovely view and a tasty food choices.

L’Île-Rousse

After lunch I leave for l’Ile-Rousse continuing along the coast westwards. By chance I stumble across a car park with a space on the beach at the extreme east end of the beach. And a very nice beach it is, totally protected from the wind and the waves of my earlier swim. A good family beach. Continue to the other end of the beach to reach the town, so I head for that. Nice historic town with a busy centre. They have 2 statues by the port, and in particular a mermaid. As I photo the mermaid I realise the ferry will be docking here too. Makes this port another possible starting point for the road trip. I finish here and head for Calvi; where I will be sleeping. On arrival straight out again for a brief walk to the citadel.

Speloncato

Change of plan. I picked a handful of villages up in the mountains; and in the end visited them all, to see a more rugged side of the island. It’s a lot of driving and it’s on the side of mountains separated from death by dust and tiny walls. I saw my target villages of PIGNA, SANT’ANTONINO, SPELONCATO and MONTEMAGGIORE amongst others. These are all in the mountains around the plane behind Calvi and the Codole lake. And another thing, that is predictable and hadn’t happened so far, was to bump into a herd of goats who seem to think they own the road. Keep your eyes open.

Ota and Gulf of Porto

Once the villages have all been done, it’s 70km and 2 hours more driving and risking my life to take us through the mountains to the town of Ota and the UNESCO gulf of Porto. A breath-taking route that leads to isolation and beauty. What a reward. This was a candidate for best bit of the trip. Parking in Porto is limited and many spots change to limited parking at 9am each morning.