Walking in Corsica. Gillian Price
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Tourist offices in key tourist centres such as Bastia and Ajaccio distribute exhaustive sheets summarising all the lines relevant to their region. In minor towns the companies are usually based at travel agencies, where destinations and departure times will hopefully be on display. Otherwise try the local café – people are invariably helpful. Fares tend to be pretty steep and tickets are generally sold on board. Punctuality is another story, so don’t plan a tight schedule if you have a plane or ferry to catch. The helpful website www.corsicabus.org has many bus routes and timetables.
Hitch-hiking is a piece of cake; depending on traffic flow, you rarely have to wait long for a lift from benevolent tourists or locals, particularly if you look like a hiker and are carrying a rucksack. However, as is the rule the world over, it is inadvisable for women to hitchhike on their own.
Most villages have a taxi service, but drivers seem to require lengthy advance warning and do not come cheap.
The following glossary will help in deciphering timetables:
| quotidien, tous les jours | daily |
| sauf | except |
| seulement | only |
| jours fériés | Sunday and public holidays |
| lundi | Monday |
| mardi | Tuesday |
| mercredi | Wednesday |
| jeudi | Thursday |
| vendredi | Friday |
| samedi | Saturday |
| dimanche | Sunday |
Train
The Chemins de Fer de la Corse, alias U Trinighellu or the micheline, is a marvellous narrow-gauge railway line that runs through the mountainous centre of Corsica connecting Bastia and Ajaccio with a branch line to Calvi on the west coast. It originally extended down the eastern seaboard to Porto-Vecchio, but the track was damaged by bombing in the Second World War and unfortunately never rebuilt. The train is handy for walkers heading for Calvi and the Mare e Monti trail, and is the perfect leisurely means of transport to reach Corte, strategically located for many mountain routes. A must for train buffs and others alike, it makes for a memorable rattling trip and is irreverently referred to as the island’s TGV – Train Grande Vibration! Pocket timetables are widely available, otherwise call
The most thrilling stretch of track negotiates the narrow valley between the stations of Corte and Vizzavona, with a spectacular succession of viaducts, switchbacks and tunnels, looping back on itself for the climb to the 1000m mark. Renowned French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel was responsible for the 1888 design of the noteworthy steel girder bridge in the proximity of Vivario station.
Car
Car rental agencies are plentiful in the main towns and ports, though of course you can bring your own car on the spacious ferries (with the appropriate paperwork and insurance). The French road identification system uses the letter N for the more important nationale routes and D for relatively minor départmentale roads, plus a distinguishing number. There are few straight routes on the island, so getting from A to B will take longer than you’d think. Visitors will find they spend a lot of time on twisting narrow roads, not often equipped with a guard rail and frankly hair-raising at times. Don’t hesitate to sound your horn at blind corners in the interests of safety. The locals tend to ignore bends in the road so their vehicles often need dodging too. A further potential hazard for drivers is posed by wandering livestock, who deposit skid traps on the tarmac for unwary motorists.
Walking
This guide is intended to give a taste of the paradise Corsica offers walkers with its wonderful network of pathways. Three time-tested long-distance routes are described in detail, as is a selection of shorter walks designed as day-trips. However, it will quickly become clear to enterprising visitors that anyone suitably equipped and armed with a good measure of common sense, together with the appropriate detailed map, can ‘do their own thing’ and explore the multitudinous well-marked paths independently.
Walking in Corsica covers a vast range of the terrain – rough stony mountainsides and exposed airy ridges, slippery rock slabs, easy earth-based paths in wood and grassy pasture, sandy beaches and multitudinous river crossings – fords more often than not. A bit of everything!
How to Use this Guide
Most paths have clear waymarking, though numbering is rare. This is generally a regular succession of painted stripes on trees or prominent rocks, occasionally accompanied by an arrow and name of a landmark ahead. During the walk descriptions in this guide, ‘track’ is used to refer to an unsealed vehicle-width lane, while a ‘path’ is narrow and for pedestrians only. A ‘road’ is sealed, and traffic can be expected.
The individual route descriptions include the altitude (metres above sea level) of useful landmarks along the way (altitude is abbreviated as ‘m’ and given in brackets; minutes is abbreviated as ‘min’). Compass directions as well as directional instructions ‘right’ and ‘left’ are supplied as an extra aid.
Hanging bridge between Marignana and Evisa (Mare e Monti/Mare-Mare Nord)
At Bocca Rezza (Mare e Monti)
The timing given at the start of each walk does not include rest breaks or time out for taking photographs, so always add extra when planning your day’s load. On level ground an averagely fit person will cover 5km (about 3 miles) in 1 hour. Timing given during the walk description is partial (ie. from the last reference point), unless otherwise specified. Some walkers may wish to combine some of the day stages in the long-distance walks in line with their fitness and availability of accommodation.
An entry for height gain and loss (ascent/descent) can be found in each walk heading (except where the ground is mostly flat) and is an important indicator of the type of itinerary. Combined with the distance covered, it furnishes an idea of the effort required. Generally speaking, 300m (about 1000ft) in ascent is feasible in 1 hour. For the long-distance routes, these details can be found under the individual day headings along with the distance. Moreover, for anyone who finds it more convenient to follow them in the reverse direction, estimated times have been included in the ‘Route Summaries’ at the end of the guide, together with information about transport, accommodation and shops.
Place names will be encountered in varieties of French–Corsican– Italian, and disparities are regularly encountered between maps and actual signposts. Small villages and hamlets are important landmarks especially on the long-distance trails, however few have identifying signposts and there isn’t often anyone to ask. One unfailingly reliable system for finding out where you are is to locate the cenotaph, as each village sent its sons to the conflicts France was engaged in, and the village name appears there.
Several stretches of the long-distance walks described in this guide have been adapted as day-walks with a return to base, and are described separately. However visitors with two cars at their disposal can follow virtually any stretch of the long-distance routes with a little advance planning. More ambitious, experienced walkers may want to undertake the renowned long-distance route the Grande Randonnée GR20, which traverses the island from Calenzana