Porto-Vecchio is a very attractive town with a large marina and port with many cafes plus the old town up on the hill with winding alleys and a great range of shops. We had lunch near the port at Version Originale, another great suggestion from Lonely Planet, where I thoroughly enjoyed my salad with satay chicken sticks.
The Genoese settled the old town of Porto-Vecchio in the 15th C but were soon decimated by malaria and the town didn't really take off until the swamps around it were transformed into salt marshes last century, by planting loads of eucalypts from Australia. The gums are everywhere in that area and are thriving, probably even better than Porto-Vecchio, although accommodation in the area is sky-high, an indication of the popularity of the area. Much of it is villas and resorts nearer the beaches so many people would visit the town for shopping and to socialize. We noticed that the police have a barrier to prevent traffic entering the main part of Porto-Vecchio when traffic in the area is too great.
Richard had been given a tip to visit an area inland called L'Alta Rocca and the Col & Aiguilles de Bavella (Bavella Pass and Bavella Needles). We drove up the coast firstly to Solenzara, another developing tourist town with a large marina and oodles of eucalypt trees, but like Porto-Vecchio it is too shallow for our yacht. If we ever travelled the east coast of Corsica in our yacht we would have to be sure of suitable weather for anchorages in most areas.
Once we turned inland it was not long before we were gasping at the beauty of the "needles", the jagged granite pinnacles that poke into the sky at a height of more than 1600 metres, with Monte Incudine behind at 2134 metres. It is hard to imagine such beauty really exists and as we dramatically changed elevation we were all amazed at what we were seeing. The road firstly follows the valley of the stony Solenzara River bed and the pinnacles soon come into view, tantalising us at every turn in the road. There were thousands of pencil thin and miraculously straight pines along the way and then Laricio pines at the Col de Bavella; these have long branching arms, each with several smaller arms at various angles and the tree is flat at the top where the last arm stretches out. They live a long time, up to 800 years, and were used in the past for ship building. Once we traversed the Pass and started down the other side the scenery was a little of an anti climax but I would love to travel the route again many times to see those pinnacles in different seasons and at different times of the day. We were lucky to be travelling late in the afternoon with the fading sunlight casting a glow on the mountains and with wispy clouds hanging around the peaks.
Richard enjoyed his rally drive around the bends going back down the mountain and we eventually made it back to Bonifacio after seeking out another of the renowned beaches, Roninara. This is a small horse-shoe cove which is in many tourist posters of Corsica, but it needs to be seen in the bright sunlight rather than twilight to be really appreciated.
Richard and Anne left on the ferry on Friday morning, travelling across the Strait to Sardinia before flying to Rome today and on to Melbourne tomorrow. They are last of our visitors in the Med this year and it won't be long before we head home too. We are planning to leave for Palma, Mallorca tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning, with Bill Reilly and two other crew coming to help us with the 40 hour crossing. So apart from shopping for food, cooking, and generally preparing for the trip, we have also been relaxing here in Bonifacio. It's almost like a ghost town now with a few restaurants still hoping for more tourists. We certainly didn't expect these places in the Med to close down so completely at this time of the year and we wonder how they can afford such an infrastructure to survive when used for such a small amount of time. Corsica and Sardinia are very beautiful places although it seems that many of their services are mainly limited to the busy summer months of July and August.
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