CHRIS: Breakfast on the terrace was excellent. Saw a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_kite float by just ~20 meters away and the air was full of swifts. I would see lots more Red Kites today. Got my bike out of the garage, left the key in the box, and headed up the mountain.
The ride and views were spectacular all day. I stopped and took over 150 pictures! But my ride log has gaps, so please ignore the straight lines. Today had none of that!
The coastline roads are better than the best of PCH and the mountain roads are so green, lush, big cows, streams, springs from the rocks gushing onto the road, etc. A spectacular riding day.
Just 28 km from my destination in Corte, the clouds were looking threatening and I was getting a little cold, so I stopped to put on rain gear. The rain started just as I was pulling on my jacket, then it POURED! Was difficult to see so I stopped for a couple of minutes. I should have just pulled out my umbrella and waited instead of starting riding as it was all over in maybe 10 minutes, then I rode into some blue sky and dried out just as I arrive in Corte. Tiny town. Interesting parking at the hotel down a steep road of cobblestones. Got checked in by a friendly host who I could barely understand 50% or what he said. Found a restaurant and got too much food. Wild boar pate (I though I was getting a soup), a great salad with warm roasted potatoes and goat cheese, and a (too much) bacon and mushroom sauce gnocchi. Tried to figure out the ferry to Sardenia and realized they are sold out on Friday and the web site is broken so I could not buy a saturday ticket. The hotel supports only IPv6 so most web sites don’t work. Tomorrow I’m going to ride to Bonifacio to buy a ticket in person. Screws up my schedule and ride plans around Corsica, but I HAVE TO get to Sardenia in time to catch my ferry back to Livorno.
KATHI:
Corsica first full day, Bastia to Corte
| Time | Minutes | km | kph avg | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:48am | 0.2 | map | ||
| 9:48am | 0.6 | 2 km | 156 | |
| 10:01am | 0.0 | map | ||
| 10:01am | 50.2 | 28 km | 34 | |
| 10:51am | 1.9 | map | ||
| 10:53am | 62.1 | 24 km | 23 | |
| 11:55am | 2.1 | map | ||
| 11:58am | 16.7 | 8 km | 30 | |
| 12:14pm | 0.1 | map | ||
| 12:14pm | 5.3 | 2 km | 18 | |
| 12:20pm | 11.8 | map | ||
| 12:31pm | 22.6 | 9 km | 25 | |
| 12:54pm | 5.7 | map | ||
| 1:00pm | 16.1 | 17 km | 61 | |
| 1:16pm | 0.3 | map | ||
| 1:16pm | 1.8 | 0 km | 6 | |
| 1:18pm | 0.2 | map | ||
| 1:18pm | 30.0 | 17 km | 34 | |
| 1:48pm | 0.2 | map | ||
| 1:49pm | 20.6 | 13 km | 37 | |
| 2:09pm | 0.5 | map | ||
| 2:10pm | 15.9 | 12 km | 47 | |
| 2:26pm | 3.1 | map | ||
| 2:29pm | 20.5 | 15 km | 45 | |
| 2:49pm | 3.3 | map | ||
| 2:52pm | 10.2 | 7 km | 41 | |
| 3:03pm | 3.1 | map | ||
| 3:06pm | 4.7 | 2 km | 32 | |
| 3:11pm | 0.2 | map | ||
| 3:11pm | 9.9 | 9 km | 57 | |
| 3:21pm | 2.2 | map | ||
| 3:23pm | 45.5 | 30 km | 40 | |
| 4:08pm | 3.6 | map | ||
| 4:12pm | 23.6 | 17 km | 44 | |
| 4:36pm | 2.3 | map | ||
| 4:38pm | 16.1 | 17 km | 62 | |
| 4:54pm | 2.5 | map | ||
| 4:57pm | 1.5 | 0 km | 2 | |
| 4:58pm | 1.0 | map | ||
| 4:59pm | 4.2 | 1 km | 15 | |
| 5:03pm | 6.2 | map | ||
| 5:10pm | 3.6 | 1 km | 13 | |
| 5:13pm | 1.6 | map | ||
| 5:15pm | 7.0 | 1 km | 13 | |
| 5:22pm | 1.2 | map | ||
| 7h35m | 6h42m moving | 234 km | 35.0 kph | 88% moving, 54 minutes of breaks |