GR 20, Corsica, France - June 2013

Doing it hard in the Emirates lounge, Melbourne.

Some tower?

Lunch, on the Champs-Elysees.

In the middle of 2013 I took off to walk the GR20 in Corsica. The GR20 is reputed to be the hardest way marked path in Europe, its a bit hard for me to comment on that as its the only long distance way marked path I've ever walked in Europe!

The citadel in Calvi, check out the shirt on the wall.

Muvra, GR20.

Suspension bridge, Spasimata Valley.

After selling a couple of spare organs I managed to fly to Paris business class with Emirates, f#*k, how longs this been going on! Talk about lifestyles of the rich and shameless, chauffeur to and from the flights, Emirates lounge, fully flat seats, my own mini bar, a walk up bar and lounge on the plane, I could definitely get used to this, it made the flight enjoyable which is really something for me as I normally equate flying with torture!

Chilling out on Bocca i Stagnu. 

Lunch at Haut' Asco, its a bit better than freeze dried.

Refuge de Ciottulu a i Mori, with Paglia Orba towering above.

I met up with Skip in Paris and we had a day sight seeing managing a quick look at the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees, the Louvre and Notre Dame. I even found time to drop into the Tiffany's at the Galeries Lafayette to buy Sam a necklace, certainly a little flasher than Chadstone. Early the next day we flew down over the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Corsica, arriving to see the mountains that we would be walking over for the next couple of weeks shrouded in cloud.

That'd be the Mediterranean behind me.

Lac de Nino.

Breche de Capitellu, at 2225 metres, the highest point on the GR20.

We spent the next fifteen days walking, scrambling, and swimming our way down the mountainous spine of the island. I've written a journal up of the trip here so I want go over it again in any great detail. Some of the many highlights of the walk where the sunsets over the Mediterranean, the snowy Bocca's (Passes), the sublime swimming spots, the fellow walkers from around the world, the Refuges, and the Corsican people ( I found the French charming on the whole trip , not having one bad experience either in Corsica or Paris, Skip had a few issues but that may have been a communication problem).

Lac de Capitellu.

Doing the washing at my camp at Refuge de Petra Piana.

We got to see a couple of these Fire Salamanders on the walk.

We eventually emerged from the mountains on the southern end of the island at Porto Vecchio, the place was really pumping as there was a small bike race starting there in a couple of days, something called the Tour de France. As we'd finished a couple of days early we had a couple of days to do some sightseeing so we took a boat down the coast to Bonifacio and then spent the afternoon on the beach at Iles Lavezzi.

On the high level variante to Bergeries de L'Onda.

Second breakfast at Bergeries de L'Onda.

Yeah, I managed to find a snake.

Catching the bus up to Bastia near the top of the island we then had a couple of days to have a poke around there. We stayed in a nice hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, and spent our spare day walking around the town checking out the Citadel, along with the Vieux Port. Lunch was taken in the Pl St Nicolas at one of the many small cafes while we watched the big ferry disgorge there loads of cars, trucks and buses here for The Tour.

Bergeries d'Alzeta.

On Monte Renoso, the highest variante I did at 2352 metres, Lac de Bastiani is below me.

I Pozzi.

The trip home was long but uneventful, Bastia, Paris, Dubai, Melbourne, all up probably thirty six hours straight, but as I said early it was even enjoyable. Once I was checked in at Charles de Gaulle I had use of the Emirates lounge so I was able to have a feed and a shower and generally relax knowing that I was now sorted all the way to my front door.

Monte Alcudina, the last 2000 metre peak along the trail.

Sunrise from Refuge d'Asinau.

Swimming in the Ravine De Volpajola.

Sunrise at Refuge de Paliri.

The end of the GR20.

The Dirt.
I walked 199 kilometres on the GR20, the real killer though is the climbing, I climbed 13,325 metres over the length of the walk so its a bit of a grunt. Skip stayed in the Refuges and hire tents, I carried my own tent, there's pros and cons to both methods, I prefer the privacy and freedom of being self sufficient, Skip prefers the light weight and doesn't mind the snoring and farting in the communal huts, each to their own. Like I mentioned above I had my first experience of business class flying, its awesome but bloody hell its expensive, Emirates provided me the experience but I'm sure some of the others are just as good, unfortunately I doubt that I'll ever be able to afford to do any comparison. If you would like a day by day account of the trip along with a shit load of photos check out my journal.

Sunrise on my last day in Corsica.

Negotiating peak hour traffic in Paris.

Heading home.