Skip to main content

Travel adventures - Corsica


Photo by Gabriel B,

My travels plans are not happening overnight,
just because I want to relax or decompress. Most of the time I see places first in documentaries or movies or read about them and then I start to sketch a plan. When a seed is planted I dig information and try to understand if there is more than my impulse of getting to the place: if they have incredible places to photograph or scenery with unique characteristics, the better.

Today I will unfold my plan to visit Corsica. I am a big fan of TV5, the French broadcasting channel which over the years introduced me to many amazing places through their documentaries - Thalassa, Des racines et des ailes, Passez moi les jumelles.

In one of the documentaries, a young tour guide lady (Magali Vermeglio) was filmed while hiking GR20 and the beauty of the landscape and the roughness of the peaks just gotten me started. The only problem is that we are a family of two - dad and daughter (8 years old). Can we manage GR20, together? In most of the blogs on Internet everyone is expressing their doubts that a normal person can handle it, without a thorough physical training.

I am an active person, running and playing tennis every week. My daughter is having karate lessons a few times a week but not much of a cardio training. Both of us love riding bikes, but again, it is not that much intensive. My conundrum was mostly if my daughter can climb for 5-6 hours at the time and then sleep in a tent (my plan was to use our tent). We are used to camping and handling the type of nomadic life for a few days in a tent.

You can find a lot of information about scenery and beaches and historic buildings or even sporty excursions in Corsica but not too much about hiking GR20 with kids. And as hiking has to be combined with something else, my mission was to find the balance between spending time on the beaches and in the mountains.



   

First I had to find the way to get Corsica and the ferry was the best way for us (flying from Toronto to Rome, Rome to Livorno by train, Livorno to Bastia by ferry). I realized GR20 is not feasible and only daily hikes were the only choice for us.

My plan was to be lodged in one location and then drive every day for a different hike. I was thinking to schedule a few easy hikes for my daughter in order to test the waters and also determine if she wants to go without me goading her. Then for the first few days I planned to go on the well-known trails and be accustomed with the type of terrain in Corsica's mountains.

 I rented a car in Corsica and had some trepidations for driving there:
  • the roads in mountains were steep and narrow
  • you have to drive manual (which I love) and then because it was only both of us I chose a compact car
  • I knew about European drivers are a little bit rough with parking and handling parking spots
  • the motorcycles over-passing cars in situation not quite safe

The next posts are about our adventures in Corsica - the isle of beauties.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When gaffes are used strategically

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash You probably heard that swimming in rough waters in life will reveal your own character and of all the people with you, caught in that moment. It is always unexpected and, exactly as in movies, it begins with a peaceful background and a monotone sound. Everything is unfolding slowly and without any clues that deep gaps will be revealed in any way. It is like a crack in someone's emotional fabric which becomes a wrecking ball for the characters caught in the event, for a short time span, sufficient to project them on a different life orbit, for good. Some people are calling those events "interventions", others fear them as "dark spots" where secrets are emerging as an iceberg unbalanced by some life event. The repercussions are deep and memorable and entail subsequent turmoils, like a burning lava which will flow down for many days to find a peaceful landscape to cool off. The characters are the same like in normal life ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Big Split

Photo by CDC on Unsplash   Detect immunity One of the numbers broadcasted every day is the number of COVID-19 patients who recovered. Instead of being fixed on detecting people with corona virus, we should be fixed on detecting the ones who had a mild version of corona virus or even were asymptomatic. Once we know they can freely move, socially mark them in a certain way (with a special certificate).  They could be the soldiers of opening closed businesses or helping important economic sectors. They are on the other side of the fear, all the COVID-19 restrictions should not apply to them. It is not known for how long is the immunity lasting, but at least, these people should come back and revive the industries and get the jobs and make the economy re-start. It is a small number, but they can propel some ideas for the ones in the isolation (see below). That should be the second most important decision of our governments - detect immunity, instead of just...
Post a Comment
Read more

The sprint to stop an epidemic - Corona virus

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash I was reading about the developing efforts for a vaccine reflected through the stock market. It happened to have a few shares of the VIR Biotechnology ( VIR ) company when the chase of finding a vaccine started. It was an incredible ride, even for a guy accustomed with the up-and-downs of the shares in a company and the political game played when companies are bought or acquired. Just for illustration, please see the chart of this stock for a three month period. There is excitement, at the beginning  of March about the possibility of developing a vaccine for Corona virus, and the stock surpasses 70$/share when before is was lingering under the 17$/share threshold. There are many companies in the race - Moderna ( MRNA ), Gilead ( GILD ), Inovio Pharmaceuticals ( INO ) and probably a few of them will find a virus. What I don't understand is the effort spent in parallel of fighting the same cause. It is a lot of ...
Post a Comment
Read more