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 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) »
Corsica 2011 – Viru valley (20th July)
Well, after a short cycling break I’ll return back to writing about Corsica. Weather wasn’t very good on our first day in Niolo. It was quite cold (approximately 13°C), very windy and it was raining. Despite that, we set out to a trip to Viru valley – a track from Klaus Wolfsperger’s guidebook.
The hike starts near Calasima – which is, according to the aforementioned guidebook, highest-located Corsican village. We left our car at ten to eleven on a small parking space on the road to Viru valley – it is very easy to found: the tarmac road from Calasima changes here to the unpaved, gravel one.
Viru valley
Main target of our trip were "Bergeries de Ballone", that are located on famous GR20 route near Viru brook. At first we went to the west along the gravel road. After about 1.5 kilometers, it changed into a narrow forest path and gradually turned to the north-north-west. Even though the track was quite well marked, we still had some problems with orientation and I was quite happy to have my GPS with me. Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »