Wednesday 2016/09/14

Camping E Gradelle – Camping chez Antoine

In the morning I take breakfast in the restaurant of the campground. Nice view to the mountains. I'm on my way to Porto. The road there is very spectacular. I even turn around to ride a piece of the road a second time.

In Porto I do two trips to the coast or the beach. It does not really keep me here, so I head east into the island.

The route up into the mountains always offers beautiful views. When riding through the woods you have to pay attention to the free-roaming pigs here. Even if they are relatively small, you do not want to risk a collision.

I'm passing south to Monte Cinto, the highest mountain in Corsica (2706 m).

At noon I arrive in Corte, which is quite centrally located in the interior of Corsica and the only important city far and wide. I stop in the central square and have lunch at one of the restaurants.

After the meal I ride up to the fortress in town, but I do not want to visit the museum in the heat and in my clothes, so I decide to go on riding. I would like to take a refreshing swim in the sea in the evening and would also like to come a little further south, because the next day I have to arrive in Bonifacio.

After riding on a very good road to the southwest for a while, I turn off to take a scenic road, which is also described in one of my guides. After a short while, however, I see the sign that the road is a "route barrée". Well, what does this really mean? I do not like to turn around, so just keep on riding. There is some scree on the road, but you can ride it well. The barrier turns out to be a hill raised around two concrete walls, which you can probably overcome with most vehicles without any problems. Very enjoyable, because turning around would have been really annoying. The route over this little pass is beautiful and very lonely. I hardly meet any other vehicles.

The two Austrians, I met at Camping U Paradisu, were recommending Camping chez Antoine near Propriano. The stretch to this camping is still pretty far. At the reception there's a lady who speaks very good German. This makes communication a bit easier. For 50 euros deposit I get an adapter and a power cable for the electrical supply. I am looking for a nice campsite under a tree and jump into the water before I'm walking along the beach to a restaurant about 500 meters further.

There again is pizza and an inattentive young waitress. Already in the dark I searched the way back along the beach to the campsite, occasionally having to use the headlamp.