It's been a while since we 'blogged'. The irony of blog posts is that the more you have to write about, the less time you have to write it!

Our summer season 2009 ended at the beginning of October, time for our own holiday! Our trip did not take us too far from home; some light cycle touring from here and around the island of Corsica. Using saddle bags that attached to our seat posts we whittled our kit down to a mere 3-4 kg each, handles off toothbrushes, the works! The lightweight nature of our kit depended on good weather (no longs, just shorts and jerseys and only flip-flops and shorts for after ride wear) and us not camping but staying in various B&Bs along the way. Thankfully we had great weather (average daytime temperatures 25-30 degrees C) and always found somewhere good and friendly to get our heads down of an evening.

We had no firm plans as to route or accommodation but our neighbour, Yves, who has cycled the island several times, gave us great route advice. One bit of advice we did not take however was to book a sleeper cabin for the 10 hour, overnight ferry crossing. Error! Instead we attempted sleep on aeroplane style seats arranged cinema fashion, surrounded by a few hundred others also fighting insomnia brought about by the regular and loud announcements on the ferry intercom system!

Traveling as foot passengers we were the first off the ferry and pedaled immediately north to complete a loop of the top of the island 'Cap Corse'.

The coastline we touched upon around the north and west of the island was magnificent; a contrast between rocky, plunging cliffs and soft white sandy beaches, kilometres long. One bit of 'luxury' kit squeezed into our packs were our swimming costumes and they got a good bit of use each day.

The interior of the island was arid and had a real Mediterranean meets wild west feel with amazing flowers and trees (unusually including lots of well established Eucalyptus trees) and some hostile looking cacti. A novelty too were the free roaming animals; goats, sheep, cows and pigs - on one particular descent we go a very close look at the flanks of a cow who was very reluctant to move! The pigs were especially entertaining, foraging for the island's famous chestnuts and trying their luck at sharing our cereal bars too!

The riding was undulating at all times, much gentler undulations than here though! Climbs were generally gentle gradients and with very few switchbacked climbs. The opportunity to cross dozens of cols on a ride was big, most cols were fairly low, between 400 - 600 metres. Wherever possible the coastal roads were just that, hugging the coast giving great sea views. The road surfaces were pretty good, though inland there was some deterioration with some long stretches that felt a bit 'Paris Roubaix'!

My favourite col was the highest on the island, the Col de Vergio (1,477m). I know I am about to lay myself bare as an utter col geek and purist, but I loved that we climbed its' full height from sea level - in fact, we started riding fresh from a dip in the sea at Porto, it doesn't get much better than that. I can vouch for the ascent from Porto being tough but truly stunning rising from the sea to high mountains to beautiful pine forests. The descent into Calacuccia, well, that I can't tell you much about as we did it in the dark! Arriving at the summit a little before 7pm it was already dusk. Our minimal packing only included one rear light... Punctures - an inconvenience in any circumstance, especially repairing them by the light of a mobile phone! Now with no daylight left at all and entering a pitch black forested section we had to resort to the most basic of navigational systems - ride on the white line in the middle of the road! The aforementioned roaming livestock was also a concern so we had to make as much noise as possible to hopefully shoo them from our path - somewhere in Corsica is a pig who is still probably deeply traumatised by my nocturnal singing!

When, at 9pm, we eventually arrived at our accommodation we were doubtful as to whether we would get any food as all around seemed to be closing up for the night. Still dirty from our ride and adjusting our eyes to the glare of light again we entered a small restaurant which was thankfully still serving fabulous traditional Corsican food and well earned beer too (Pietra).

We are already looking forward to next years' visit to the south of the island which we did not get time to explore on this trip - and this time we'll pack lights!

If you are interested in seeing photos of our trip visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/kingofthemountainssummer/CorsicaCyleTouring02#

Helyn
www.kingofthemountains.co.uk