Monthly Archives: August 2011

Corsica 2011 – Ficajola, Lozzi (19th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 28, 2011

On Tuesday we left the camp in Porto and went to central Corsica – more specifically to region Niolo. However, first we drove through Calanche and Piana to Ficajola beach to enjoy the sea one more time before going inland.

Ficajola beach

Ficajola beach

Ficajola is one of the most famous beaches in Golfe de Porto – all the people I know (who visited Corsica) went to it. It’s located a few kilometers to the north-west from Piana, from which you can get there by a narrow road D 624 that descends down to the coast in a lot of serpentines. The beach itself is quite small, but very beautiful, especially thanks to red rocks that are all around it.

After swimming in the sea for a while, we got in car and started returning back to Porto. During the way back I made a short video (that you can see above), showing the journey through Calanche – from football field behind Piana to “Tête de Chien” rock formation. Even though it isn’t very nice, I decided to publish it here to show you this most famous natural sight of Corsica. Read More (+ photos) »

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Corsica 2011 – Girolata (18th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 27, 2011

On Monday we set out to the same starting point as the day before – to Bocca a Croce / Col de la Croix. Our plan was to go to village Girolata, along hiking route Tra Mare e Monti (well-known track, leading from Calenzana near Calvi to Cargèse near Golfe de Sagone). Girolata is the only village in Golfe de Girolata bay and it’s possible to get there only by boat or on foot.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Bocca a Croce Girolata 11.3 km 261 m 0 m GPX file

We left our car at quarter to eleven and started slowly descending down to the bay. The path was quite wide and well marked by orange color. Unlike during previous two trips, we met quite a lot of people on the track. Some were going just to Girolata like us, but most of them had big bags and were probably doing the whole Tra Mare e Monti hike. That inspired me to make a promise (to myself:-)), that if I have time I’ll try to go “Between the Sea and the Mountains” sometimes next summer.

Girolata (from Bocca Ghjanibarellu)

Girolata (from Bocca Ghjanibarellu)

After 2,4 kilometers long descent (during which I took a lot of photos of Punta Castellacciu, towering above blue sea of the bay), we got down to the sea, to beautiful Plage de Tuara. From the plage, there are two paths leading to Girolata – one goes along the coast and the other across 180 meters high hill Bocca Ghjanibarellu. Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2011 – Punta Castellacciu (17th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 25, 2011

For the 17th July we had planned trip to Punta Castellacciu – 585 meters high mountain that together with its little higher (and more famous) twin peak Monte Senino separates Golfe de Porto from Golfe de Girolata. Hike to its summit starts in Bocca a Croce / Col de la Croix, which is a (mountain) pass on D 81 road between Porto and Galéria.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Bocca a Croce Punta Castellacciu 4.3 km 585 m 253 m GPX file

I found information about the trip on this web – it is an (example) track from the Rother Walking Guide, that I mentioned in one of my previous blogposts.

Monte Senino and Punta Castellacciu

Monte Senino and Punta Castellacciu

Hike to Punta Castellacciu is not long (in fact maybe it’s the shortest one we made this year), but it’s very very steep. When I for the first time looked at the mountain from Bocca a Croce, I couldn’t believe that it’s possible to get to the top without climbing equipment. Fortunately, I was wrong… Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2011 – Porto (16th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 21, 2011

The trip to Monte Stello was the only one we had planned in the northern part of the island. That’s why in the morning we packed all our stuff and left Camping A Stella…

At first we went to the west to Saint Florent and then continued through the Désert des Agriates to the port of Calvi. After passing it through we turned to the left and drove along the western coast for a while, before once again turning left to Chapelle Notre Dame de la Serra.

Calvi (from Notre Dame de la Serra)

Calvi (from Notre Dame de la Serra)

It is a very nice chapel, with a white sculpture of Virgin Mary standing on the small rock just next to it. Furthermore, it is located on the hill that offers a beautiful view to the city of Calvi and on the coast around it. Read More (+ photos) »

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Cycling trip to Kozlovský kopec, Andrlův Chlum and Vrbice

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 21, 2011

As I said here before, I like cycling a lot. My tracks usually lead to one of three hills that are located in our region – Vrbice (455 m ASL) near Kostelec nad Orlicí, Andrlův Chlum (559 m ASL) near Ústí nad Orlicí and Kozlovský kopec (601 m ASL) near Česká Třebová. That’s why in June I decided that sometimes during summer holidays I must try climbing to all of those hills during one trip. Yesterday I managed to fulfill this resolution.

Main POIs Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Kozlovský kopec, Andrlův Chlum, Vrbice 82.6 km 601 m 275 m 1245 m
Elevation diagram of the track

Elevation diagram of the track

I set out from my hometown Choceň (285 m ASL) at quarter past eight, going in the south-east direction to Sloupnice – along the very same road I used a few weeks ago during my trip to Znojmo. In Sloupnice I turned right to the cycling route 4145, leading all the way to Kozlovský kopec (kopec = hill in Czech). Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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Corsica 2011 – Monte Stello (15th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 13, 2011

For our first trip on Corsica, we planned a hike to Monte Stello, 1307 meters high mountain located on Cap Corse. I found the tip for this track in a great guidebook Corsica: The 70 finest coastal and mountain walks by Klaus Wolfsperger. However, we had a a little different version – Czech one from 2001, containing just 50 tracks, not 70. We’ve used this guide a lot during our holiday, even though we went to 2 or 3 other hikes, not contained in this guide (as I learnt few minutes ago, they are all contained in the extended guide with 70 tracks).

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Olmeta-di-Capocorso Monte Stello 17.2 km 1307 m 265 m GPX file

The common hikes to Monte Stello begin on eastern coast, in villages of Silgaggio and Pozzo (the track described in guide), but since the sky over eastern coast was overcast, we decided for the track from western coast, from the village of Olmeta-di-Capocorso. Only problem was, we didn’t have a good map – I did have a GPS (Garmin Oregon 450) with OpenStreetMap topographic map of Corsica, but unfortunately this track wasn’t there.

Monte Stello, 1307 m ASL

Monte Stello, 1307 m ASL

At first I thought this wouldn’t be a problem, since I expected there would be marked trail leading there. However, at the crossroad near Olmeta church, there were three tracks marked – the first one to Nonza (1 h 30 min), another one to Marine de Negru (1 h 15 min) and the third one to Bocca San Lunardu (3 h) / Bastia (6 h). We decided for the last trail, since it (at least roughly) led in our direction). Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2011 – Ferry to Bastia, Patrimonio (14th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 13, 2011

After waking up (sleeping in the car in a port isn’t exactly comfortable, but at least we rested a little bit) and having small breakfast we got on the M/F Corsica Marina Seconda, ferry heading to the port of Bastia, second largest Corsican city and capital of Haute-Corse department.

MS Queen Victoria

MS Queen Victoria

While leaving Livorno port, we noticed cruise ship MS Queen Victoria there – it was the biggest ship I’ve ever seen so as usually I took a lot of photos (and later at home deleted most of them). After 4 hours  of the journey, we approached to Bastia – however, one thing was different from previous years: there were big clouds over whole coast, completely hiding summit of not only Monte Stello (that we planned to visit the next day) but also of most of other mountains. Read More »

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