Les Roches Blanches Porto-Vecchio

... and is lined with little restaurants and bars. From the harbor it’s about a quarter mile walk up to the old town with the expected narrow windy lanes between the cramped houses above the cliffs.

We ate dinner on the upper deck as we cruised out of Bonifacio and towards Cala de Volpe in Sardinia. It was a beautiful sunset over the ocean with Corsica framing the view.

... day did not get started till 12. It was a windy overcast morning so there was no rush to the beach. When it came to paying for the bikes I found out my credit card expired some 9 days earlier and I had little cash on my backup account. So until I visited the Internet to move some dollars around I was stuck with 10 euro; & a load of food I bought the day before. Sebastian and I were both scooter virgins so we left together slowly to Pintarello ...

... 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 ...

... found Claudia & Wolfgang (who were wise not to try and complete the last stage) and went out for pizza. Pizziaiolo for me and vin rouge for all thanking them for getting me through the southern section of the GR20. After 4 bottles of red between 7 the Candians and English lady went back to the hotel. The Germans and I had one thing on our mind, Mojito's. And so it was, cocktails, beer and fusball.

... decided to stay the night there, resting his knee that was swelling by the hour. Sebastian and I left to fulfil his pasta duties with an addition bottle of wine and Corsician thyme I picked up on the way. We made it to the final Refuge, de Palari, in record time through a forest, sweating. Sebastian satisfied the Canadian girls and they giggled through the night fuelled on good times and vin rouge.

... we found for lunch Claudia came across Corsician Thyme which I bagged for flavour later. Now for a hard incline to mount Incudine (2134m) the highest point in the southern part of the GR20. Enjoy it as it was a damn steep and dangerous descent to Rufuge d'Asinao. No heating in this small old refuge and joined by another group heading north made it an intimate ...

Day 173. Trip to Refuge d'Usciolu (1750m) 4/10/08 Stage 12, 5.5hrs, 9.5kms Freezing night. The Canadian girls were up early as usual thankfully worked out the problem with the fire. It was so windy the chimney outside bent over blocking the exit. They fixed it and got the fire going. Outside was only worse, now covered in frost and snow. The days walk involved clambering around exposed granite ...

... and we will end it together". We asend for to long in high wind to peak at Bocca d'Oru (1840m). Eventually reaching the refurbished Refuge de Prati. There were meant to be some superb views on the last stretch, but we saw mainly clouds. The bristling cold wind slapped the hut. The toilet was once again shut, it's now been 40 hrs since my last session. No one had any inclination to leave the hut which was warm from the fire the Canadian girls had lit ...

... albiet smokey), washed their clothes and dispersed their 100 plastic sealable bags around the place. Later on we were joined by a German couple (Claudia & Wolfgang) who Sebastian had walked some northern stages with. Evening, company and sunset were lovely. With every where appearing closed, my food supply diminishing I slept with the target of collecting mushrooms the following day.

... we could see it coming, but it didn't slow us down. The town is tall buildings with few windows as they were taxed by the window areas. The stairs up to the 4 and 5th floors looked absolutely impossible to climb! About 3 feet wide and extremely steep, with uneven heights of risers! The streets were so narrow that as cars came through we had to flatten ourselves against the walls ...