20-07-2015     Ghisoni → Serra-di-Scopamène   72 km
      for route click here

When we arrive for breakfast at the appointed time we find an empty hall. In a few minutes the boss arrives with fresh baguettes. They're still warm! He informs us about the difficulties of the first of two passes we will cross today, and his description comes out rather accurately: no difficulties whatsoever. Beautiful morning again! First 'project': Bocca di Verde, ca. 600 m up in 17 km, with a few almost flat kms during the first half. Agreeable temperature, green environment, mountains all around, the nice smell of pine trees, hardly any traffic: TOP!

Nices places to visit

On a very nice morning

Again!

After 10 km a short break with fruit toffees (Enya administers a large bag). The location of the pass stays unclear till the very end; how different from the road to the Col de Sorba. The last part is a little harder, though without any km steeper than 7%, I would guess. We greet many oncoming cyclists, they seem Dutch to me. Indeed they are followed by a Cycletours van.

	Lovely climb		Lovely daughter (with a lovely book?)
	Visitors on the top		. . . .

Curious visitors

Hungry visitors

Some of whom want more!

From the pass, not surprisingly, there's not a great view; well, of course the south side might have been completely different from the north side. Here the difference is mostly that the climb seems even easier from that other side. At the pass we meet a dog and a big lonely pig, who with some difficulty munches away half a baguette (from Valle d'Alesani still). It's a long descent which is not too strenuous for our brakes.

	Leisurely		descent

In Cozzano no pâtisserie, only a poor equipped épicerie. We buy some chocolate (Toblerone + Bounty) instead, hoping for better supplies 4 km further in Zicavo; Enya is 'dying' for some 'real' pastry. Well, we don't find it in Zicavo either. We do find a shop with better cereales than in Cozzano, and with that we have a healthy break on a staircase next to the shop (in the shade). Again I beat Enya with toepen ;-)   With difficulty we have our water bottles refilled from the almost dead village spring.

.

"Village tree" in Cozzano

Next project: 450 m up again (in 13 km) to the Bocca di Vaccia. The first 1.5 km are the hardest (steepest and warmest). We notice a few cars near a pont, and from this pont notice a cascade not far away. We take a one hour break for what may well be the best swim of our trip. Below the waterfall there's quite a deep, fresh pool.

Lovely break

Cool!!

We take several dips, and dry ourselves like cormorants on a big stone in the sun. The continuation of the climb appears surprisingly easy. Well, lunch took place a while ago, before the swim break, so we have to insert a short (mozzarella-tomato) sandwich break. The scenery has become much more open, I notice the interesting road to the west that already attracted my attention on the map. Also, we can view this col from quite a distance, and observe that the grade looks quite smooth; from the swimming pool there has been no km of more than 5%, and possibly not even km steeper than 3%. As a consequence we reach the summit earlier than I had reckoned we would.

	We get going again		Through an open landscape
	(Very) interesting road to the right		Coiffure after bathing
	Very open		Landscape
	Having		fun!

No need to take a rest at the top, also because time marches on. Under a blue sky, adorned with some beautiful white clouds, we descend easily to Aullène, getting from our bikes every now and then to photograph each other, and once to feed a herd of pigs of many different sizes and colours. When I open my pannier to find some canistrelli (that has been there at least five days) they are interested and approach me immediately.

	Start of the descent		View back to the pass
	No brakes needed		. . . .
	Blond beauty		. . . .
	. . . .   in Corsican beauty		Last view back/up   (to Bocca di Vaccia)
	PIG		INTERMEZZO

In Aullène apart from two bars/pizzerias we don't see any commerces, but people tell us we will find a small shop in Serra di Scopamène. We have to climb up again (100 m?) to reach our destination of today, and indeed find a small épicerie where we fill up our supplies (a.o. a 500cc can of Heineken). We also notice a snackbar "Patati-Patata", but suppress our urge to go in for Patata (=chips?) − we already purchased a dose of crisps. Dinner is tasteful and animated with two Parisians and a Belgian family of five, both walking the Mare et Monti, a coast-to-coast hike through southern Corsica. Most of the evening we sit on the cool balcony (cool to our impressions; it's still 25 °C!), with a great view south, writing and benefiting from the gîte's wifi.

Our gîte with balcony