Day Twelve on the GR20 ~ Bavella to Conca: Done and Dusted!

The Magic Continues All the Way to Conca

Although escape to civilisation is always close at hand and a hot meal at a refuge or gîte can be had each night en route, in many ways the GR20 is still quite a wild walk. Much of the track is rough and rocky, making the going quite demanding. In quite a few places, especially - but not only - in the northern section, there is some energetic scrambling where you've got no choice but use your hands.  While the paths don't visit the heights of some of the big walks in the Alps, there are places with terrific exposure where you want to move carefully. For me though, what makes the GR a "wild" place is simply the incredibly rugged nature of the landscape. And, amazingly, this ruggedness is sustained right through the last day of the route - which I hope will be illustrated in this post.

A digression though before continuing. A couple of days ago the seminal rock and roll artist Lou Reed kicked the bucket. Given his lifestyle, it wasn't a big surprise that he died of complications after a liver transplant. Anyway, those of you who are somewhere around my age and familiar with his music and have put one and one together will know what's coming; here's a rendition of Lou Reed's greatest hit:

Wild, eh!

Okay, back to business. Despite having a fairly long walk ahead of us we weren't bothered to make an early start from the Village de Bavella on the last day. For one thing, there was relatively little climbing to be done and what there was looked to be generally quite gradual. There was lots of descending in the offing, but even that looked mostly easy. Here are the figures for the walk ...

• Distance: 19 km
• Total ascent: 700 m
• Total descent: 1670 m
• Time: 7 hours

It looked like a lovely day awaited us. Here are some snippets illustrating what Paddy Dillon has to say about today's walk ... "apart from a few steep and rugged climbs .. it is mostly an easy walk, and some parts of the path are level and pose no problems. The mountain scenery is remarkably good throughout the first half of the walk, and the surroundings remain quite rugged right to the end. However, there is a definite feel that height is being lost - the vegetation becomes more exotic, the temperature rises, and ultimately walkers see the village of Conca beckoning, with the sea beyond". (He has a nice turn of phrase, doesn't he?)

... and here's what the route looks like on the map ...

Village de Bavella to Conca

If you look closely at the map you will see that the route winds its way through and past some very rugged little peaks, especially in its first half. There is a refuge that some people use as their last stop before heading to Conca - and others use as a base camp for rock climbing nearby - tucked in under some of those crags about an hour and a half after leaving Bavella.

We'd decided we would stay in Conca for the night rather than rush to get there in time for the shuttle to Porto Vecchio, so the time listed in the guide didn't really concern us. So, we had a relatively leisurely petit déjeuner at the Auberge de Col de Bavella and set out at about 7:20. As we emerged from breakfast we were greeted by the sun shining on the crags opposite ...

Welcome to my morning

So off down the initial hill along the road and into the forest we went. The trail was a little steep and rocky at first but then the going got easier before ascending fairly steeply (don't mind that when it's over a short distance because it gets the climbing over quickly) up to the Foce Finosa, the first major landmark for the day ...

Foce Finosa

I liked this sign because it made it clear to folks that they should carry out their rubbish! Actually, apart from the post-poo "white flowers" in so many places - especially in the first half of the route - there was very little garbage along the trail. Another little touch that I liked was the subtle addition of red dots above the "i's" to emphasise the grand randonnée nature of the route.

Another aside: apparently more and more folks are doing the GR20 from the south, and quite a few of them bypass this stage - perhaps because of the 1670 metres of ascent on the first day. My hardline view is that you can't say you've done the GR if you've missed a stage and started up in the mountains so you've got a downhill run over the course of the route! But more importantly, omitting the first stage means that one misses some absolutely gorgeous scenery.

As we started to drop down off the Foce Finosa these crags came into view between the trees ...

Laricio Pines and Granite Cliffs

Unfortunately, we didn't see much sunshine after that. In fact, within about an hour of our leaving the Village de Bavella the clouds started to thicken up and we only got the occasional window of sunlight shining on the peaks. Views were still good though, just somewhat muted in colour at times  ...

The way ahead is through them thar mountains ...

The fern-lined track took us down steeply past some rock draped in vegetation ...

Gray and green

... and around through some interestingly eroded features ...

Up through a keyhole slot

... before traversing a great path up on a hillside ...

Pausing on the balcony to look at the view

Di has paused at this point because we felt compelled to enjoy the view across the way. Cloud was swirling about the peaks even more at this stage, creating quite an atmospheric effect with the occasional shaft of sun highlighting patches of cliff. Here's what Di is looking across at ...

The ruggedness of the GR continues to impress

The sky was constantly changing at this stage. Just a minute later the sun had gone, but a bit of cloud had also blown away to reveal an impressive tower high on the skyline ...

An impressive skyline

As we moved further into the valley a tower that had just been another interesting feature in the landscape (refer to the 4th photo below the map) revealed more of itself. I think it's the Punta di l'Anima Damnata, which we traversed right past ...

Punta di l'Anima Damnata

By this stage we were nearing the Refuge d'I Paliri. Here's a thought if you might walk the GR20 starting from the south: the Refuge d'I Paliri is in a gorgeous setting. There is wonderful camping there if you decide to carry a tent. Stopping here would make a great start to the walk, especially if you were to make a late start from Conca. We were almost sorry to not be stopping ourselves on our way south and perhaps this is another spot we'll hike to if we ever get back to Corsica.

The views in all directions as we neared the Refuge d'I Paliri were just wonderful. Here's another ...

An atmospheric morning

A little way past the refuge when we were travelling through the forest we came to a spot where wild boars had been busy rooting around amongst the fallen pine needles ...

Something must have smelled good

As we came the Punta di l'Anima Damnata we were amazed to see that its south face was even more beautiful than the northwest aspect ...

An orange goddess cloaked in green

With the wind driving the clouds across the sky, the light was changing moment by moment before our eyes as I was taking the photos to make up this panorama ...

An incisor emerging from the depths of the earth

It actually started spitting at about this time but, because it was so warm, we didn't bother to put on our rain jackets and instead just picked up the pace a little. Shortly after I took this photo we had a descent to a river crossing below quite an attractive waterfall. There's no photo because it was raining a bit more at that point.

A bit of a climb followed. We didn't realise it at the time, but this would be the last significant ascent of the day. (Di kept rattling on about a big climb ahead - she was delighted when it didn't materialise!) Once we were up high more great views appeared in pretty much every direction. This panorama gives just a hint of what there was to see ...

Crags, pines and maquis

 The next shot shows an iconic peak in Corsica. I'm not sure what it's called but we saw lots of photos of it, featuring the prominent hole right through it ...

Holey moley! Look at that!

By this time it was raining lightly but pretty steadily, so I didn't take many more photos. We were getting pretty keen to minimise the time we had left on the trail as it did look like more rain was on the way. It did rain more heavily, quite a lot more heavily, but luckily not before we traversed across some lovely granite slabs. They were starting to get a little slippery, so we had to be a little careful when we were actually on the rock. Here we are approaching some of them ...

Slabs amongst pockets of pines

Shortly after that photo was taken it started raining properly, putting an end to photographs. We figured we probably had about an hour of walking left so we just hoofed it. One of us was starting to feel a little tired but a little encouragement fixed that. It was still warm so we reasoned we might as well leave our rain jackets off as we'd get just as wet sweating under them as we would from the rain.

A few minutes after one o'clock we hit the road leading down to Conca ...

Nearly there!

The sign is advertising La Tonnelle, the gîte d'étape we headed for once we made it the 900 metres down the road. But, before that, we had the obligatory stop at the bar in town (acknowledgement: this photo is from Paddy Dillon's guidebook) ...

The other (see Stage One) Bar du GR20

A word about La Tonnelle, the gîte at the end of the route: excellent! It's a great place to stop in so many ways. You can get either a private room, a bed in a dormitory room or pitch your tent. Plenty of beer and food and the restaurant is terrific. But more than anything, the hospitality is fantastic.

Once the excitement dies down, finishing seems to feel a bit anti-climatic, whether it was doing the route or writing this retrospective blog. Especially with a couple of less interesting photos. So. Here's one last look back at the GR to re-emphasise that the beauty keeps going right to the last couple of hours of the last day ... a little slice of life, as it were ...

Granitopia

Well, that's it ... 

... The End ...

... or, if you like this is also "The End" ...

P.S.

If you've read this far

I'd love to see some feedback below …

Best wishes,

Doug

Day Eleven on the GR20 - Another Double: Refuge d'Usciolu to Refuge d'Ascinau to Village de Bavella

An Outstanding Day in the Wilds of Corsica

As per normal, we arose a little before first light to get an early start, but this time with a heightened sense of excitement. We'd set ourselves the goal of getting all the way to the Village de Bavella and were pretty psyched as the weather was looking really good.

All up the task we'd set ourselves looked like this:

• Distance: 28 km
• Total ascent: 1390 m
• Total descent:  1920 m
• Time: 12 hours

Those are pretty big number for a couple of old codgers so we wanted to get away early. As we were rising and heading out the door Thomas of the Irish Trio, with whom we'd caught back up on day nine, wished us good luck from his bunk - to the displeasure of a few folks who'd stayed up late the night before.

We had a quick breakfast along with a few other early starters then set off. Here's a snapshot of the section of map that covers the terrain, with our route delineated in black and red (coincidentally my team's colours!) It's probably worth pointing out at this stage that Paddy Dillon's Cicerone guidebook describes the GR20 as travelling the way I have marked it, along the original route. Apparently the new "official" route, and the one preferred by most guidebook authors and GR20 commentators traverses valleys to the west and goes via  Refuge Matalza. This became the standard route after the Refuge d' I Pedinieddi was destroyed by lightning, over concerns about the length of the stage from Usciolu to Asinau, and the fact that it went up and over the exposed peak of Monte Incudine. Anyway, here's our route ...

Refuge d'Usciolu to Village of Bavella

It was just light enough to see without our headlamps when we set off up a short, steep climb to the crest of the ridge that runs southwest for quite a way ~ perhaps four kilometres or more. Just about as soon as we hit the crest we could make out the coast to the east, with the ranges in between still in shadow when I took this photo at 6:49 a.m. ...

Looking east towards the coast

In another quarter of an hour the sun was bathing the granite outcrops of the ridge in a beautiful golden colour. In the photo below, taken at 7:07 a.m., the route will take us above and right of Di, who you can make out just about exactly in the middle of the photo ...

Rambling through low shrubbery and over granite slabs

The start of the day's walk was sublime - just the sort of morning you dream about as a hiker. Clear and windless, with gentle ups and downs along a wide, gently ascending ridge. And it was warm - you might have noticed in the previous photo that Di is back in shorts and a t-shirt again.

We were constantly looking ahead, trying to pick which way the trail would take us: would it be around that next bump on the left, right or straight over the top? Sometimes we were right; sometimes not. In the next photo we are on the crest itself, and down to the left in the valley you can make out a couple of small villages. The track is just visible on the left edge of the photo ...

Tracing the edge of sunshine

 In the next photo you will notice that Di has her poles in hand. We thought the trail was leading us around to the west - or right - of the next rocky bump on the ridge. It  started that way but then ducked up through a little gap that you might be able to make out just around to the right ...

Di picking her way through the boulders

Out the other side we emerged and then there was some gorgeous sidling in early morning sunshine ...

Sidling along just below the crest of the ridge

It was now just about an hour after leaving the refuge. Di paused while I snuck ahead to get a view looking back along the ridge ...

Glorious early morning walking

Almost before we knew it we had traversed the ridge, dropped down and found ourselves winding through these strange stumpy beech trees ...

A small plateau with short, thick beech trees

The track led us around to a small, open plateau. Just on an hour and a half after starting our walk for the day we were in what seemed almost like a totally different environment and an idyllic spot for a little cabin and a few sheep ...

Just strolling along ...

From this gorgeous little plateau the track dropped down an open hillside where we came across a relic from some previous passerby helping to mark the way ...

Boot Camp?

By now it was just after 8:30 and the sun had climbed higher into the sky and the track led gently down through maquis vegetation to a shallow valley. Ahead you can see the slopes of Monte Incudine which, at 2134 metres will be our high point for the day ...

Descending from the Plateau du Cuscione

It was lovely wending our way down through this gradually sloping valley but we did have to be careful to stay on the track as the maquis on either side was very close to the track in places, up to mid-thigh in height and very prickly! At the bottom of the valley we crossed a small creek that ran along the edge of the forested slopes leading upwards ...

At the bottom of the valley

By this time we had been on the go for about two and a half hours so we decided to pause for a little snack in the sunshine just above the tree on the other side of the stream before starting the gradual ascent of Monte Incudine.

We were a bit surprised to surmount the hill and find we had another small vale to cross before we actually started the climb, but shouldn't have been as we did know that there was the site of an old refuge - which had been destroyed by lightning strike - to pass before we started climbing properly. (Incidentally, this is the one spot where wild camping is actually permitted along the GR20.) Another small stream wended its way through this vale providing moisture for small patches of flowering herbs ...

As we began our climb up out of the valley I paused to take this photo looking back the way we'd come, where the open rocky ridge line, forest and  clear slopes had provided a great variety of walking for the first half of the morning's walk ...

Wonderful varied walking

It might now be worthwhile to provide a bit of map detail to illustrate the landscape and home in on our  whereabouts at this point of the day's walk (look for the yellow circle near the centre of the map) ...

Mid-morning Day 11

I'm not sure but I think the next photo is looking up towards the Crête de la Foce Aperta, which we will eventually join towards its upper end ...

Back up into the alpine region

... and now we are nearing the summit of Monte Incudine ...

The summit of Monte Incudine beckons

This is actually the same photo sliced thinly for a more delicate flavour ...

Having your cake and eating it too ...

We paused for the obligatory summit photo, knowing that we'd knocked over most of the ascending required for the day. (I was reluctant to include this photo as it is all too revealing about how much I'd been indulging in the filthy joys of Kouign Amann while in belle Bretagne, and the general slothfulness associated with our tour to FNQ. Time to start getting fit again ...

Padded Grandpa and Beaming Grannie

Between us and the east coast were some rugged little ranges, slightly obscured by mist ...

... which blew away as we sidled around towards the descent off the peak. The next photo was taken just above the start of a long slabby traverse that went farther left than we imagined it needed to, but again this can be seen in the map detail above. We had thought that the beauty of the GR20 might abate somewhat as we hiked further south but we were delighted to find it continued to maintain its quality through this day and indeed, as the next post will show, right to the very end.

It's just 600 metres down to Refuge d'Asinau but this happens pretty quickly as it is one of the steeper descents on the route. We paused at the refuge where the guardian was rather too preoccupied entertaining friends on his back verandah to pay much attention to hikers! It would have been good to enjoy a cool drink, but thankfully we'd acquired the necessaries at Usciolu to put together lunch, which we enjoyed on the front verandah.

After about forty minutes break we shouldered our packs and set off for the second stage of the day. This view back just after we set out again shows the position of Refuge d'Asinau up on the hillside just above the tree line ...

Refuge d'Asinau

There are two routes for the next stage through to the Col de Bavella and the village just down the other side. The main route of the GR20 is meant to take 4 3/4 hours and have 380 metres of ascent and 695 metres of descent. The high level route - which I was attracted to - is actually half an hour quicker but has an additional 170 metres of ascent and descent. However Di had been adamant that if we were to run stages 13 and 14 together she'd only do it if we took the longer but easier low-level route. Probably a good idea because both of us had knees that were feeling a little creaky after the steep descent off Monte Incudine. (If we ever go back to do some more hiking in Corsica we'll have to make a point of getting up on the crest of the Aigulles de Bavella and the Punta di u Pargulu as the views are meant to be stunning.)

After a short traverse and then a  descent of 100 metres the track traverses for about three kilometres through lovely laricio pine forest like this ...

Pine forest between Ascinau and Bavella

... before descending another 400 metres or so. Then, after traversing around the toe of the Crête du Pargulu, a long sidle is made into a deep re-entrant to get around the Ruissseau de Caracatu. The views were quite limited at this stage but eventually after traversing some wonderful forest, things started to open out again and the road leading up to Col de Bavella came into view across the way, along with peaks that we would walk through the next day ...

The road to Col de Bavella can be seen on the slopes opposite

Paradoxically we descended a little more when we thought we'd really like to start climbing up towards the col ...

By this time the Aiguilles de Bavella had started to dominate the landscape ...

Aiguilles de Bavella

It dawned on us that we still had some way to go and Di was starting to slow up a bit so she sat down for a little rest ...

How much farther, Dad?

Eventually we got around the toe of the ridge and found ourselves ascending through some more lovely forest towards the Col de Bavella where we came across evidence of the island's rich history of animal husbandry in the mountains in the form of a stone wall ...

Nearing the Col de Bavella

Have you missed my digressions in the last few posts? Well, in honour of the extraordinary beauty of Col de Bavella it's time I returned to my normal habit of rambling off ...

... before we'd left Tasmania for our trip to Corsica for the GR20 our friends Alan and Penney had returned from there and the Land Of The Pom. While in the latter Alan obtained a copy of "Edward Lear in Corsica: Journal of a Landscape Painter" (published in this edition in 1966; Price 50s net - much dearer now, no doubt!) and generously lent it to me. It was a terrific opportunity to get a sense of Corsica in 1851 when Lear was there as ... well, a tourist, really. As one would expect after being there, he has marvellous things to say about the landscape, including this about a couple of the vistas he enjoyed in Bavella ...

"... one a narrow gorge with a perspective of spires, leading, as it were, into the very inmost heart of the mountain; another of bold crags, dark against the sunset sky, and rising out of the most profuse vegetation - both scenes grand beyond expression in words. Nor, indeed, except by very careful study, could many of the greatest and wildest beauties of this forest be represented in a sketch, and to attempt to do so seems like endeavouring in one day to make satisfactory notes from the contents of a whole library, full of all sorts of literature".

Magnificent, and much better said than I could do. This is one place we certainly will visit for longer if we make it back to Corsica for some of the many other walks there are to do.

By half past four we were at the Col de Bavella, where stands a huge statue of the Virgin, an equally huge cross and some beautiful, gnarly old pines ...

Col de Bavella

... and shortly after that we were at our resting place for the night the Auberge de Col de Bavella ...

We made it!

It looks like the the terrace is deserted, which it was when I took the photo the next morning. It was actually packed when we arrived but we were so intent on settling into the gîte, having a hot shower and getting something to eat that I neglected to take a photo at that time.

And so ends the second last day of our traverse of the GR20 in Corsica ...