Ajaccio to Bonifacio

Rest day in Ajaccio, capital of Corsica, The citadel, no longer a military facility but only partly utilized now for tourism,...

...sits between beaches on one side and a busy harbour on the other.

...and within a few minutes walk, the 16th Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta where Napoleon Bonaparte was baptized.

Another couple of minutes walk is the Bonaparte family home, now a museum focused not on Napoleon's battles but rather on the family history and Napoleon's life there. In he lower level in a olive mill and press, part of family businesses,

Don't even try to get dinner at a restaurant before 7 pm here so it was dark when we had dinner near the bright lights near the centre of this photo.

The starter course was these little fishes that looked very much like one's we ate in Nepal a few years back. Of course they couldn't be the same as these come from salt water while Nepal was local stuff a long way from the sea. Nevertheless, Ursula has made a supreme effort to put on the same face she did for the photo in Nepal. Rae meantime thought these were a bit more fleshy and tasty. We're eating well.

Not the earliest of starts (due to breakfast timing in the hotel) the next morning as we headed into a tough climbing day. Nice dedicated bike trail around Ajaccio's harbour...

...then the first climb began, a continuous climb of 600 metres, parts of it on good road with gentle turns and a reasonable gradient, Parts of it went by a number of cork trees (photo on right below) that have had their bark stripped from the lower trunk,

Rain started around the top of the first climb, mainly showers, some quite heavy but also very short, otherwise drizzle and fog. Wet road and a 600 metre descent just as steep as the climb with sometimes poor visibility- had to be careful. 

Second climb, this one 980 metres continuously up - 15 km to go up 400 metres followed by 8 km to go up the remaining 600 metres - do the math - steep, slow, dripping wet from the sweat or the rain, take your pick. Lovely countryside and forest roads, picturesque villages...

...although we didn't buy one...

...finally the top where the support van was with lunch. 

At lunch... sort of cold, sort of wet, sort of windy, all that coming and going and fortunately also the sun came out and the rest of the day was a mix of sun and some mist and fog, but dry. A nice descent right after lunch, letting gravity give us back some of what we'd worked for...

...and passing through villages hat have been there for centuries.

As well as the descents, we still has 600 metres of climbs to do eventually getting into Zonza for the night.

Next morning started through more of the forest that we'd climbed through yesterday except that the sun was out and we could actually see it...

A number of hiking trails up here as well as campsites. Crossed one dam that may have been a reservoir for Porto Vecchio, a port city on Corsica's east coast that we were about to descend to.

Top of descent - time to reclaim a bit more from gravity as descended 900 metre in the next 40 km.

We were in good time, stopped at the Decathlon store in Porto Vecchio for some spare brake pads, had a leisurely coffee at waterfront cafe, then headed south to today's destination, Bonifacio. Lunch was not far out of Porto Vecchio leaving only a short afternoon ride. But the wind picked up - a veritable howling gale for the rest of the day, sometimes a direct headwind of 50 to 75 km/hr. 

Despite the wind, we got in in good time. Bonifacio has a natural harbour...

...and a vieille ville (old town), or la Haute Ville (the Upper city), on the site of a citadel that was built in the 9th century on promontory high on a limestone cliff...

... on the side of the Strait of Bonifacio that lies between Corsica and Sardinia,

The old city is a maze of narrow streets and tightly spaced buildings...

The oldest building in the city is the 13th century catholic Church of Saint Mary 'Majeure', A wedding was taking place when we were up there and we had seated ourselves at a table immediately in front as guests were coming out and partaking in a reception on the church steps. While waiting to be served, this dog came out of the restaurant and proceeded to climb onto one of the chairs across the table from us. When our friend Chris from previous trips came along and tried to join us, the dog had no intention of moving so Chris got into the other chair that was half against the tree. Turns out the dog belongs to the establishment and that's his chair! Some amusement from some f the well-dressed wedding guests.

Some after-dinner photos of the harbour...

...and the citadel.

Today (Sunday 29 Sep) we have a rest day. Past the citadel are remains of defences from days gone by,, First World War and earlier.

The citadel from the other side

Tomorrow, Monday 30 Sep, it's a morning ferry across the strait to Sardinia and the first 100+ km of riding on that island.