Better Outside Than In: Corsica

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Corsica - Part 1

Trip to Corsica with bicycles as the mode of transportation on the island. The trip was set up by a company called Bcyclet. They provided the plan (bike routes) and transferred the luggage from one place to another. We traveled to a different town each day with the exception of a 2 day stay in one town. There were 8 people on bicycles and two on motorcycles. The motorcycles stayed at the same towns but took longer routes to get there and traveled more into the interior of the island. Janet, Paul, Doug, Barb, Katie, Danny, Kathy, Steve, Anders, Ken went on the trip. A little info on the island from Wikipedia:

Corsica (/ˈkɔːrsɪkə/; French: Corse [kɔʁs]; Corsica in Corsican and Italian, pronounced [ˈkorsiga] and [ˈkɔrsika] respectively) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is located southeast of the French mainland and west of the Italian Peninsula, with the nearest land mass being the Italian island of Sardinia to the immediate south. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island.

While being part of Metropolitan France, Corsica is also designated as a territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale) by law. As a territorial collectivity, Corsica enjoys a greater degree of autonomy than other French regions; for example, the Corsican Assembly is able to exercise limited executive powers.

It is 183 kilometres (114 mi) long at longest, 83 kilometres (52 mi) wide at widest, has 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) of coastline, more than 200 beaches, and is very mountainous, with Monte Cinto as the highest peak at 2,706 metres (8,878 ft) and around 120 other summits of more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Mountains comprise two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain. Forests make up 20% of the island.

About 3,500 km² (1,400 sq mi) of the total surface area of 8,680 km² (3,350 sq mi) is dedicated to nature reserves (Parc naturel régional de Corse), mainly in the interior.^[16] Corsica contains the GR20, one of Europe's most notable hiking trails.

After a long trip: Montreal->Paris->Corsica we arrived and spent the first day in the town of Bastia recovering and setting up our rental bikes. Stayed at Hotel Port Toga.

The plan for the first day was riding North along the east coast from Bastia to Macinaggio. We extended the trip some by going up and down a pass (col) that took us to the West coast. We then rode North along the west coast and around to Macinaggio. A few nice down hills on this ride. We stayed at Hotel Marina De Oro in Macinaggio.