Hiking near Zonza

May 4, 2025

At the stunning Col de Bavella

I woke up at 6 am and checked the forecast on Meteblue. No more rain. Hurray! So I went back to sleep, figuring we’d have a leisurely start to our hiking at the Col de Bavella.

By 7 am, the forecast had completely changed. It now said rain starting this morning, and showers all day. Crap! We got our butts into gear, wolfed down some yogurt, berries, and granola, and were out the door by 7:30.

It was only about a 15 minute drive up to the Col, and I think we were among the first people hiking today, although from the looks of it, lots of people camped in their vans last night. Maybe climbers? This is a big climbing area, from the looks of it. And no wonder. It’s magnificent.

The Col is a stunning area of granite towers and needles. It’s another crossover point of our route and the GR20. We saw some thru hikers wearing their handy ponchos.

The first half of our walk took us out to the ‘Trou de la Bombe’ via a path in a pine forest. The trou is a striking looking hole in the rock. We got a bit wet, but it was never raining very hard, and the footing was good. The only people we saw on the entire route were practically at the end, within sight of the parking lot.

Amazing views. And not raining at the start.

Image not found :( — The photos don’t do it justice.

It was very windy at the hole in the rock.

The rain had stopped when we got back to the car, so we headed out again in the opposite direction.

The entire second loop was stunning - we had views of the rocks, down the valley, and of multiple climbing crags - no climbers today though, thanks to the rain. This section was a bit slower going because it was more rocky. The route was pretty well marked, at least, although I found the green blazes hard to see.

We failed to notice this ‘balancing rock’ on our way past, so had to backtrack a bit to see it.

There were a few more people on the second route, including thru hikers and other walkers, as well as two climbers who were perhaps scouting out a route.

The Col de Bavella is not on the GT20 bike route. But it’s worth a detour.

We hiked 10 km in all and climbed almost 500 m, if you believe my Strava. Mel’s watch reported slightly less distance but more vertical.

We descended back to our apartment Zonza, stopping only long enough on the street to steal some wifi from the bar we visited yesterday. Lunch consisted of delicious sandwiches at our apartment with local meat, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce.

We then had a lazy few hours that included a nap. It wasn’t a great day weather-wise but the rain never returned.

We went for a walk to scope out dinner places, and realized that lots are closed on Sundays. We then discovered that the post office has 30 minutes of free wifi, no password required. So I caught up on a few things.

Dinner was out at a nearby restaurant - I enjoyed a brocciu omelet and salad, and Mel had nice looking lamb chops. We had no trouble getting a table, but the restaurant was full by the time we left.

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