Corse, France
13/07/2023
I don’t think I have ever felt closer to heaven than today.
But let’s take a step back.
Chapter 1: Piglets and some Greenery
After breakfast, this time featuring fresh bread and croissants – one of the perks of civilisation, we set out to cross the island to get to the east coast. This 50km air line distance corresponds to significantly more if you account for the mountain passes in between (which you will also see on the map at the end). And so we started our exploration.
We passed numerous smaller townships and got more and more into the countryside, with mountain peaks appearing in the distance. The forest got thicker and thicker and a little while later the road took us up to a platform from which small pathways led away into two directions.
On one side, hikers embarked on their journey and on the other, an overgrown path wound its way up the mountain. We chose the latter, of course. Needless to say, the hikers looked at us confusedly.
Not long after driving up the track, we spotted a group of wild boars right in front of us, showing us that taking the car rather than walking had been the right decision. The boars were everywhere so we progressed slowly up the hill. However, with the path running off and becoming more and more overgrown, we had to turn around eventually.
We drove through a valley and found the little restaurant Auberge U Pontu in Bastelica, where we decided to have lunch. Afterwards, we continued eastbound through the mountains.
Chapter 2: The Treeline
The mountainscape, breathtaking as always, became more and more covered with big trees. This made for another completely unique feel, contrasting the bush we had experienced earlier. The road wound from mountain to mountain, opening up valley after valley, new scenery after new scenery.
Chapter 3: The Hill
One of the many turns of that winding road opened up a heavenly scenery: a green, idyllic mountain outcrop, backlit by the warm sun shining at us.
We progressed downhill, coming ever closer but following the paved road right beneath that amazing clearing we had spotted.
We reached a crossing with a steep dirt track on our left, which my father spontaneously turned into. This took us on a steep but heavenly ascent up to the mysterious platform spotted earlier, with greens greener than I had ever seen before and sunlight shining at us from a low angle. I ended up taking hundreds of pictures of the amazing scenery and couldn’t stop being amazed.
Chapter 4: The Camp
Once on the plateau, my excitement didn’t stop. We found a spot to camp quite easily and I set out to explore the nearby nature in the slowly setting summer sun.
Chapter 5: Airtime in Heaven
I also flew around with my drone and took some shots of the bare hill. With many city trips behind me in the past, I find the raw beauty of nature to eclipse everything else.
And when you are truly free to explore and not think about anything else, you discover spots few others do and experience a feeling rarely present in the day-to-day busyness.
Chapter 6: Goodnight
A long foto session and a dinner later, the orange turned into purple and it slowly got chilly.
I find that nature resets the body’s internal clock, as I would always get tired around 10pm to then wake up before my alarm quite early in the morning. That night this got interrupted once by some wolves howling in the distance, which still was less disturbing than the sound of people and motorbikes the day before.
Time for some geography: we started the day’s journey on the west coast near the ocean, making our way through the mountains and eventually ending up the the plateau which in the picture below is where the black coordinates are displayed.
Bonne nuit et à bientôt !