Day 10
Today is moving day and good moving days have bad weather to make the goodbye easier. The morning sky was cloudy and after our ritual breakfast with croissants, fresh bread and Corsican honey we packed up and crossed the island, crossing several high mountain passes, to reach Cargèse at the west coast.
And the coast did not disappoint. We live very close to the beach (more on that later), the water is crystal clear in all shades of blue and it is a bit more touristy around here. More people, more restaurants, definitely more beaches. This side of the island has less forest and Chris says the foliage reminds her of California: eucalyptus, cacti, oleander, olive, bougainvillea.
After settling into our new home we still felt there was a hike left in us and we took an easy stroll of 7,5 km to the next watch tower right north of Cargèse.
Genoa ruled over Corsica from 1274 into the later 18th century and as a measure to protect the island from North African pirates they established a network of watchtowers to warn of any suspicious activities. These towers were all in line of sight to each other and could signal with fire or smoke to organise resistance.
The back gate of our AirBnB opens out onto to the beach. In the evening we had a nice cocktail and dinner at a beach restaurant on the sand, a Paillote, with fish for Chris and salad for me, unfortunately the sunset over our destination tower was interrupted by gathering clouds.
Day 11
As I mentioned, the watchtowers are all in sight of each other, so yesterday we could see another to the south and two more in the north from the top of the one we hiked to. Today we hiked to the one on top of Capo Rosso, a nice roundtrip of 10km with 650m up and down.
The views were spectacular but as the weather cleared up it turned out to be a hot and sweaty affair.
Luckily we were well provisioned with water and the usual “Eberstein Stullen”, sandwiches that we prepare for the smallest possible hikes just to reduce the risk of accidental starving on the road.
To keep things healthy we also stocked up on carrot salad from the grocery chain Carrefour, recommended by Luise, who recently hiked in the Pyrenees with a friend.
And finally we made it to the tower again.
The way back felt long as it was steep downhill and then steep uphill, but we made it back before the water ran out, views on tiny coves with turquoise water helped to mentally cool us down as well.
And then everything changed. Thunderstorms on the horizon, coming closer rapidly, and the sun still fighting for dominance. An epic battle with rainbows appearing and disappearing, forming double rainbows, dark clouds and rays of sunshine piercing through.
We couldn’t stop taking pictures, figure yourselves lucky that we only include 10% of them here.
When you look down on a rainbow it appears to have a smaller radius (a physicist could explain why), I remember when I looked down on a waterfall at Yosemite National Park that I once saw a closed “rainbow” circle in the mist of water created by the fall.
The next pictures are taken from a highpoint down into a valley and show a similar effect.
In the end Chris kept the rainbow up and helped the sun keep the darkness at bay. 😀
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