Ota
Genoese bridge at Ota
Gorges de Spelunca (morning)
Yesterday was 100km on the Kawa Versys 650 on sealed roads you could take a car along. Now time to get deeper in to the beautiful Corsica scenery.
La Forêt d'Aitone
La forêt de Valdu Niellu
View back to Porto from Bocca à Verghju (1477 m.)
2REP - Ciattarinu
Picnic lunch
Paglia Orba (2525 m.)
Pont de Petra d'Ostia
Gorges de Spelunca (evening)
Riding gear relaxing on the loggia
Corsican charcuterie and smoked salmon salad
Yesterday was 100km on the Kawa Versys 650 on sealed roads you could take a car along. Now it’s time to get deeper in to the beautiful Corsica scenery.
Lesson One is to stand up on the pegs... relax and control the bike with the knees. Yes it works! Stunning scenery helps the motivation as you see so much more from the standing position. It’s cooler and good pose value too. It took a while to be confident on curves and with gear changes but the Versys 650 is pretty tolerant in third gear. But now I see the point of handlebar gear changers.
And what views. From the red granite of Porto and Ota, with its Genose foot bridge, over the Bocca à Verghju (1477 m.) to the Cinto massif. Past the mountain chalet of the Légion Étrangère, gate approached by a line of white-painted sqaure rocks (who does that and who “asks” you to do it...).
Corsica is France and so there are country boulangeries who sell hand-made quiches and pastries, which make a great lunch out a few kilometres along a track out in the wild, where you get great views which the car tourists don’t see, the peak is Paglia Orba (2525 m.) And a sighting of the locale’s own lizards. I thought it was after crumbs from my lunch, but no, it was after the ants, who had been quite happy with the crumbs of my lunch.
Back on the tourist route, there are the wild pigs. They’re as clever with tourists as the squirrels in Hyde Park and as naughty as monkeys in a Monkey Paradise.
Back via the tarmac road through the Gorges de Spelunca, then hanging the gear out to dry on the loggia and another wonderful meal: Corsican charcuterie with smoked salmon and edible flowers.