Friday, May 10
I took my time getting up this morning but made it down into the main strip of Zonza for a coffee, an ambrucciata (a pastry featuring brocciu, a Corsican-ish cheese), and a sandwich for later. It was already warm and sunny when I was having my breakfast so it seemed like it'd be nice hiking weather.
The view during breakfast: conditions are looking great for today's hike.
Forgot to mention how clear the sky was in Zonza last night
A nighttime view of Zonza, a small but cute village. I didn't actually do much in the town but I'm not sure there is much in town.
The hotel manager's very well-behaved and adorable dog.
It's only 15 minutes from Zonza to les Aiguilles de Bavella but having driven quite a bit yesterday my eye was keeping track on the projected range of the car on the drive up to the mountain. There were a lot more people visiting this morning than last evening. I still managed to snag a parking spot but the place was parking area was crawling with people. My water bottle full and my sunscreen applied, I set out for the hike.
A helicopter was landing near the parking lot as I was starting the hike; I always forget how loud they are.
This area seems popular among rock climbers too
My route was a loop through the needles that incorporates a leg of the GR20 route. There is a famous trail running most of the length of Corsica called the GR (Grand Randonée) 20, the closest analogue I can think of stateside is the Appalachian trail. This route would take a variant alpine route up to some of the peaks before taking the south-bound GR20 back to the parking lot.
It lost no time in getting straight into attacking the slope. This hike involved a lot of irregularly formed steps and scrambling over rocks with few breaks in the slope to rest on even ground.
Allons, on attaque
Turns out those pointy peaks are riddled with these sponge-like holes.
It seems Corsican hikers like making cairns, sometimes to help mark the trail and sometimes because somebody else did it too 😆
I guess these needles are loaded with eyes
Made it to the pass, the first flat-ish ground since the start of the slope.
With all the climbing, I quickly peeled off my layer and was still working up a decent sweat. Rather than mount a ridge and follow it up, this trail involved going up and down since the first few passes were fairly narrow (and steep); I guess that's the nature of these needle-like mountains. But per the map, the trail would eventually straighten out to follow what I assumed was a ridge wide enough to do so.
Sometimes you gotta go down to go up, hence the winding trail down into the valley. At least I got the inside scoop on these peaks (but I think erosion got the inside scoop first)
From the valley, it's mostly a straight shot to the sea, but I suppose that applies to almost every point on an island 😅
Turning the corner revealed that that rock had quite the overhang
Per Google Lens: Erica Arborea. Per me, that bush that looks like juniper & thyme
I liked how well this trail was marked, knowing where you're headed makes the scramble more manageable
At around the 1/2 point to the summit, I came across two women finishing up a snack atop a rock. It was a good spot with an excellent view down the valley to the sea. In retrospect, I wish I'd taken a bit more time to admire this particular view but I pressed on thinking it'd be better at the top (it was a different view ).
Halfway to the halfway! I think I spotted another hole in one of the peaks off the in distant range
A bit past that the trail came to a real steep section of fairly sheer rock; good thing somebody had attached a chain for traversing this section. As soon as I grabbed the chain and turned around to descend, one of the straps on my drawstring backpack tore! Fortunately, the other strap held for the descent but the damage wasn't something I'd be able to repair; I could mitigate things by slinging the remaining strap across me but ultimately I did the rest of the hike alternating arms holding the pack.
The couple descending before me had different strategies for the chain. The woman used it like a rope/ladder and descended backwards while the guy thought of it "more like guidelines" and scooted down the rock face.
Mince, mon sac à dos s'est déchiré!
After getting around the 2nd peak of the trail (I'd really only gotten about half-way up the 2nd peak before the trail continued off past it) the view started to open to both the east and west as I finally found the ridge. That being said, it was still a trek with a good incline but the rock scrambling part of the ascent was done. And soon enough, I'd made it to the peak of the trail (though at the time I didn't realize this was as high as I'd go). It stopped just short of the peaks I'd seen scraping the clouds before but had a great view south and east to more spiny ridges and the sea. This is another point I wished I'd taken a bit longer to rest and enjoy the view; I was convinced that pressing on would take me higher and yield an even better view.
On the road of life, be sure to stop and smell the beetles. Fortunately, this didn't appear to be one of the dung variety.
In addition to smelling the beetles, be sure to admire the view more too.
A few wispy clouds started to form that were thinking of scraping the peaks
Just past the treeline (and other mountains-line), the view to the east started to open up
I also started to be able to see to the west aussi
This spot struck me as the point the stone switched from pinkish granite to white
Une autre petite grotte juste à côté du sommet
A close up on the rocks to remember just how covered in various lichen they were
Turns out this is the highpoint of the trail; I thought I'd be snaking my way up to the tippy-top but I guess it's just too sheer for a trail to mount it.
Once I passed the peak's sign (with a bunch of long-haul backpackers enjoying their lunch in front of it), the trail began to slink its way down into the next valley. Again, I thought this was a case of going down to come up, but it was just down 😅
Sadly, the trail began to descend into another (and much wider) valley. I'd encountered two other hikers who'd turned around and planned to take the alpine variant back; I was going to press on to complete the loop via the GR20. After switchbacking into the tree line, I eventually joined up with the GR20 in the woods. The majority of the walk back was a pleasant stroll through the woods but the trees were tall and dense enough that you really couldn't see the valley nor the needlish mountains I'd just come from.
Helicopters were frequently fling into the valley with some sort of cargo in tow. I'm guessing the cargo wasn't a spinal injury person because the object kept spinning rapidly in the wind; probably not the most pleasant sensation for someone strapped immobilized to a plank.
Looks like formation of cairns isn't limited to stone piles but also filling in trees
As the descent did involve walking further along the needles, I did get some interesting angles of them but once in the tree line the visibility was greatly reduced.
The Lorax speaks for the trees; and these ones posed a real tongue twister for him
The end of the variant and joining up with the southbound GR20
A completely different hike on this side of les Aiguilles, over here it's a quiet walk in the woods
Another train of caterpillars passing through
The silence of the woods was punctuated with the thunder of helicopters, the chirping of birds, and the babbling of brooks. Oh, and my heavy foot steps
I want to say this is spurge laurel but I wasn't sure enough to rip it out of the ground. My mom has been combatting an endless tide of invasive spurge laurel back on Whidbey and it took restraint not to go scorched earth on these.
Just a few stones tucked into this tree.
After a couple miles, the GR20 route came to a clearing as it exited the valley and yielded a vista facing southwest. Turns out this was more-or-less the same view I'd had from the ridge above but I was pleased to finally see a vista again. The route wound itself along the outer perimeter of the base of the Aiguilles de Bavella with just one or two views of the peaks along the way. Near the very end of the trail, as it climbed back towards where the parking lot was, we started to get interesting rock formations: granite boulders with weird spongy holes and jagged columns.
I was moving my bag around (alternating which arm was holding, slinging it across myself, etc) and decided to finally remove some of the weight/volume by eating the sandwich once I made it to a clearing.
Not too shabby
I was seeing a bunch of these _quickly does a Google Lens search_ asphodel's around, they seemed a popular place for the bees.
Things were getting warm on the south face of the trail but this was also where the rock formations started getting interesting again.
Some sort of daffodil growing out of a crevice in the granite?
I wonder what caused all the tafonis in this park
Overall, I recommend the alpine variant of the loop to anyone who's comfortable with steep climbs and some rock scrambling. In retrospect I should have copied like those other hikers and done the alpine variant as a there-and-back; it had all the interesting views and formations. While less intense than the variant, the GR20 was also much longer so my gut feeling is that doing the variant twice would be the same amount of time or slightly less.
Mission complete!
They look different from the parking lot now that I know what lies beyond and around
My hike complete, I made my way over to the restaurant nestled at the foot of the area to enjoy a refreshing beer. Maybe I was dehydrated because the soup also called out to me and was exactly what I needed. I also would have had a cafe to ensure I would be alert for the coming drive, but they'd shut off the water to repair a water leak in the restaurant so I had to forgo the cafe and the pitstop.
I guess these are the shelters available to people hiking the GR20 route; they seem fairly barebones but I bet the bed inside is heavenly after a day's trek.
Je prends un pression: un petite ambré svp
Many places had a "Corsican soup" on their menus; if there was any distinguishing Corsican feature to the soup, I must have missed it in my hunger. Still, a solid liquid soup.
Adieu, les Aiguilles de Bavella! It was great getting to know you and a big thanks to my friend who recommended this park to me!
Since I'd been eyeing my car's battery on the drive up, I finally opened up the EMotem app and found a high-speed charging station to ensure I'd have enough juice for the next destination. My hotel for the night has a medium-speed charging station but I wanted to be sure I had enough range to make it there. I noticed a high-speed station just a 10 minute drive south of Zonza, which turns out is for the townhall of a small village (San Gavinu di Cabrini). While the car charged, I took the time to find a nearby place that could offer a bathroom and a coffee.
The snack/café had some ...interesting décor.
The highspeed charger did almost 1% of my battery per minute; I wonder if it slows down as you get close to full. ~25% charge was near €15, I'm not quite sure how that compares to gas but the refilling process requires a little more patience and/or planning.
The low tire pressure signal had been on for a while (since I got the car at the airport 😅); fortunately, gas stations in France seem to offer free air compressors with built in pressure gauges. Soon enough I had all four tires up to pressure and reset the alarm.
I've seen a few of these laundry kiosks in France as well: some are in parking lots of supermarkets while some are nestled next to car washes are gas stations.
With both the car and driver refueled, I made my way to the evening's hotel in the mountain town of Bastelica. This town is located closer to the center of the island (northwest of where I was today), but the quickest route to it was to drive to the outer limits of Ajaccio and then take the main artery through Corsica to Bastelica. I made it just as the sun was starting to set.
After getting off the main artery and driving up the winding road, I was just thinking about how my coworker told me Corsica has black pigs crossing the road. Ask and the universe delivers... Though I think these were domestic pigs that had simply escaped their enclosure.
Hey, quit hogging the whole road! You've got a sooie-t ride but stick closer to the (pork) shoulder, you have good air cochon suspension so you should be able to hamdle the bumps.
Dinner was at the hotel, where the manager was also running the kitchen. It was late for the service but he was really nice and offered me a few quick dishes featuring local cuisine and finished off with a shot of myrtle liquer.
A Corsican beer featuring flour from chestnuts
Dinner featured des beignets in what I guess is the Corsican style: little pancakes featuring goat cheese or zuchinni/courgette
This crème anglais with strawberries really hit the spot; it was like eggnog with strawberry slices 😋
Finishing off with a myrte; I'm not entirely sure how to describe the flavor but I'll have to see about getting some myrtle seasoning as a souvenir.
My room at the hotel was really comfy and I liked the layout: the bed & bathtub had huge windows facing the yard and the mountain. At night, with all the lights turned off, I could even see the stars from my bed. I took advantage of the full tub in my room and enjoyed a warm soak before hitting the hay.
Wow, what a great view from a comfortable spot; I can't think of any way this could get better
It just got better.
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