Walking in Corsica. Gillian Price
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illyricum, is endemic to both Corsica and Sardinia and is commonly encountered. Much rarer in the springtime are the bright pink peonies that grow wild on the edge of forests.
Flowers of the Mediterranean by Oleg Polunin and Anthony Huxley (Chatto & Windus, 1987) makes a valuable and enjoyable companion.
Wildlife
Thick woodland and impenetrable maquis do not facilitate observation of wild animals in Corsica, nor does the widespread hunting! Quiet walkers in the mountainous regions can hope for at least a glimpse of the ‘king of the island’, the stocky goat-like mouflon recognisable by its showy curling horns. With a history stretching back 8000 years, this native of Corsica and neighbouring Sardinia has reportedly become shy in the extreme in the face of species-threatening poaching. Protected herds of several hundred mouflon survive in reserves in the Asco and Bavella areas and small groups have been reported in the seafront Scandola promontory.
Foraging pigs
Much more successful is the introduced well-adapted boar (sanglier), their numbers around the 30,000 mark. Along with pigs normally left free by their owners, they roam medium-altitude woodland in search of edible roots, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. Not even the avid hunters seem able to dent the population. Again these are timid creatures, and the closest most visitors ever get to an actual boar is a hide left by hunters to dry on a fence. Both boar and pig are part and parcel of Corsican life – and cooking. In the legendary past they even organised a revolution, led by the talking specimen Porcafonu from Calenzana, who conducted discussions with the Almighty for more humane treatment for the hoofers.
Another ‘success’ story concerns small red deer. After they were shot to extinction in the 1960s, park authorities combined forces with hunters’ groups to reintroduce eight deer from Sardinia in 1985. This number rose to 103 in a mere three years, and they have since been released to fend for themselves near Quenza in the Bavella region.
In terms of reptiles Corsica does not have any life-endangering snakes, vipers being totally absent. On the other hand walkers have a good chance of encountering harmless green-grey and black snakes which will not hesitate to hiss fiercely, a strategy to give them time to slither away to safety. Other notables on the ground are the ubiquitous darting lizards.
Last but not least, the enterprising dung beetles are entitled to a mention. Key creatures on an island where livestock is an essential part of the economy, they are encountered on pathways in bands industriously dispatching cow pats, often engaged in clown-like bickering.
The best news relates to birdlife. Magnificent birds of prey such as splendid rust-red kites with marked forked tails can be seen gliding in couples surveying open mountainsides for small animals. The woods are alive with myriad finches, woodpeckers and the dainty tree creeper spiralling its way up tree trunks in search of burrowing insects to feed its offspring concealed in a crack in the bark. The curious hoopoe swoops and dips over light shrub emitting its characteristic ‘hoo hoo’ call (hence the name), its distinctive black–white wings contrasting with its warm orange-nut-coloured body.
Eight couples of lammergeier (bearded vulture) are known to breed on Corsica in high spots such as the Bavella massif. Known locally as the Altore (‘dweller of high places’), the imposing bird has a wing span up to 2.7m. It lives on carrion and is famous for its original practice of dropping bones from a great height to crack them on rocks. Despite local hearsay and shepherd’s tales, it does not prey on lambs, in contrast to the golden eagle, only a little smaller in size. Thirty couples of eagles thrive along the central mountain chain as well as the easternmost Castagniccia. The eagle has a wedge-shaped tail whereas the lammergeier can be distinguished by its more slender elongated tail.
Acrobatic swifts and martins swooping and screeching overhead are a distinctive sight in the mountainous villages during the warm summer months. As the typical stone houses have unusually narrow eaves with no overhang suitable for nests, the birds often make do with cracks in the masonry walls.
Further Reading
Top of the list is Asterix in Corsica by R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo (1973, out of print), which captures the island’s nature in a delightfully irreverent manner. A close second is Granite Island: A Portrait of Corsica (Penguin 1971), a serious read verging on gripping, this is Dorothy Carrington’s passionate and detailed account of late 1940s Corsica set against a web of spirits. Those with access to an antique book store should search out Edward Lear’s Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica (1870) and either of James Boswell’s travel journals dating back to the late 1700s. Latter-day traveller Paul Theroux also passed through, as recounted in his very readable The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean (Penguin 1995).
French readers should look out for the mesmerising short stories by Guy de Maupassant including Un bandit corse (1882), Histoire corse (1881) and La Patrie de Colomba (1880). There’s also fascinating reading in Contes et Légendes de l’île de Corse by Gabriel Xavier Culioli (Éditions DCL 1998) and Claire Tiévant and Lucie Desideri’s Almanach de la mémoire et des coutumes: Corse (Albin Michel 1986).
Beach and jetties at Girolata (Walk 3/Mare e Monti)
LONG-DISTANCE WALKS
ROUTE 1
Mare e Monti: Calenzana to Cargèse
| Start | Calenzana |
| Finish | Cargèse |
| Distance | 124.4km/77.1 miles |
| Difficulty | Grade 2 |
| Walking time | 48hr 45min – 10 days |
| Maps | IGN 1:25,000 sheets 4149OT, 4150OT, 4151OT |
The longest-standing and easily the most wonderful long-distance route in Corsica, the Mare e Monti holds true to its name and provides a roller coaster of treats ranging from breathtaking coastline with blue sea and beaches to some awe-inspiring mountainous landscapes. It effects a huge ‘S’ as it heads southwards, ducking in and out of the reliefs parallel to Corsica’s rugged west coast. The many and varied highlights include the Forest of Bonifatu, the Fango river gorge, the isolated fishing village of Girolata, the Golfe de Porto and the Spelunca gorge, along with days and days of wandering through memorable maquis impregnated with the scents of the Mediterranean and unbelievable masses of wild flowers.
The Mare e Monti is sometimes referred to as Tra Mare e Monti, abbreviated as TMM on signposts. Carry plenty of drinking water every day – athough numerous watercourses are encountered, they are not necessarily reliable in terms of either quality or quantity. Another must is swimming gear for the rock pools, rivers and sea.
The route is theoretically feasible all year round in terms of terrain and weather, however in terms of accommodation, only a handful of the establishments stay open during winter. The concluding two days are shared with the Mare-Mare Nord route, and it is therefore a good idea to pre-book accommodation. Should the entire 10-day walk be too long in terms of time, it can be shortened by either compressing a couple of days (if you’re fit), or doing it in shorter chunks as nearly all the villages touched on have bus services. A tricky task is to choose the ‘best’ part of the route for people short of time – a hazarded suggestion would be the Bonifatu–Curzu or the Serriera–Evisa legs. The walk can also be lengthened by slotting into the Mare-Mare Nord route at Evisa and branching eastwards towards the island’s centre and Corte.
Calvi with its citadel and port
En route to the start, everyone passes through Calvi i