We were awake before seven and quickly packed up the tent and drove off the site. We stopped at the shops just outside and bought some 'pain au raisin'. Lynn was most unhappy with hers as she thought it was more like a cake.
From the campsite, we joined the N196, the main road heading south down the middle of the island heading towards Bonifacio. The road was fairly busy and immediately started climbing up into the mountains. Today, there seemed to be road-works in just about every village we passed through, the first being Suarella. Fortunately, the road had overtaking lanes on the uphill stretches so it wasn't too bad a trip to the top of the Col de St-Georges at 747M.
From here the road headed back down to the Taravo river valley before climbing again through Petreto-Bicchisano and on to the Col de Celaccia at 582M. From here, it was all downhill to the coastal town of Propriano which we didn't stop at.
Continuing over another pass, Col de Sta. Guilla at 80M we then followed the Rizzanese river for a while before the climb up to Sartene high up in the hills. Sartene is famous locally for its wine.
The road headed south through the mountains until it got down to the Gulf of Roccapina where we got views over the sea again before heading back inland through Pianottoli-Caldarello and back to the coast.
We'd noticed that although it was very sunny, the wind was getting up and we really noticed it when we stopped for a brief walk near Tonnara. The bay was beautiful, but the wind was very strong and quite cool.
We bypassed Bonifacio on the D60 and continued until it turned right and became the D58. Not far down here we found a campsite. We had a wander around, and then after asking, set up the tent on a pitch under some trees but with a view. We had great trouble getting any pegs in, and the campsite then told us the pitch was built on aa concrete slab! We moved one site over and successfully erected the tent.
Having done this, it was clearly lunchtime, so we headed into the port at Bonifacio. By now the wind was really strong and quite unpleasant, but we managed to find a restaurant where we could sit outside out of the wind. For a change, we had their 'special' which was cheeseburger in a panini with a glass of Heinekin!
We had a brief wander around and ate an icecream before returning to the campsite. We sat outside for a while, but it was very windy, in the sun it was warm enough, but out of the sun in the wind it felt quite chilly.
After dinner, we drove down to the coast to see if we could see any evening birdlife. We followed a very small road described as dangerous in the Rough Guide, towards a lighthouse on Capo Pertusato. The road went between some fortifications and we stopped in an old French fort which was derelict. We had a wander around but no birds to be seen. We carried on to the lighthouse then turned back into town.
Next, we followed the signs to Plage de Piantarella, this road had some very nice houses and also an exclusive golf course. At the end was a pretty bay and beach, but at dusk it felt distinctly chilly. The beach looked out to the Lavezzi archipeligo and Sardinia across the strait. The water her is very dangerous with odd tides, nasty shifting wind and strong currents. A troop ship sunk here en route to the Crimea with over 770 French troops drowned, perhaps the worst shipping disaster the Mediterranean has known.
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