The Wild West

Leaving Calvi at dawn

Girolata

With a lull in the prevailing south west winds we continued on our way south and along the dramatic and rugged west coast. Our destination was the wonderful Golfo de Girolata, a part of the Scandola Nature Reserve and a Unesco World Heritage site. It is an area of natural beauty and is noted for its spectacular sheer red granite cliffs rising over 400 mts high. Picturesque Girolata with its Genoese fort is inaccessible by road and is now full of tightly packed mooring buoys and tripper boats so we decided to drop the anchor in a bay round the corner. The snorkelling was just as impressive as our surroundings. The following morning we sailed on past Les Calanques, the geological highlight of the coast, with its jagged crimson cliffs rising up out of the crystal clear water. We sailed on between the nasty Iles des Sanguines rocks and finally dropped anchor in Ajaccio at the head of the bay.

Golfo de Girolata anchorage

Sailing past Les Calanques at dawn

At anchor in Ajaccio

We had a mooch around Corsica's capital city and birth place of Napoleon. We decided to give the Napoleonic tourist trail a miss having had our fill on Elba. Instead we went on the hunt for a ships chandler and some anitifouling paint for our haul out due next spring. We also checked out the train times as we planned to take a ride up into the mountains on the narrow gauge single track railway. With a settled forecast we left the boat and set off for Ajaccio train station and enjoyed the ride up into the mountains alighting at the quaint station in the hamlet of Vizzavona. We were now at

Arriving at Vizzavona

an altitude of over 900 mts and the air was considerably cooler. Vizzavona is a popular starting and finishing place for the GR 20 sixteen day hiking trail from north to south Corsica. It is considered to be the most difficult of all the GR (grande randonnee) routes and one of the most beautiful mountain trails in Europe. It is not for the inexperienced as a lot of the trail is over 2000 mts and you need specialist equipment. We sat and had a coffee in the bar next to the station and watched the hikers congregate prior to setting off on their own personal challenge and us on a comparatively minor stroll! We joined the trail for an hour long walk through a forest of pine and beech to the Cascade des Anglais, a series of waterfalls made popular by the

The ruined Grand Hotel

wealthy British visitors in the early twentieth century on their European grand tour. The Grand Hotel dating from this Belle Epoque was still standing but looking forlorn and derelict. Despite lacking the stout walking boots and hiking sticks that most of our fellow walkers had we made it comfortably and settled down next to one of the many rockpools for our picnic lunch. We had planned on a swim but the sun was hiding behind the mountain tops and the cool air put us off. Leaving the fragrant smell of pine behind us we retraced our route and caught the last train back to Ajaccio.

Vizzavona train station

River running through the forest of pine and beech

Cascades des Anglais

Cascades des Anglais

Cap Corse and beyond

Statue of Napoleon

We set sail from Elba early for a forty mile passage to Corsica and dropped anchor just south of Bastia's citadel. We planned to circumnavigate Corsica which can be prone to strong winds coming out of the Gulf of Lyon so with the need for internet and access to regular weather forecasts we went ashore in search of the nearest Orange telephone shop and a very expensive data sim. We took the dinghy round to the beautiful Vieux Port and wandered through the slightly run down old town. After Napoleon moved the seat of Corsican power to Ajaccio in 1811 Bastia declined somewhat and it also suffered in World War II when many buildings were destroyed. We made our way to the huge central square, one of the largest in France, which features a rather camp statue of Napoleon in a toga. The square is dotted with palm and plane trees and overlooked by some fine old five storey mansion buildings. 

Vieux Port, Bastia

Saint Nicolas square, Bastia

Baie de Saleccio

Baie de Saleccio

With strong southerly winds forecast which would leave us exposed we decided to set sail in the afternoon and head north up the coast of Cap Corse. We dropped anchor in Baie de Tamarone and enjoyed a refreshing swim. The following morning we had a wonderful sail round the northernmost point of Corsica before heading south and finally stopping in Baie de Saleccio, an exquisite anchorage backed by fine white sand dunes and not a building in sight. It was a lovely place to spend a lazy couple of days. Having had our fill of turquoise water we slowly made our way round to Saint Florent and anchored in the large sandy bay just west of the small picturesque town which buzzes with holidaymakers in the summer months. With a westerly gale forecast we stayed put for a few days enjoying the delights of the town, lovely coastal walks and the entertainment provided by the numerous boats dragging their anchors in the forty knot winds.

Baie de Saleccio

Anchoraage under the ruined Genoese tower near Saint Florent

Saint Florent

Saint Florent

Saint Florent Bay

Saint Florent Bay

Calvi Citadel

Calvi harbour

Thankfully we held firm and as soon as the winds abated we continued our journey westward along Corsica's northern coast. We finally dropped anchor south of Calvi's impressive citadel and in front of yet another glorious expanse of sand. Due to the enormous, and relatively unused, mooring field between us and the town we had a long dinghy ride across to the busy harbour. We wandered around the narrow lanes up to the citadel which afforded great views of the bay. We stumbled upon a fascinating display provided by the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, the elite airborne regiment of the French Foreign Legion stationed nearby. We saw a few of the multi national soldiers with their distinct white pillbox hats but unfortunately no Beau Geste. From fiction to fact we passed a statue of Christopher Columbus. The locals claim that he was born in Calvi. His house was reduced to rubble when the English navy, led by Horatio Nelson, besieged the town in 1794. It is also here that Nelson lost the sight of his right eye to a shrapnel wound in a return of fire. With our historical tour complete we trudged to the nearest large supermarket to replenish our ship's stores. Always a long hot sweaty task....

Calvi bay

Calvi

Calvi

Calvi citadel

Calvi waterfront

Back up to Elba

Watching the bridge go up from the cockpit

Northerly winds kept us in Fiumicino a few days longer than intended. We stocked up with Italian delicacies and enjoyed more riverside fish lunches as well as our ritual evening drinks in the cockpit watching the comings and goings up and down the river as the bridge opened at 7pm. Finally we had a break in the weather and planned to leave with the 9am opening of the bridge. Thankfully, as it happened, we were up early topping the boat up with water when we noticed a large number of yachts milling around us at 8am. To our horror we discovered the bridge times had changed the day before. The alarm sounded and the bridge started to rise. There was a queue of boats waiting to leave so we reckoned we just about had a chance of making it and managed to extricate ourselves from the wall just in time. We planned to head over to Corsica but decided to break the journey in Elba as we still had our inland trip and the ascent of Monte Capane, the island's highest peak, to do.

Circa Mosca's big top

We had an uneventful passage back up to Elba and dropped anchor in a bay just east of Portoferraio. It was lovely to be bobbing and swimming in clear waters again. The following day we moved over to the Portoferraio anchorage. We went ashore and explored San Giovanni a small village to the south of us and discovered the Circa Mosca was in town along with a variety of animals including lions and tigers which were caged along the shoreline. 

Marciana

       

Marciana

An empty "parrot cage"

With a clear forecast the next morning we got up early and caught a bus to the picturesque mountain village of Marciana. We found a wonderful little place for a sandwich lunch at the top of the town which afforded great views of Monte Capane towering above us at 1019 mts. To spare our legs we decided on the easy option and after lunch made our way down to the cable car station. The rather precarious looking bright yellow parrot cages were constantly on the move in a never ending loop and we had to enter them on the run which was a bit scary. Safely aboard we ascended the mountain and reached the top an exhilarating twenty minutes later. We really had reached the top of the island and the views of Elba and over to mainland Italy and Corsica were stunning.

View down to Marciana from our "parrot cage"

View of Elba and over to mainland Italy