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The Eid holiday after Ramadan would be 3 days public holiday in Bahrain, and also was an off week on the Stoker's rota. This was too good an opportunity to pass up, so we booked on the last Bike Adventures supported holiday for 2009, to cycle across Corsica from Calvi to Ajaccio with some cols on the way, from 19 to 26 Sept.
On the previous weekend we were at a wedding in Kent on the Saturday, so took the opportunity to tandem the Kent Sportive (80km) on the Sunday, and drop off the tandem at Bike Adventures in Ascot on the way home. I EFI'd the Devon day of LE2JOG that I missed on the Tuesday and felt that we were better prepared than we had been for LE2JOG as regards legs and the bike! (click on this link to read more)
Packing was a bit last minute, but we didn't need to take much as we didn't expect it to be cold or wet. Ha ha,
Day -1: Chorleywood to Nice
Easy peasy trip with BA from T5 to Nice, arriving around 5pm. Jumped into a taxi and it was only 10 minutes along the Promonade Les Anglais to the Hotel All Seasons by the port.
Weather looked gloomy though and overcast.
We wandered down to the port, and found a bar overlooking old fishing boats and mega yachts for a drink, gawp at passerbys and reading the guidebook. This turned into another drink, and since we had no insights as to restaurants, took the easy option of turning it into our evening meal with a bottle of wine. It spattered with rain but we got back to the hotel unwet.
Weather looked gloomy though and overcast.
We wandered down to the port, and found a bar overlooking old fishing boats and mega yachts for a drink, gawp at passerbys and reading the guidebook. This turned into another drink, and since we had no insights as to restaurants, took the easy option of turning it into our evening meal with a bottle of wine. It spattered with rain but we got back to the hotel unwet.
Day 0: Nice to Calvi: 175km, 0m, 5hr
Huge storm during the night with massive crashes of thunder. Lets hope that's it for the week.
It wasn't actually raining when we left the hotel after breakfast (checking out and leaving our bags for later) so we didn't take rain gear. We wandered around the citadel mound through the old town and street markets, including the flower market, and bought me a pair of swimming trunks that I had forgotten to pack, and Stoker bought a sun visor being an optimist. Put foot into the sea but no swimming!
Looks bad weather over Corsica!
Got more overcast and started to spot with rain, so we went back through markets and bought umbrellas that we immediately put to use when walked up over the citadel where we eat a peach for lunch looking at the view. On the way down, by the port, we spotted Kevin & Gaby and saw where the Bike Adventures van was.
Then back to the hotel to pick up bags where we saw a semi-lycraed couple doing same - we introduced ourselves 'Bike Adventures I presume?' and went together down to the van where we packed away our bags and put pedals on the tandem and re-aligned handlebars. Not much point in trying to get names for faces at this early stage, so as we had an hour to wait before boarding, went to a nearby cafe for coffee. But they had a nice menu du jour so this ...
Turned into this .....
We endered up eating and drinking for the full hour and got back to find everyone waiting for us. They'll just have to get used to the tandem being last!
In the queue we were next to a Danish couple who had cycled from Denmark and were going to Greece - they had done 2600km so far, were staying in hotels, and hadn't done any touring before. They looked very fit and thin, averaging 50km per day. No rain they said.
The ferry was huge, and we started off on deck to see us depart. We then found some uncomfortable seats and read/dozed for the 5 hour trip. The cafeteria coffee was luke warm, but the beer was cold.
Cavli looked a picturesque town, we started off wheeling all the bikes up the hill to start off in the square, following the van. The tandem chains were loose and with the back pedalling jammed and came off, so we lost sight of the others, but they did wait for us later. The hotel was only about 1km along the seafront. We went for a wander back along to the port, and sat and had a drink thinking this wasn't too bad so far!
It wasn't actually raining when we left the hotel after breakfast (checking out and leaving our bags for later) so we didn't take rain gear. We wandered around the citadel mound through the old town and street markets, including the flower market, and bought me a pair of swimming trunks that I had forgotten to pack, and Stoker bought a sun visor being an optimist. Put foot into the sea but no swimming!
Looks bad weather over Corsica!
Got more overcast and started to spot with rain, so we went back through markets and bought umbrellas that we immediately put to use when walked up over the citadel where we eat a peach for lunch looking at the view. On the way down, by the port, we spotted Kevin & Gaby and saw where the Bike Adventures van was.Then back to the hotel to pick up bags where we saw a semi-lycraed couple doing same - we introduced ourselves 'Bike Adventures I presume?' and went together down to the van where we packed away our bags and put pedals on the tandem and re-aligned handlebars. Not much point in trying to get names for faces at this early stage, so as we had an hour to wait before boarding, went to a nearby cafe for coffee. But they had a nice menu du jour so this ...
Turned into this .....
We endered up eating and drinking for the full hour and got back to find everyone waiting for us. They'll just have to get used to the tandem being last!
In the queue we were next to a Danish couple who had cycled from Denmark and were going to Greece - they had done 2600km so far, were staying in hotels, and hadn't done any touring before. They looked very fit and thin, averaging 50km per day. No rain they said.
The ferry was huge, and we started off on deck to see us depart. We then found some uncomfortable seats and read/dozed for the 5 hour trip. The cafeteria coffee was luke warm, but the beer was cold.
Cavli looked a picturesque town, we started off wheeling all the bikes up the hill to start off in the square, following the van. The tandem chains were loose and with the back pedalling jammed and came off, so we lost sight of the others, but they did wait for us later. The hotel was only about 1km along the seafront. We went for a wander back along to the port, and sat and had a drink thinking this wasn't too bad so far!
Day 1: Calvi to Porto: 80km, 940m, 4:45 hr
Breakfast at 8, with briefing by bikes at 9 (this was the same all days). Started to ask names and sort people out. We set off at the back, and were soon on our own (this was the same all days).
First part of the route was little ups and downs/ins and outs along the coast. The views were great, and I'll stop mentioning this as the views were great for all the trip.
First coffee stop where we caught up with the peleton
What at the time seemed a long drag up to Col de Palmarella (408m) (little did we know what was to come the next few days) ended disappointingly at the cafe shack said the unfriendly local hadn't any food, only drinks. We had Oranginas and watched the sweaty walkers come up from the beach. Some wizzing down then up to the second smaller Col de la Croix.
Splatters of rain that I ignored but the Stoker geared up for, more wizzing down to a lunch stop where we just caught the peleton leaving.
More wizzing down to Porto where the hotel was up above the road leading down to the port/beach.
We washed out the cycling gear and put out to dry. There was pool, so we changed and as the tiles looked slippy I walked barefoot down some stairs, thinking this was the best thing to do. I slipped and banged my butt and back down three stairs, only saved from worse by having held onto the handrail which broke. The Stoker thought this was the end of the holiday with me incapacitated, but the only injury was grazed knuckles. I was lucky but shaken. A dip in the cool pool and a sleep on a sunbed made it all better.
Later it rained a little, but we umbrellaed up and walked down to the port where we had...yes you've guessed it ... had a drink (with peanuts) before walking back up to the restaurant of the hotel. Names started to get tied to faces, and characters were evolving as you have in any group.
Day 2: Porto to Corte: 88km, 2080m, 6:53hr
This was going to be the big day - the most we had ever climbed in one go - 1500m over 35k. The profile above tells it all - first a climb up to Ota, then drop down to the bottom of Spelungha gorge. Up again, a little shallower part to Evisa then no prisoners before the Col de Vergio (1467m).
We saw our first, of many, semi-wild pigs foraging in the gutter of the road. The usual coffee stop stop in Evisa turned into the usual lunch. A short stop before the top to have our peaches - the Stoker dropped one when taking the bag out (of course it was my fault for not tying the top of the bag) and suddenly a docile family of pigs woke up and ran squealing towards us to scoff it up off the floor. I thought my toes were going to be nibbled but it seemed they only wanted peaches. So the up took us 5 hours in total, including lunch. But we were pleased we had managed a steady, albeit slow, pace and hadn't felt the desperation of the lung exploding Cornwall/Devon steep gradients.
A screaming run down to the lake (avoiding the pigs), where we took the flatter option of the main road rather than Kevin's undulated on tracks on the right side. More wizzing down through a gorge with tight narrow bends. And finally a little up to Col d'Ominanda (654m) before the end run into Corte.
Quick wash out of cycling gear, then as I had broken two pairs of glasses in Nice, we went out to find a pharmacy to buy some reading glasses. Very friendly service. We wandered up into the old town under the citadel, and had a meal in the square by the cathedral. It looked like rain, but we got back to the hotel before it started. The others who went out for a meal later weren't so luck with the rain. It sounded like it rained intermittently throughout the night, but then since you only hear the rain whenever it wakes you up, it might nor have been raining when we were asleep.
Day 3: Corte to Zicavo: 80km, 2670m, 6:60hr
Well, if yesterday's hill was big, today's was going to be worse, there are 2 of the buggers, each around 1300m and dropping down in between, and a steeper gradient than yesterday. And just to make it more fun, it started raining when we left Corte. Little did we know how much unfun it was going to be.
Ever an optimist, I opted for no rain gear. First mistake of the day.
The road climbed over the Col de Bellagranajo (723m), then down passing a high railway bridge built by Mt Eiffel of Tower fame, and up to Vivario where the narrow route caused a traffic passing/incident/jam. We had a minor 'failing to start' falling out, so we got off and walked to find a traditional cafe for coffee. This time it was too early to turn into the usual lunch. We were wet and cold, and starting to feel miserable and it wasn't even the start of the big climb.
It rained heavily as we climbed up to Col de Sorba (1311m). It was grim and unrelenting. The sign was defaced by the Corsican nationalist who had painted out the french, this was common when we were in the inland region.
Then down to find the restaurant at Ghisoni where, as usual we found the peleton just leaving, they looked as cold and as fed up as us, with Paul not able to stop shivering, I was quite concerned about him. We weren't allowed to sit in the restaurant proper as we were soaking, so had plastic chairs in the covered pavement area. We kept our goretex on as any evaporation would have cooled us down! The serving lady was very welcoming though, and after a bowl of hearty corsican vegetable shop we started to feel a bit warmer, but still not warm enough.
But we couldn't put it off much longer, it was getting late. Final big hill to go. and what a b'''gg''r, in a forest, few views, dank rain and mist, lots of switchbacks. It was something out of Mordor. The Stoker piped up at one point "why did we pay money to do this when we could be on a beach?". A good question to which I didn't have an answer except silence. And not even a col signpost at the top! What was nice was that Kevin and the van kept close by and we knew they were available if he had a problem - though if the tandem had fitted in the van we would have been tempted to have asked for a lift.
So no hanging around, a wiz down to the one horse town of Zicarvo, and hang out washing on hotel line. Pre-dinner beers and pastis, and a great local meal where the stern landlady would only give us what she wanted, including her local goat's cheese scooped out of a kilner jar, made us feel better.
Its amazing how you forget the horrible things in life. Isn't the mind wonderful in doing this otherwise it would be too depressing to cycle on tomorrow..
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