Les Calanques de Piana on the D81
via Cargèse to Tiuccia
It doesn't seem worth it, dropping down to Porto's marina, and we simply buy some breakfast stuff from a Spar across the road from our hotel and then continue riding along the D81.
There's another route, one that heads inland - the D84 - and which rises up to Corsica's highest pass, the 1,477-meter-high Col de Verghio. Another time.
The sun is out as usual, but the route is a bit shaded with trees to begin with and we stop after a few kms to have our bread, fruit and yogurt etc.
After getting going again the ruggedness of Les Calanques starts, the red-ish outcrops looming up from the sea, encroaching the road and dwarfing us. Wowee!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
About a dozen kilometres on we stop at a coffee shop that has a terrace overlooking the sea and enveloping calanques and relax for a while. It's hot now. There're a few guys who are riding big-cc motorbikes. Corsica attracts them, many from Italy. They don't all make it home as the island's narrow, twisting roads are hard enough at cycling speeds. Going at over 100km/hr is suicidal.
These few bikers have taken off their leather jackets, but still look hot and bothered in thick bibbed trousers. They've got to be breeding maggots in those.
I treat myself to a second cappuccino and Dave and I take turns to photograph each other riding by.
Tourists come and go. There are coaches ferrying them around.
After we set off, we see them get dropped off at one point and they walk beside us, straggled along the 81, until about 15 minutes later when they reboard and disappear. Some are in Piana when we arrive not long after.
I buy a liter bottle of cold orange pop and gulp some down, then wander around the village's quaint alleys that are lined withpan-tiled homes, the cobbles sloping steeply towards the Med. Dave sits and looks after the bikes.
Back to the coast after climbing over a small col - the 491m Col de Lava - we roll into Cargèse as the tourism officer is locking up, but being kind, she stops to tell us about the place, directing us to the town's two churchs.
We brake as a steep lane drops beside the old houses and spot the Greek church on a hill and head there. Once we park our bikes, we take a snap of the other old church we rode past, with the road we'll continue on soon making up part of a distant backdrop.
The D81 wiggles around the coast and we make it to Sagone in next to no time. The place seems locked up, not quite ready for summer. We find the proprietor of one hotel cleaning up and she makes a call to another owner and arranges a room. It's just another 5km away. We're off, me humming to Candy & The Kisses tyhat's playing inside my head..
It's a bar by the road and there are rooms down some steps to the back, overlooking the sea. We have a balcony with a table. The bar isn't doing food, but there's a restaurant a 10-minute walk away, so we head there after having a shower.
We have a couple of Pietras each. They taste fab after a hot day on the bike.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 305 km (189 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |