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Hiking Corsica

Day-trips on the Pearl of the Mediterranean

By Northern Adventures

Introduction

(Sat Oct 19th - Sun Oct 27TH, 2013)

This is an archive story. Quite deep from the archives.

Corsica island has been on our travel list for years – it may be even more than fifteen years when I bought a guidebook for this French-spoken island located in the Mediterranean.

10 years ago, we were yet to start week-long trekking adventures, however already that time we wanted to explore the island in a pleasant way: hiking through days and enjoying wine and local food during evenings and nights.

We started in the north-east, hiking several coastal trails, and then moved to the mountain town of Porte that served as a conveniently-located basis for our exploration of island’s mountainous interior.

Mountains in Corsica are magnificent – despite it's just a small island, its peaks are higher than those of many of European countries. Hiking in the mountains after the tourist season was a wonderful experience – autumn colours were at their best and mountains were left for more adventurous souls that prefer solitude to crowds.

Finally, we moved to the western part of Corsica, to the beautiful coastal village of Porto – and once more we enjoyed some coastal hiking combined with tasting local cuisine and wine.

The Routes

The walks we enjoyed during our week-long October stay were the following:

Bastia coastal region:

St. Florent coastal route
Cap Corse walk from Barcaggio to Santa Maria
Short walk around Santa-Reparata-di-Moriani in Castagniccia

Around Corte settlement:

Walk to Lac de Nino lake
Traverse from Vallée de la Restonica to Vallée du Tavignano via Plateau d'Alzo
Ascent to Lac de Melu, Lac de Capitellu & taste of GR20

From Porto in the west:

Coastal route to Girolata hamlet

Logistically, we stayed three days in Bastia (lovely place, delicious albeit a bit pricey wine) before moving to the hilltop settlement of Corte (beautiful old town; I recall really poor breakfasts and a rip-off taxi ride to Plateau d'Alzo). Finally, we moved to the coastal settlement of Porto which possesses a lovely location and lacked reasonably-priced eating options (= we just ended up in uninspiring tourist traps).

Do you know French? Good for you! Do you speak just English? Well, ...

1. St. Florent coastal route

This straightforward coastal route served as a fine introduction to hiking in Corsica.

Having parked our car in Saint-Florent, we started to hike in the western direction towards the ruined Torra di Mortella tower, following a winding footpath and passing numerous small white-sand beaches with tempting turquoise waters at the shoreline.

The Tower of Mortella is a ruined Genoese tower, located on the coast near Punta Mortella. It was a progenitor of the numerous Martello towers the British built in the 19th century throughout their empire.

The Italian architect Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino designed the Tour de Mortella and Colonel Giorgio Doria directed the construction between 1563 and 1564. It was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to repulse attacks by Barbary pirates. When the British withdrew from Corsica in 1796, they blew up the tower, leaving it in an unusable state.

Naturally, we couldn't resist the temptation of small sandy bays we hiked along, and took a few refreshing swims despite the colder October weather.

In late afternoon, we retraced our steps back to Saint-Florent, and returned to Bastia.

Overall, it was a pleasant walk, and not surprisingly we met just a handful of hikers throughout the way.

2. Cap Corse walk from Barcaggio to Santa Maria

This so-called Le Sentier des Douaniers (Custom Officers Route) is a 19 km long coastal path on the northernmost tip of the Cap Corse.

The trail runs from Macinaggio on the eastern coast through the maquis and protected areas to Centuri-Port on the west coast. The route was used by customs officers in the past, what gave it its name.

We opted for the western part of the route, starting in Barcaggio and walking in the eastern direction towards the ruined Tour Santa-Maria (Tour Chiapelle) - a ruin of a huge three-storey Genoese tower cleft in half and entirely surrounded by water. The tower was built in the 16th century as a lookout post against the Moorish pirates.

It was a pleasant coastal journey though we had to retrace our steps back to Barcaggio, not arranging transport from Macinaggio.

Still, it was another beautiful coastal walk in the north of Corsica we enjoyed almost completely alone.

3. Around Santa-Reparata-di-Moriani in Castagniccia

The hilly Castagniccia region has been least affected by change in the last hundred years, and is famous for its largest chestnut forest in the world.

The chestnut trees after which the region is named were planted here in the Middle Ages to ensure that the island could be self-sufficient in food - chestnut flour can be used to make bread, among other things.

Quite different in character and appearance to the rest of Corsica, it is a region of small villages and hamlets, steep forested hillsides, and occasional vineyards and olive trees. There are no autoroutes here, rather a maze of small winding lanes meandering up and down the hillsides past small villages.

It was a slow and tiring car journey to reach the remote hamlet of Santa-Reparata-di-Moriani; at the end of October, it was all quiet here, despite the quite popular Mare a Mare Nord trail passing through the settlement.

We tried to pursue a circular route around the settlement; having climbed through thick woods and reaching the mountain plateau near Monte Castello d'Osari, we finally had to went back due to low visibility and diminishing footpath.

Still, the old woods were magical here at the end of October; a special remote place indeed!

4. Walk to Lac de Nino lake

Having moved to the hilltop settlement of Corte, we were looking forward to more adventurous hikes in the mountainous Corsica's interior.

The first hike we ventured into was a straightforward ascent to Lac de Nino; a pleasant walk though strenuous in places that winded from deep woods to beautiful mountain meadows with some sensational views.

The route started at a small parking lot near the forest station Ferme de Poppaghia on the road between Col de Verghio and Albertacce.

The trail followed the Colga Creek on its western bank for about an hour before it switched to the eastern side, and shortly afterwards we reached Bergerie de Colga, a small stony shepherd's hut just above the tree line.

Here a steep scramble followed first across scree fields, and later across somewhat polished slabs out of the forest (Valdu Niellu = Black Forest). A short but steep final ascent took us to Bocca di Stazzona, a broad saddle between Punta Artica and Capu a u Tozzu. Looking back we enjoyed a wonderful view of the ridgeline of Corsica's highest mountains while up front the bog-like basin of Lac de Nino lied in front of the Rotondo Massiv in the south.

5. Traverse from Vallée de la Restonica to Vallée du Tavignano via Plateau d’Alzo

Corsica's most prominent mountains are located on the s-shaped backbone crest, which wriggles from the north-west of the island to its south-east. There is a multitude of narrow valleys which run in towards the very bases of the mountains, often forming narrow gorges with walls rising up several of hundreds of metres.

Two of the most famous ones, Gorges de la Restonica and Gorges de Tavignano, lie back to back to each other, only separated by a west-to-east running ridge. The Plateau d'Alzo between Gorges de la Restonica and Gorges de Tavignano has been used for cattle and sheep grazing for ages.

Having taken a taxi to the trailhead at Pont de Frasseta we took a well-maintained path in the westerly direction, following the direction of the road and gaining elevation by multiple switchbacks. The slope traverse was quite long and it took us some time to finally reach Plateau d'Alzo where we enjoyed lunch break at Bergerie de Colletta.

We crossed the plateau towards Bergerie d'Alzo and then started to descent through forested slopes to the Le Tavignano river. We crossed the river using a footbridge and continued in the direction of Refuge de la Sega (closed late October).

The subsequent 10-km long descent followed the well-maintained Mare a Mare nord trail, traversing south slopes of Punta Finosa and finally emerging into the outskirts of Corte.

6. Lac de Melu & Lac de Capitellu

Having parked our car at the car park at the end of the road D623 from Corte, we ascended on the well-trodden path towards Lac de Melo and subsequently in the northern direction up towards Lac de Capitello.

Most of the day-trippers made it only to the first of the lakes, and we were the only ones to scramble through the narrow couloir towards Brèche de Capitello pass where we reached the GR20 trail (and were rewarded by stunning views in both north and south directions).

The views were really beautiful here in the sunny October weather.

We enjoyed our lunch with perfect views above Lac de Melu, and then slowly retraced our steps back down the Restonica valley to the parking lot.

7. Coastal route to Girolata

Located on the west coast of the island, the bay of Porto with the regions of Scandola and Capu Rossu belongs among the world's most beautiful seashores. The whole region is included in the UNESCO world heritage and is famous for its mountainous seashore, turquoise clear waters and red rocks with mysterious shapes.

Girolata is a small hamlet that has an unique characteristic being only accessible by foot or by boat.

Indeed, no cars can access the small coastal hamlet as Guy Ceccaldi, the famous postman, could confirm: during his whole career at French Post office that Girolata depends on, Guy had to walk to the hamlet to give the letters that were destined to its inhabitants - fittingly, the inhabitants nicknamed him “Marathon Man”.

At the pristine Cala di Tuara beach, the path splits: one side goes up and over the back of the mountain, while the other follows the coastline along the cliffs. We opted for the former (and returned subsequently via the latter).

Seeing the village for the first time at the crest of the mountain was beautiful. The hamlet is really small, with just a dozen of buildings, a protected bay, and a small hill with a fortified tower. The colours were also striking: red rock, vivid green surroundings of the village, and blue/turquoise water.

Afterword

Back in 2013, we didn't feel confident enough to tackle the world-famous GR20, and that's why we opted for this series of day hikes, covering both coastal areas and mountainous interior of the island.

It was a leisure trip; with no need to hurry and mostly blessed with favourable sunny autumn weather, we really enjoyed the hikes and overall the stay on the island.

Still, of course, GR20 remains on the bucket list, albeit its exposed sections - notably at Brèche de Capitello - are not really for the faint-hearted. Yet it would certainly be a pity not to return; the mountainous interior deserves far much more than just the glimpse we got during this trip.

Practicalities

There is not really much to talk in terms of practicalities.

Retrospectively, end of October i.e. autumn was a wise choice - that being said, springtime must be similarly attractive timing. Summer may be packed and prone to afternoon thunderstorms (high in the mountains).
Knowledge of French is surely an advantage, though Corsica considers itself as a rather different France (with more independence it actually has).
Food is nice, wine delicious, yet there is - or was, in 2013 - one thing to complain: poor breakfasts! Toast bread, butter, jam... well, hungry and tired hikers deserve a bit more :-).

Footnotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the photographer (tomas.zrna@gmail.com).

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FootNotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the photographer (tomas.zrna@gmail.com).

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