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Golfe de Porto


We are now at the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Gulf of Porto, comprising the Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata and the Scandola Reserve. The mountains really do meet the sea here as this photo taken from the campsite swimming pool shows. These lumps are just over 1000m, rising straight from the sea but are just the apéritif when it comes to Corsican highlands.


The campsite Sole e Vista is on a steep hillside, entirely terraced, with great shady plots for the variety of visitors and an amazing pool near the top of the site.



We explored the coastline on the south side of the gulf between Porto and Piana. This was to view Les Calanques de Piana, a fantastic area of rock formations and sculptured, cliffs, rising 300m above the sea.  They are pink, ochre and ginger, colours that are emphasised in the strong sunlight. There is a convenient road snaking through them, with just room to pass and with a number of places to stop and look.






Access to these views was by walking a moderate track with plenty of steps for about thirty minutes, from a small parking area on the coast road. It's a reasonable workout, given the temperature.





Shamefully, as is the case throughout France, wherever you walk or stop, there's always evidence of toilet activities, even in a UNESCO site.


At Piana we took a very twisty and steep road down the hillside to the tiny bay below.


There is parking for several cars, access is tarmac all the way down but for a Land Rover Defender 110 with little turning ability, some of the hairpins needed a couple of goes! It's really handy to have a spotter in the jump seat who can warn of on-coming traffic whilst performing these manoeuvres.

After a ten minute walk from Le Parking (free of course, this isn't the UK), you arrive at this beach, easily the best so far. The water is crystal clear and quite deep so it is very clean. The sand is deep, soft and very hot and only a few people get this far from the main drag.












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