Hotel Le Tourisme Zonza

Next few days spent out and about in Ajaccio, home of Napoleon and Hello Kitty fanatics... even saw the Hello Kitty car. Population around 60,000 and the largest city in Corsica.

Pretty mellow place, dogs galore including some old lady with her asthmatic pug called Oscar being dominated by one of the many ...

Left Toulon on the 17th around lunch, went to the markets beforehand... fooooood!!!! All a great idea when you're buying, not so good when you're carting it back to the boat.

Outside the port is the military, all the naval boats are massif. Stopped a few hours out near an island for a swim, then the long and relaxing haul to Corsica.

Ajaccio, Corsica, France mezcnz

... to make theraputic and aromatic oils for medicinal or relaxational purposes. At the end of the tour, there was a shop where you could buy some product. We didn't because the Body Shop has it cheaper. The second stop was a small winery called Clos Ornasca. We were able to sample their white, rose and red wines (even though it was before 11am), and petted their dogs and cats for a while. At the end of the tour, there ...

... up eating something like veal with liver paste. When we got back to the Chatelet there were cows sitting in our parking space. The next day we walked along the beach in Ajaccio and headed to the airport. When we dropped off the car at the rental agency, the man in the office told us they found a scratch on the driver's door. Ross and I both were very confused and scared because we knew there was no way we scratched the car and the man told us we would have to pay 363 ...

AJACCIO IS GORGEOUS!! The cliffs along the shoreline with the mountains in the background, the buildings, everything- GORGEOUS! Shame I had some inductions to go to and was kept quite busy so I wasn't able to take any pictures or get off the boat, but that will change next time. One word for this port- stunning!

Day 184. Monte Cinto Effort 15/10/08 Decision time on how to climb Monte Cinto (2705m), Corsica's highest mountain: 1) Carry a light bag again, returning to sleep back at the hut. 2) Full bag weight, climb, go to picturesque Lizzo, stay ? 3) Full bag weight, climb, follow markers to d'Asco (where I reached yesterday) I decided to take my full load up the mountain making the call later. Going up the same route would be a German ...

... a little after midday to an empty refuge I found some free food supplies of salsa tuna and a tin of sweetcorn. Lunch was a filling mustard mackeral mash with sweetcorn and Corsician thyme. This knocked me out as I then slept for a few hours. Waking up I met a friendly couple from Quebec. Chatted to them for a few hours while cooking up a pasta feast and then crashing early.

Day 181. Trip to Refuge de Ciottulu 12/10/08 Following the Mare a Monti Nord trail from Ota to Evisa was a 3 hour walk raising to 830 meters elevation. It was mostly shaded by trees, passing signs about flora/forna (in French) and passing 2 Genoese Bridges. Hunters were yelling in the backgrond, dogs barking then shooting. From Evita I took the Mare a Mare Nord trail to Col de Verghio (1404m), also known as the chestnut grove ...

Day 177. Laundry. Internet, beach.....relax 8/10/08 And that really was the day. Claudia & Wolfgang kindly drove us from Porto-Vecchio to Plage de Santa Guilia in their rented car at midday. They changed their plans and stayed on the beach returning us to the hotel in the evening. It was then officially a sad goodbye to them. Day 178. First Scoot 9/10/08 We had to change hotels due to refurbishments and wait for our scooters to be delivered. So ...

... Corsican Nationalism, with their own language on all the signs and it can be heard in the streets(it sounds like Italian with a stuffy nose), their own flag (the head of the Moor with his blindfold removed), and the map of Corsica everywhere (on girls'necklaces, cookies, bottles of brandy,...). We drove about an hour north to Bevella which reminded me a lot of Yosemite (not that I've been to Yosemite but I've seen pictures) with sharp pink ...