Peelies travels

Things quietened down overnight and the next morning it was almost as if nothing had happened. The campsite people were moving washed-out pebbles from the wrong places and the tree surgeons still had their chainsaws out as we drove to Bastia. The ferry line-up was more orderly than it had been at Nice and we were almost at the front of the queue even though we arrived just an hour before sailing time. For the first time on the island, we met and talked to another British couple who happened to be in our queue. The vehicles are so tightly packed on the lower car deck that it proves quite hard to walk to the nearest door and stairs. It's a pure coincidence that it's the same ferry for this crossing to Toulon that we took to get to Bastia from Nice. Leaving  La Corse  is really tough because it has been a great trip and we've been here for well over three weeks. Although it's easily said, we will be back. This scenery and hospitality is easily accessible and in Eu...

The final journey closed the loop of the island tour at Bastia. This is our arrival and departure port, apparently the busiest in France after Calais. We drove through the town from south to north, avoiding the tunnel with it's 2.6m clearance even though we are 2.3m and we continued a few km up the coast to a campsite, Camping A Casaiola . This is run by Veronica from Napier on New Zealand's north island. Here she almost micro-manages the positioning of tents and vehicles and crams us in. There's a beautiful pool and the beach just down the road is quite stoney which we found a bit painful for a swim but we had one all the same. We had a nice evening in the sun but were wary of the forecast thunder overnight and into the morning. It wouldn't matter though, as we planned a day walking around Bastia old town and harbour. The lightening and thunder did start overnight and the show was quite spectacular, as they usually are in hot summers. There wasn't too mu...

Two interesting "natural things" were observed whilst staying at M. Le Patron's.  One was at the river and the other at the campsite. When in water we both wear swimming goggles as this means we can have a good look at what's underneath. In the river there were many small fish. Many, means a lot and they were gathered together in specific places which we realised were under the drops. After watching the water for a few minutes from above, this is what you see. They are trying to jump the little waterfalls! It was like being in Lilliput because they are so small and I doubt that any would be able to get up but presume that they must do eventually. The other phenomena is to do with blue things. We have a blue lidded butter box and Dawn has a big blue mug. We have been hassled by large flies with yellow/black wings that have the aerodynamics of a jumbo jet. They crash land onto anything that is blue. The natural thing that we observed is that the b...

After the coast of the south-east it was good to drive back into the mountains to see the scenery of central Corsica. First stop was Zonza and a little river swimming just below the nice campsite, Camping la Rivière and then a round walk at up from the col at Bavella (parked next a statue, Notre-Dame des Neiges , to  into the mountains on a well marked path to a landmark feature in the granite. We have learnt to get the solar panel in full sun and use the sun shade if we need it. The fridge works hard in these temperatures but the Decathlon sunshade is a great addition to the kit we carry. It is only supplied with two poles as it is a "tarp" but we bought two additional telescopic poles, maximum length of these is 2.3m. They are the ones at the Landy end, high enough to clear the back door. The two sectional steel poles with the shade are used at the other end and as they don't have the shock cord or springs to hold them together, they can be set to the most suitabl...

We moved along the coast towards Porto-Vecchio. It feels very "south of France" here with villas in the rocky hills overlooking beaches that are hard to access. The landscape is low scrub, pink granite rocks and it is dry, dry dry. It could be southern California too perhaps. All the glimpses of the sea are still of beautiful turquoise. The holiday season is getting into top gear now, with cars parked at all access points. One of "the best beaches in Corsica" is Palombeggia and we thought a visit would be in order. At the northern end, several parking areas appeared to allow overnight campers and we pulled onto one, in a huge area, informally cleared of scrub to leave plenty of trees for shade. Cars were parked at one side but everywhere else was informally arranged with camper-vans and motorhomes dotted about. Camper-vans feature the ubiquitous VW T6 or T5 with various earlier versions featuring too. There are bigger motorhomes, some old and many new which ...

We headed inland just a little, to an interesting sounding France Passion campsite, at a farm with the simple yet effective name of Camping la Riviere  . The France Passion deal here is that the first night is free. Well we have to get our handbook money back and we won't if we don't use it, so here we are. It is Sunday afternoon and this is a bit different. Somehow the farm has created a swimming hole in the river that's so big, they have also been able to construct water slides that leave a goodly drop at the exit between slide and water. The place was heaving with what appeared to be locals. The restaurant had done a roaring trade judging by the clear-up going on and we joined in by buying our first Corsica brewed beer. This one comes in at 5% not the 6.5% of the other and was very flowery to taste but also a nice change. Not the sort of drink that we would down a pint or two of though and anyway the prices were a little steep, as they are across most of the island...