16-07-2015     Sisco → Sisco   84 km       for route click here

Well then, after two strenuous days, today we will finally have a 'day of rest': around 75 km with hardly any climbing. So we've agreed upon 7:30 for breakfast. At this time the restaurant is still quite deserted, but an older man, working in the garden, tells us his son will arrive in short time. It's not really a short time, and when the guy arrives we learn that breakfast is at the gîte itself! Our host has been waiting for us; luckily we're not the only guests. Breakfast is good: we can fill our tray with yoghurt, bread, interesting jams and canistrelli (= Corsican biscuits, usually very dry; certainly not our piece of cake ;-)   The host is a walking syndicat d'initiatives. He explains about the water along the road: twice per day they open the 'locks' for irrigation purposes. And he approves of the route through Cap de Corse we have in mind (though he warns us of the small, curvy road we will take from west to east; beware of the sparse cars!).

(Late) breakfast in Sisco

Breakfast is interrupted by a phone call from Nootdorp: after some insistence my insurance company agreed to have Oxana insured for the rest of her holiday. Arranging a night for tomorrow doesn't go easily too; the telephone number has changed and it is difficult for me to record the new number correctly at once; our host helps me out. The very helpful man also will wash and dry a bag of laundry. All in all, it's past 10 when we finally get going. The D80 along the coast is much nicer than in the bustle and the heat of yesterday evening. Apart from enjoying the views terre-mer and the wind from behind we are also on the lookout for a supermarket (we have decided to cook our own meal tonight; no need for another such copious dinner) and for a nice place to swim on the way back. Alas, the first supermarket we spot is in Macinaggio, which means an extra 8 km in the afternoon.

	Most of the day:   . . . .		Terre-mer
	Interesting 'outgrown' cactuses

We buy some stuff in this supermarket, and add 'interesting' pastry from the bakery (a.o a gâteau framboise-coco), with which we treat ourselves on the small village square. We follow the D80 as it turns left for the northernmost traversal from east to west. The environment is green, and we look up to several villages and wind mills, right on top of the hill, as I so often saw these mills in Spain. We are rewarded with vistas to the northern end of Corsica, but don't add extra 10 km (including a climb) to actually reach the sea. Between the Col Saint-Nicolas (200 m) and the Col de Serra (365 m) the landscape is rough and reminds me of Scotland (though the only time I cycled there is more than thirty years ago, so how accurate may that be?)   It also gives us the impression that we are much higher than 350 m. We get nice views over the Golfe de Centuri, adorned with several small rocky islands.

	Getting up from the coast		into the hills
			The north coast
	A bit like Scotland
	The sea (and an island) on the other side		Highest point of today
	Not much of a descent		But the views are nice

The climbs from the west, our host in Sisco told us, are a bit steeper than from the east, and indeed the first two km from Pruno are rude. We're definitely glad we've left the traffic behind/below, and greatly enjoy this tiny, curvy road. Through the trees (the shade is very welcome) we get some beautiful views of the Golfe d'Aliso. The highest point (around 380 m, I read off from Google maps; no 'official' col) comes much before we are halfway, and the descent, along grassy hills is fun. Halfway (before we get back to the busy coastal road again) we stop and make a baguette tomate-philapelphia. In Marine de Meria we get back onto the D80, and cover the same 4 km as in the morning to get back to Macinaggio.

	And back (up) again to the east		Nice views back to the west
	Nice quiet, curvy,		GREEN road
	Sandwich break while it's quiet		Back to where we were in the morning

The supermarket is our main goal, but first we will have a swim. North of the Macinaggio harbor there is a beach, and it looks uncomfortably warm. We find some shade on a windy terrace where we have some refreshments, and from where I walk (in my cycling trunks) into the sea; Enya doesn't feel like changing clothes and sticks to her book. With my skin still prickly from the salt we get our bikes, buy ingredients for a (couscous) meal and need quite a push against the wind to get back to Marine de Sisco, where we notice there IS a supermarket; on the way to the gîte even!

Back in our 'apartment' we find our clean laundry on our beds, have long showers, and don't put too much energy into our dinner. We eat outside (of course) at one of the picnic tables, with entertaining music from the seventies in the background, supplied by our four Italian neighbors − two couples on motorcycles. Late in the evening we pass an hour on the 'breakfast' porch 'upstairs' to write (me) and contact the outer world (Enya), and have a chat with the boss, who is expecting a phone call from new guests that he will pick up from Marine de Sisco (a call arrives as late as 11 p.m. he is a boss with a heart at the right place.).

	Going for a swim in cycling trunks		And back south, to Sisco
	Rather late arrival		(Last) Own meal