Skip to main content

Going south


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. €4 for 25cl bottle was the same as at Calvi's posh waterfront.





The camping area was a hundred metres or so behind the market garden part of the farm and stretched over several acres of burnt ground with a few trees providing shade. The campers that are here are well separated from each other and we got established under our own tree.


There are rudimentary showers and basins but most of our ablutions and washing-up were done at the Landy with the water thrown anywhere where it looked as if it might do good.

It was a good site for playing a little music slightly loader than normal. We have been listening to Mariza, specifically her album Fado Em Mim.  Try listening to "Chuva" and see if you agree. She's Portuguese not French but her music seems appropriate for sultry nights under the stars.


It is sultry too, so there's nothing for it other than to pull a cork and sit back.







Bonifacio is at the southern tip of Corsica and we headed there, camping just inland at a highly organised, "holiday" campsite, U Farnienta, which has a very impressive waterpark. We are now in high season prices and so had to fully use the facilities to justify it.


The town is built on and around amazing limestone cliffs which are brilliant white and fantastically eroded to form a perfect natural, fjord-like  harbour.



It actually rained for a few minutes as we caught the edge of a spectacular thunderstorm. It was all a bit too much for one guy, local I presume, who stood outside and got soaked, in front of our café. He had his arms outstretched as if he was thanking the Good Lord for the deluge. 



The Moby car ferry goes across to Sardinia which is only a few miles away. It appears that you spend a lot longer waiting on the quay to board and then get underway than you do for the actual crossing.




I couldn't resist Gooooogling the details on this yacht as we sat on the quay with a Bonifacio ice cream. It's the 64th largest yacht in the world and is owned by an Israeli/Kazakh billionaire Alexander Mashkevitch. I wonder if he's here sitting somewhere eating an ice cream too?
















Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On y va

Hooray. We are off. The ferry was booked a few weeks ago and the pressure was then on to get all sorts of jobs finished on the house and Landy. Major cosmetic work was to cover the grey front doors with paint that matches the rest of the vehicle. On the engine a coolant leak had developed behind the water pump and so the P gasket and adjacent core plug were renewed. Also a cheapy head unit from those Chinese people replaced the old Sony fm radio. Now we have opened up the wonders of Car Play and all that comes with it. Finally the 9th gen iPad with WiFi became a 9th gen iPad with WiFi and ‘cellular’. This means we can use OsmAnd Maps which need no data and get their gps position off the ‘cellular’ chip in the iPad. More on this useful map in subsequent posts. We headed towards Portsmouth for a mid morning ferry via our old neighbours in S-I-V. There we had a great few hours updating each about our families and then proceeded to save the NHS, the country and the world too. I mean why no...
Post a Comment
Read more

Burgundy

We thought that after the descent from Col du Galibier, we would be done with cols. They are brilliant to drive but hard work. The narrower the road the harder it is, especially at hairpins. These are almost always steep and so the vehicle speed and engine revs need to be correct before the turn. If it’s a right hand bend then the driving line is obviously on the right part of the corner which is always the steepest. It’s all about teamwork, especially as those bikers love the roads and like to be close to the middle. A Land Rover 110 needs a wide turning circle and so we have to look out sideways and either up above or down below to see what’s coming. After Galibier the road finally descends to the ski area of Valloire and on to Col du Telègraphe, which from the south isn’t much but those ascending from the north will feel the height gain. Then down to the Maurienne valley and we think we are done with hills. However there’s one last surprise as we turn right off the motorway route to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chartreuse

The ‘hills’ to the east, above the two lakes, separate this area from the huge Lac du Bourget, with Aix-les-Bains on the east side and Chambery to the south. The names seem all to be associated with cats and we ascended Col du Chat, rather than use the Tunnel du Chat and then down to the lake and to a supermarket. Today is Ascension day and the people of the area are either riding bikes, sitting in cars not moving very quickly or at the Intermarché. They are here, as are we, because it’s the only place open! We need to stock up and so we fill the trolley and stand in the queue. Most of the checkout personnel must also be ‘ pont-ing ’ to le weekend as there are few are here. We then retrace our steps and again drive up Chatland and this time up the D42 to Mont du Chat. The road is a cycling magnet, as it forms long switchbacks between hairpins and we ascend to 1,496m and then beautifully, we arrive at a parking spot just as it’s being  vacated and slide in. There are a lot of cars ...
1 comment
Read more