Calanques - Blogabond

Off via Piana for a walk from the Tete de Chien to reach a broad outcrop high above the Golfe De Porto with amazing views both of the bay and the deep rocky inlets from the rock formation known as Les Calanques. The path isn't very well signed but we eventually found it and made our way along the tortuous narrow path, passing scatterings of wild crocus and cyclamen along the way.

Rick on our walk in Les Calanques

At one point Rick spotted a buzzard! It was about 15 degrees and we were even hotter when we got back to the car.

From the Tete de Chien the road winds its way down to the village of Porto and from there we made our way inland into the mountains to see the Genoese bridge at Ota before heading up past Evisa towards the Col de Verghio.

Genoese Bridge between Ota and Evisa

The Col is the highest point accessible by road on the island (1477m). As we wound our way round the edge of spectacular passes we came across herds of goats, wild pigs and cows and the odd large Boulder in the middle of the road! As we climbed higher the clouds drifted in and it started to rain. We headed on up watching the temperature gradually drop. As we left Evisa we spotted snow by the road. The temperature headed on down as we headed on up and the snow had reached about 2 foot deep at the sides of the road about 4 Kilometres further on. We had intended to stop for a picnic lunch in the woods of St Antoine and take a short walk to a waterfall – clearly not on the cards.

View from the D81 near Porto

Rick did a 3 point turn and we headed back on down to Porto before the drive on up to Calvi, arriving just as all the mums were collecting their children, en voiture bien sur, from the school along from our hotel (5.15 pm).

The bar in which we had dinner had some very nice music on and we asked for a note of the band and album as it appeared to contain some polyphonic singing for which Corsica is famous.

written by

rickandsuejohnson on March 28, 2008 from Calvi, France

from the travel blog: The island of birth for 'Le petit caporal' and the roots of Bernard Nobili

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