29-07-2015     Bastelica → Ajaccio-Airport   47 km
      for route click here

An easy last stage, short, and 700 m downhill. Simple breakfast in a monumental breakfast/dining hall where red is the predominant colour. I wonder whether more than three of the thirty tables will be occupied this morning. While Enya is finishing the last things in the room, I settle the bill and have a chat with the owner, having breakfast in the kitchen, watching television. Again a friendly older person complaining about the present time. Well, if you still have to work for your living at the age of 83 there sure is something to complain about. In his opinion Europe is behind all the dreariness (read: taxes).

Colourful dining room

Again a start in orange

Like yesterday we leave in orange, and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. We come across the same pig family as yesterday, but they're not interested in the leftovers from our breakfast. On the way down through the valley we now choose the right shore of the Prunelli, leading through the Gorges de Prunelli. Even this last étape has several WOWW! moments in store, the first of which happens when we get a view over the storage lake, with the village Tolla nicely dressed against the mountain side, and at the end the dam. By that time we have already got rid of our tracksuits quite a while.

	First glimpse of the lake		Enya takes her camera out:
	Woww!		Woww!
	Which proves:		she was there!
	Down at the dam		View from the dam

After Tolla it's another 2 km up till the last pass: the Col de Mercujo (715 m), but before that I propose to explore the road down to the dam. This appears longer and steeper than expected, and the pavement is quite bad, so that halfway Enya decides to stop and let me 'do my thing'. At the col the second WOWW! experience: the views down, as far as the Mediterranean, and especially the shapely chiseled road. Already filled with nostalgia we descend this magnificent road.

	Rough road back		Enjoying the last great views
	Last Bocca		Last woww! moments
	Nice twisted road		Magnificent start of our last descent

Yoohooo!

View back up to twisted road

Great views

Enya with the col in the background

Corsica has given us SO many beautiful moments! The last ten km till Bastellicaccia are a bit boring; we have been on the saddle a bit too long. Bastellicaccia consists of several kernels. To the east, from where we enter, there are quarters with ostentatious villas on too large lots (I judge). Fortunately in one of the last quarters there's a confiserie and a bar. The choice of pastries is disappointing, though I'm quite okay with the moelleux aux pommes. Enya gets a rich topping of cream with her cappuccino, that helps too.

Cycling is fun!

Derniers gâteaux

Last shoppings

We take our time (and shade!), from 11 till 12, and when we get going we find out that we are already quite close to the N196, so to the airport. The roundabout where the N193 connects to it feels dangerous with all the traffic from behind planning to turn right, but we survive, and decide to take the parallel road to avoid some traffic. At a the doorstep of a DIY-shop I check whether I can loosen the pedals, in which I succeed, with difficulty. We pass Ajaccio stadium, have to return 1 km over the N196, and at a gas station have a last but one attempt to buy some souvenirs. (The last attempt at the airport will be more successful.)   Around 13:15 we finally get to the airport, leaving us 2.5 hours to get our bikes ready and check in.

	Immediately after our break: the airport		N196, one last bit
	Getting		there

All seems to go well this time; we are in time informed that we have to take off the front wheels, and we have enough tape and plastic. But then, having already disposed of our panniers (and tools) we take our bikes to the conveyor belt for special luggage, and my bike appears too large; the saddle must be put in a lower position, but WHO can supply us with a hex key? It takes half an hour, and it appears NOBODY at the airport can! I get a déjà vu; exactly the same happened two years ago in Biarritz! By sheer luck, when I put the bike on its other side (the vulnerable side, with the gear mechanism), and with the loose wheel to put it slightly uplifted, it's just small enough to fit.

Everything seems to go smoothly

But WHERE do we get a hex key??

We have to run to get to the plane (well, with our panniers already on board it wouldn't have left, would it). Quite UNfresh (sweating, dirty hands) we take separate seats; the plane will make a stopover in Albia, where we will get our reserved seats. And also from the plane Corsica looks beautiful (as does the north of Sardinia!)

Sardinia

Corsica

We take our time (to fix the bikes and devour delicious 'Belgian' chips) at Schiphol, miss a train, so reach Nootdorp as late as 23:30 h, all in all ten hours since we got to the airport, almost as long as a bus transfer from Holland to the south of France
(which makes me think about next year . . . .   more about that later     . . . . .   next year, I hope!)

Schiphol

Schiphol!