“RELAX”
The last night I made the decision to skip my plan of shipping over to Sardinia, which is the Italian neighbor island of Corsica and has also a nice part of TET to offer. The near future of the pandemic development especially in Italy was very uncertain back at the time of my journey. The last thing what I needed was to get trapped on one of the Mediterranean islands. So I booked a ferry ticket from Corsica back to the mainland of Italy for the day after the next day. That meant for the incoming riding day on Corsica Island, that I had more than enough time for getting back to the northern part of Corsica. So I improvised a quick plan for doing some “unusual” sightseeing along my way.
The last night was quiet. I just had to get up one time caused by strong west wind for putting the motorcycle in front of the tent, to get some additional wind protection.
The incoming day was a leisurely one, so …
I went up about 45 minutes after dawn. While brushing my teeth …
I enjoyed the nice view over the big bay “La Testa” located in Southern Corsica. I saddled my black beauty and …
had a short exploration on this abandoned property. I was very surprised finding this candles close to my shelter and was wondering what happened here in the past, that people need to commemorate with some candles near a rotten side building. I went to the …
upper floor of the main building which went right through the middle of the building from north to south. On the …
eastern side was one big room located, which was …
mirrored at the western side of the building. Same-Same. I was afraid of breaking through the rotten floor into the lower level, so walked very close along the main walls. After having seen everything up there I went down to the ground floor of the building, which was filled with old stuff, rubbish and animal excrements. Nothing what made it worth taking a picture. So I just made this shot …
out of the window of a dark ground level room. The stair down to the eerie basement was blocked/spilled with debris. After this little exploration of this interesting old building I swung my ass onto Чернотas back, kindled the LC4 and off we went. Through …
a feral cork plantation …
we went back to the …
main road, which we followed eastwards.
After a last …
glance back over the rough landscape to the “La Testa-Bay” the ride was continued to …
the famous Corsican city “Bonifacio“. The city itself is well known …
for its …
natural …
harbor with a single narrow entrance, what made it to an …
heavily fortified strategic point in the past centuries. The old main part of Bonifacio is located atop the impressive …
chalk cliff coast at the southern edge of Corsica Island, …
where you can find at the Cape Napoleon some old foundations of coastal defense batteries.
Hmm? Maybe Napoleon? …
I went back down to the harbour bay and found …
in a small alley …
some delicous sweet stuff for breakfast. The espresso was so delicous that I drank three of them. With a serious amount of coffein in my veins Чернотa and I left the city and we went to the …
rural parts, in the islands east, where …
the incoming autumn delivered interesting …
cloud formations in the sky.
The ride was a easy one along …
the eastern …
coastline of Corsica. Due to the pandemic the beaches were nearly empty. Just …
a few brave souls have found their way out of their homes for enjoying the beach life.
The road which we followed now led us into …
the sheep infested back country …
where this …
forlorn “trailer-house” was found aside a gravel track. A closer look showed that one wheel was missing. Following this track along a big slope brought …
Чернотa and me into an old holiday complex. Close by …
at the beach …
we stopped for this decent monument, devoted to …
Pasquale Paoli, a real Corsican Patriot.
In the early afternoon our destination the city Bastia was reached, where two big ships …
just left the harbor. I made a short stop for fueling up my black beauty and browsed the web for finding …
an adequate room for the incoming night. Normaly I prefer wild camping, but the ferry to Italy was leaving very early the next day, so I made an exception. Finally, after many Covid-closed guesthouses, I found a simple single room via booking dot com, which was located near the harbor in Bastia, within the flat of a pensioner. The only negative point of that room, was that the flat was located at the fifth floor in a building without an elevator. So I had to drag my two saddlebags all the way up, what was kind of an exhausting task.
Kudos to my brave pony Чернотa, which is dragging those bags all day long! 💪
Towards the check in procedure …
I unpacked my stuff and put the stinky gear all over the place to air. After eight days in the saddle it was time for the first warm shower before I went by foot into the old town of Bastia for doing some sightseeing.
Just ten minutes after I started my tourist tour …
heavy rain started again. First I tried to …
find some cover under a huge tree, but when …
heavy rain turned into a literal cloudburst, it was time …
for having a civilized hand-taped beer in a student hut. While drinking the beer I checked the web again regarding constantly changing pandemic travel regulations. I found out that Italy, which was the country we went next, had just proclaimed some new travelrestirctions. From the next day on, entering the country was only possible for work or transit. Transit had to be done within 48 hours after the official arrival via boat/plane/train. Hmm … .🤔
That meant for me, that it was the absolute right decision to cancel Sardinia and hitting for the mainland. *Blessing in disguise* 😅
Within two days of riding it would be easily possible for Чернотa and me to ride from Italys west coast harbor near the city Livorno back to Austria. For celebrating this I ordered a second beer, while waiting for a better weather. 30ty minutes later …
rain stopped. With wet shoes I strolled along huge puddles always following the ….
harbor promenade southwards. There is this tower/monument of the French-WWII Submarine “Casabianca” located. This submarine was one of the few French boats which was able to flee form the “Scuttling of the fleed in Toulon” which happened 1942, when the French Miltitary sunk its own ships preventing them getting booty of the Nazis or the Allies.
My walk …
continued and led us to one of the most common sights of the city …
the curch “Clocher Eglise St Jean”. The main door was open so I acessed the …
building which offered a spectacular view to the …
altar site. Also …
in the back, above the entrance the organ-instrument looked very impressive and mighty.
After enjoying this sacral builing for a few minutes …
my stroll through …
the city resumed. The lack of good weather was instantly …
compensated with some tropical mango and vanilla ice cream before having one of my …
fattest double cheese pizzas ever. When I was done with that “heart attack on a plate” I …
walked back to my room and sorted my gear. The incoming morning I had to get up very early around 0445 for getting the ferry back to the European Mainland/Italy. So I just had another read in my e-book before I went to sleep.
Total distance on this day of my journey: 200 km or 125 mi.
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