Day 8 - Coti-Chiavari to Bisinao

Distance walked: 16.5km (plus 1km from hotel to start), Time taken: 6 1/4 hours, Ascent: 894m, Descent: 752m

Walking notes stats
Distance: 15km, Time: 5 1/2 hours, Ascent: 700m, Descent: 550m

I woke this morning to discover it had rained over night.  All the laundry I'd left to dry on the clothes line on the verandah was still damp.  Damp socks - such fun to go hiking in.  It was cool and overcast too and looked like it might rain again.  The cooler weather made it more pleasant for hiking but the threatening rain clouds, not so much.  Fortunately, the ground here is very sandy so it was damp but not muddy or slippery.

I'm beginning to resign myself to the French idea of breakfast.  I was served yesterday's leftover pasta dura bread which had been dried out in the oven until it was crisp and brown, plus a plate of pastries and two sorts of jam.  With this I also got a jug of hot coffee and a jug of hot milk. 

I got the hotel to provide me with a picnic lunch as there were no shops in Coti-Chiavari.  There was a restaurant on the trail but I would reach it about 11am and there was no guarantee it would be open, given it was a Monday.  My lunch was a packet of three sorts of salami, another with two wedges of cheese, an apple plus a big hunk of fresh bread. 

Today's walking was the easiest so far.  The weather was far cooler which helped.  Also while there was a lot of up and down, it was a little bit up then a litte bit down rather than any long ascents or descents.  I was overtaken by a woman today.  The first time I've met someone going in the same direction as me.  I also met perhaps half a dozen people going the other way, in ones and twos.  I've seen a lot of solo hikers.  Obviously the message of "OMG it is dangerous to hike in Corsica on your own!" is not widely known (or cared about). 

The only other people I encountered today were 7 young men on motorcross bikes.  I heard them coming from some distance away and was worried it meant I'd gotten off the trail as there shouldn't have been a road near by.  There was a road, just these 7 lunatics riding along these dirt trails.  I'm fairly sure they're not supposed to be doing that.

My lodging here in Bisinao is another gite d'etape, i.e. a hostel for hikers, like the one in Burgo.  Again, I have the plush accommodation - that is a room to myself rather than a bunk bed in the dormitories.  Still, while the furnishings are downmarket, this is one of the nicer places I've stayed.   It has a hairdryer and a heated towel rail.  Much more important for the hiker than a big flat screen tv or a bar fridge.

The village here is tiny so the gite provides meals.  According to my route notes, there is supposed to be a village shop where I can buy provisions for a picnnic lunch for tomorrow but it is closed for renovations.  I have 3 muesli bars in my pack and some ginger lollies I bought in Melbourne airport.  That might have to do me for lunch tomorrow, unless I can get the gite people to provide me with something.  It could be a challenge.  They speak no English at all.

Tomorrow is the last day of walking.  I head to Porticcio then catch the ferry to Ajaccio.  The ferry leaves at 2:45pm or 5:15pm.  The hike is estimated to take 6 hours.  I somehow think I'll be catching the 5:15pm ferry.  I'll have to settle in a bar in Porticcio and eat gelati while I wait.  Such a hard life.

Dinner was a communal affair. There was a young couple from Lyon and an older couple from somewhere in the north of Belgium.  The conversation was largely in French, but fortunately the Belgian couple were not native French speakers.  They spoke sufficiently slowly that I could make out each word, even if I didn't always understand what they meant.  They would occasionally lapse into English for me, and that, with my word spotting ability meant I could follow at least the general thread of the conversaton.

Dinner was interesting.  The local gite keepers had grown a lot of the ingredients.  First was a soup made from zucchini (I think) from their garden along with thyme growing in the local hills.  Next was a salad of four different types of tomato, also all grown in their garden.  Main course was lasagna made with chard (not spinach) and some local cheese but not brocciu because it isn't the season.  Dessert was a choice of apple tart, using apples from the tree outside my window, or else a flourless chocolate cake.  Not prizes for guessing what I chose.

Here are the track and elevation charts for today.  It didn't feel as much up and down as it clearly was.