A summery summary

I feel a little self conscious about waxing poetic on the virtues of my trip, of a meandering life on the road, a simple life on the bike, of experiencing foreign countries, etc etc... so I'll keep it to myself. It's been great, and I can't wait to get back on the road. For now, it's back to Colorado for September loveliness and a visit to my family in the midwest come October.

All in all:
90 days
4050mi
75 nights camping
15 nights indoors
6 countries

Cheers to the best summer so far! And here's to more adventures to come.

To the sea, to the mainland [Verhsa > Bastia; 7/29-7/31, 107mi]

I made my way down to Bonifacio, a town hanging on the cliffs of the southern tip of Corsica with more scenic coastal roads and coffee stops.

pretty beaches, pretty 'girls'

On my way back up the east coast I passed through the town of Porto Vecchio, which is slated to be the finish town when the Tour de France races a stage on Corsica for the very first time in 2013. Actually the first (and only) I'd ever heard of Corsica before going to France was hearing about it when the race organizers announced that they'd be racing here. The stage starts in Calvi (where I arrived from Nice) and finishes in here in Porto Vecchio, although I'm unsure of their route. After riding all the legendary passes in the Alps, it's fun to be someplace before the Tour comes.

 As I've said it's really hot here, but the warm and inviting Mediterranean Sea offers some exquisite respite with afternoon dips in lovely locales like this:

They grow some amazing produce on this island: orchards of all sorts and particularly delicious melons, peaches and herbs. There are also massive fig and chestnut trees which haven't come into harvest season yet, unfortunately. Roadside fruitstands abound everywhere and have some awfully tasty offerings. Semi-wild livestock (pigs, goats and cows) wonder around the island and specifically famous are the Corsan pigs, who fatten up on a diet of chestnuts before being turned into aged sausages. I tried some Corsan sausage from a supermaket- perhaps I made the mistake of buying the cheapest variety I could find, as I wasn't particularly impressed.  

My final day was a long and mostly flat push north to the port town of Bastia where I'd catch a ferry over to Italy. The Goddess of Island Winds took pity on my suffering back in Iceland, and she pushed me along all day with nice sea breezes at my back. I made the final 75mi by 3:30pm with plenty of time to get to the ferry ticket office and square away my passage in the morning. One last night camped next to the beach just south of Bastia, I got in a refreshing evening swim and fixed a beachside dinner with two Germans who were just starting a 2 week tour around the island themselves. Nice to have my first conversation in English in over a week, and fun to have some expertise to share with them.

bound for Livorno, Italy

goodbye, Corsica

Up & into the interior of Corsica [Porto > Corti > Adjaccio; 7/26-7/28,128mi]

It's a bit tough to peel myself away from the beautiful and tempting beaches in order to climb up into the dry & hot interior, but I'm curious to see what the inland mountain terrain is like. Turns out it's fantastic; these mountains are alright in my book.

The highest pass on the island is Bocca de Verghio at 1467m... which doesn't sound like much since I was up at nearly double this altitude last week in the Alps. But when you start, quite literally, at 0m, it's no small task, especially in the searing heat.

Corsica has a storied past dating back thousands of years, but for recent history it's been a part of France. The old timers speak Corse, a unique language that blends French & Italian; as such all the road signs present both French and Corse spellings. There's a nationalist/liberation movement around, and they like to promote their cause by first painting over the French, then shooting it. No kidding, almost every single road sign on the island is like this! I love the feisty culture here, it's a nice wake up from dusty old France.

It's also specifically illegal to camp in the wild anywhere on the island... although the terrain is so rugged that there's not really many viable places to pitch a tent anyway. There's enough ants & mosquitoes that a tent is pretty much a necessity- so aside from one night up in the high country I'm back to the French campground regimen: RVs, excited kids and screaming babies. Argh.

my feelings exactly

Corsica- a postcard pic of the Mediterranean [Calvi > Porto; 7/24-7/25, 60mi]

Arriving at the port town of Calvi on Corsica was fantastic- a true Mediterranean paradise island, albeit packed with tourists in town. Huge mountains loom in the center of the island, cliffs tumble down to the sea, it's hot and sultry. Corsica is only about 40mi wide and 110mi long but there are mountain peaks at almost 9000ft in the center, and the entire place is hilly & mountainous. My plan is to make a counter-clockwise coastal tour with a few days heading up into the interior high country. After some trouble figuring out which auto parking deck I'd left my bike on, I took an easy few hours to the first town of Galeria for the night.

On the way I stopped off for my ritual afternoon coffee break at a lonely little cafe all by itself in a picture perfect turquoise bay. Everything fit the bill, but was somehow real: red hills down to crystal blue water, a few catamarans moored in the bay, a shirtless waiter wearing white linen pantaloons and a French crooner pumping through the speakers.

The road winds along the coast and occasionally inland for bits, all very rugged and beautiful land. It's super dry and hot here in the summers and a dense scrub called "maquis" grows on much of the hillsides.

I'm still in 'rest mode' from the Alpes and had a lazily short ride the 2nd day to Porto, where I lounged at another cafe next to a bay for the afternoon. As I was settling into the municipal campground, my camp neighbors invited me over to their table for dinner and wine. Really friendly and fun Italians, we had a nice lingering evening... and they're getting me even more excited for Italy next week!