Hotel Marina Village Porto-Vecchio

... the morning was pleasantly warm. I was the only one on the sundeck so I was playing my iPod playlists over the sundecks speaker system. Every once in awhile the stewardess would come and check on me and on occasion I could hear someone laughing from the decks below.

The harbor is tucked into the back of a long bay behind the cliff-lined peninsula that Bonifacio is built ...

... it was windy and we could not reach the Genoese Tower there. On restarting my most likely Chinese scooter, the ignition came out with the key. Once fixed we drove to Castellu d'Araghju where I had lunch. Feeling fully confident with the 2 wheels I took to the highway south to Plage de Rondinara, a more sheltered beach. Returning to the hotel at 5pm I sorted out my finaces and ate dinner followed by...Fromage au lait de Brebis 'U Montinu' et vin ...

... Dutch etc. They all have their ideas about one another, which is very entertaining from a non European perspective. We just don't have neighbours like this in Australia. Who the hell knows what think of us! They intend to sail to Australia in a couple of years time and hopefully we can catch up with them again for another night of laughs. The next day we left Bonafacio and sailed back across to Sardinia to spend our last night with the Sutherlands on ...

Day 176. Trip to Conca, final stage 7/10/08 Stage 15, 5hrs, 12kms An easier day descending below 1000 meters for the first time in 6 days, although more ascending than expected! We caught up with the Canadian girls and English lady after 3 hours reaching the stream and dipping pool together. We finished the trek in Conca together catching a cab together to Porto-Vecchio. There we sorted out a ...

... on it was slow progress. His knee was braced and he had the help of his poles for support. But even Sebastian and I struggled with the decent to Bavella village. Very loose stones and a poorly marked path made for an interesting down hill ride. But we made it to the village were we relaxed to the the tune of 2 local chestnut beers each. First bit of alcohol in a week! Claudia and Wolfgang ...

Day 174. Herbilicious; Trip to Rufuge d'Asinao (1530m) 5/10/08 Stage 13, 8hrs, 14.5kms Day of sun, day of wind, day of snow......what would this day bring. Well a donqtion of free bread from a French,an at the Refuge :) A tightrope walk through tiny ascents/decents on a steep ridge at ~1800m for 1.5hrs. Through a beech fairytail forest to a river and spring. In a sheltered ...

... in high winds. Once hiking, with sock covered hands, we kept a steady pace to keep warm. From the ridge after 2 hrs we heard the church bells from Cozzano and could see the hamlet from some 2000 meters up. I was excited to arrive at Refuge d'Usciolu, if any refuge was manned and stocked, this was it. The Lonely Planet commented, 'Francis, keeper of Refuge d'Usciolu for over 15 summers, is ...

... passed the closed Bergeries de Traggette. We hovered around the 1500 meters mark for another 4.5 hours looking for mushrooms while I slowly ate 1of 2 high energy bars I bought. I found 2 fungi specimens that I bagged for inspection later. My clothes protected me well from the cold wind, however I had a major runny nose. Having used all my tissues I was now resorting to blowing out my nose on the ground, soccer-player style and also using my jacket sleeve. We ...

... the highest peak of the bright sunny day, Bocca Palmente (1647m), it's time for a decent. Both Bergeries d'Alzeta & de Scarpaccedie (1450m) were closed, but we stopped at the latter for lunch, a pre-mixed salad. Passing a waterfall, a forest and Gite U Fugone (closed) we arrived at the warm PNRC refuge besides a snowless ski slope. The Canadian (Quebec) girls had already started the ...

... The cemetery was quite interesting and most of the 'buildings' were better than what the living were in. Finally back to the bus and the half hour ride back to the ship where Carol and I both laid on the beds and took an unexpected nap! Then up and off to the pool area for a swim for her and a hottub for me. We could see a storm coming and it finally hit-so back to the room, then ...