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I’m now on day 9 of my Corsica Road Trip, and Part 7 of this blog is going to cover days 9 and 10. It’s time to start heading north up the east coast of Corsica. The south is covered with beautiful and quite busy glorious beaches. This is not my style of beach as you may have noticed.

Porto-Novo

I still wanted to take in some of the beautiful beaches on the south coast of Corsica. So I started by heading to Sperone point. In fact I was disappointed. It’s a ferry port, on a tiny scale, for the nearby islands. So I set about defining a list of candidate beaches but they all seem to have a common theme, beautiful, busy and hard to park. Of course here in the south there are paid car parks to make it easier but they often still leave you with 1-2km to walk to the beach. I chose a different tack. I drove towards Plage de Porto-Novo. This was described as quiet, beautiful with no cafes etc etc. Sounds great, however it’s a 3km walk from the road. And there’s no car park. I was delighted – it could be my best beach ever. It is SO close to Santa Giulia too. In the end I spent plenty of time here and then bit the bullet to visit one of the “real” ones – the beach at Palombaggia. Which like all the others was busy, nice and expensive.

Porto-Vecchio

I’m sleeping in Porto-Vecchio tonight. With its big natural bay there are boats everywhere. It has a huge citadel with a different look and feel to the others I have visited. It’s not a very photogenic town. It’s split on 2 levels with the Upper town centred around the citadel and the lower town with its port. A free bus runs around the town all day and I recommend it. I preferred the atmosphere of the upper town.

Piscines Naturelles De Cavu

After a good night’s sleep, the main tasks today are driving to Corte and finding nice things to visit on the way. I have picked the Piscines on Cavu to start the day, before it gets too hot. The idea is you take the bus, walk up the road or, as I did walk up the river bed to some natural pools. Walking up the river started easy with little yellow marks to indicate the path but they soon disappeared. So everyone doing this walk is basically making it up as they go along. It is a very popular place, lots of car parks (paid), and other activities for families. Definitely did some “on all fours” hiking again. The final picture gives you an idea of how busy it was out of season and I think my impression was that it was busier than that but I have a habit of cutting people out of the image when I take a photo.

I have to say it was an exceptional day out. Well worth it and the number of photos testifies to the beauty of the place.

Tarco

I know I should be swimming in the rivers, but I had my camera and I wasn’t brave enough to leave that. So I continued my journey which took me back to the coast. I stopped at a random beach, with a small free car park, and didn’t regret it. There were fish everywhere. I also liked the flowers. Welcome to Tarco.

That’s the end of Part 7 of my Corsica Road Trip, Part 8 will take us inland to Corte.

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Part 5 of the Corsica Road Trip covers day 7. It could be my favourite day. It’s all about history and seeing a whole different aspect of the island. If you follow my route please respect the monuments.

Filitosa

Today I continue south with Bonifacio my resting place tonight. It is a day of prehistory. I leave the main roads and cross small rivers and head to Filitosa. This has been a home to humans since 5800 BCE, some 8000 years. One of the longest periods in Europe. The site is well maintained and has a small entrance fee. There are facilities on site. They have a website, which will open in a new tab.

Palaggiu

Google helped me find this place, and it has so many different spellings one could imagine that Corsica is covered with menhirs. Its about 13km south west of Sartene and on the wrong side of the river for me but I’m on holiday. There is almost no help in finding it, just a hand painted “menhir” on a rock and that road is blocked off. So again google, which can get me into trouble in the car, sent me down a track to approach it from the north. There are 258 monoliths dating from 1900 to 1200 BCE. The largest concentration in the Mediterranean basin. Most have fallen over, but as you can see there are still some upright, and aligned. 7 groups, six of which are north/south. The site is to all intents and purposes abandoned, very unusual.

Tizzano

One of the beaches on this route is Tizzano, but it’s not really beach weather today. Having got so close to the coast it is impossible not to drive to the coastline. However having crossed the river this morning I am driving down the wrong side of the river to continue south so I then have to head all the way back inland to the T40. I stop in Roccapina to get some images before driving, and stopping in Vintilegni to watch some kite surfing, to Bonifacio.

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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.

A lovely place to end the day.

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Corsica has been on my must visit list for a very long time and at long last I’m doing it. And I’m going to do a road trip. I chose to fly to the island and hesitated a while before deciding on which airport. Eventually, I chose Bastia, and driving anti-clockwise around the island to try and see it all. I am giving myself 12 days.

This post and the next few should give you an idea of what I saw, and how beautiful the island is. I traveled in June. This is more or less the target route.

Bastia to Macinaggio

On this first part I was able to visit the wild and protected east coast in the North of the island after spending a lovely time visiting the old city and port of Bastia.

I headed to the citadel and the cathedral to start the visit of old Bastia. Plenty to see including a lovely view down the coast back towards the airport.
Then I went down the hill to the old port. You, like me, could spend several hours here. Apart from the obvious port and boats, there were lovely streets perpendicular to the rue des zephyrs. I had dinner, sheep cheese starter followed by a local sardines main, looking out over a balcony towards the port. A balcony that was very much in demand in the Restaurant L’Epica Bastia Vieux Port

Erbalunga

I continued northwards to explore the fairly undeveloped east side of the cap. It’s not a long drive but you will stop often. The first major stop is Erbalunga which has a 16 century tower that was damaged by a storm. It’s a small place but nice enough. I continue northwards to Pietracorbara where I decide it’s hot enough to swim. A nice break.

Tamarone

I parked just north of Macinaggio, where I am staying tonight. This was as rough a road as I was prepared to take a hire car. I was walking the sentier des douaniers, along the coast. You can save yourself 60-90 minutes by continuing up the track to the first way-point at Tamarone beach. This walk is correctly classed as classed intermediate level. Be prepared to scramble up loose rock. Over the top, up and down, eventually I see the Finocchiarola islands which give their name to my destination beach. All this area is a nature reserve. Foot is the only way to get there and we were few and far between. 15 minutes rest, it’s on 28 C before turning around and do it all over again back to the car. My Corsica road trip is off to a good start.

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• Part 2 and Part 3 of this Corsica Road Trip
• A short walk along the Normandy cliffs at Etretat
• The walk along the Sentier des Douniers in Toulon