Corsica

September 23-25 - First three days of cycling in Corsica from Bastia around the north and west coasts to Ajaccio. Amazing scenery, lots of hills to climb, a few pushing the 18-20% gradient that is about max for us before walking is easier and quicker.

Leaving Bastia - an immediate steady climb to 500 metres by 10 km - gere looking down in the coastline just south of Bastia... 

...before getting into the clouds at the top - good way to warm up and get very sweaty as we head into a 500 metre descent in the next 9 km - a lot of judicious braking with damp roads, no shoulder, and lots of bends.
Weather cleared progressively on the other side - interesting rock formations and a mix of agriculture and vineyards.
Then along the sea...
... a few hills to climb - hot and humid in the sunshine...
...more rapid changes in landscape...
...until getting in to Calvi for the night, the photo below being the citadel from near the hotel. Nice swim in those waters but the surface is stones making it difficult to get in and out of the water - Rae kept his waterproof cycling sandals on - but really nice to just relax in the salt water, warm enough at the waters edge and cooler if you wanted to swim out.
Next day we start down the coast with lots of lovely seascapes.
The road is a bit sparse on guard rails - we'd have to get used to that.
Not much agriculture on the sea-facing slopes, but as soon as we went over to the inland side of the hill, we'd be back into cultivation, cattle, sheep, and here what appears to be fairly new vineyards.
...and some more interesting 'guardrail'...
...Ursula coming around this amazing road...
...and the view from the side of the road, still straddling the bike at the edge of the road without any guardrails to interfere with the view.
The town of Porto, our stop for the night. Again we had a swim at the beach, again rocky and a quick drop-off and wave action that made it impossible to stand up.
Next day more unbelievable scenery, again starting with a 500 metre climb in the first 10 km from the hotel. The wall along the side of the road was maybe a foot-and-a-half high in some places, but that was as big as it gets. 
The view back towards Porto as we climbed the opposite side of the river.
After different rock formations at every turn, suddenly back down to the shore where it looks like the beach is actually sand. 
No swim for us there... the start this morning was late since the hotel wouldn't serve breakfast before 0800 and we still had another 400 metre climb (in 7 km, so it was a steep one - hot - no shade) before lunch. 
That's our lunch stop, the red van at the bottom of the photo. A magnificent descent, just great on a good surface soaring down at 50 km/hr with no effort except a bit of braking to keep from going too fast.
Now in Ajaccio and out for dinner at a restaurant that was recommended - most of us had their mussels which came as a 'first course' but was an enormous portion.
And for the record, our ride profile says that we've gone up 4200 metres of climbing in the hills of the last three days. If only the descents could last as long as the climbs...! So we are happy to reward ourselves with these dinners and some local wine.

Now a 'rest' day. Ursula doing the laundry while Rae posts this, then out to wander the town - Napoleon's birthplace, so a bit of history.


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