A Beautiful Day of Open Ridge Walking
Apart from a climb up through forest at the start of the day and then a short section through beech forest around the Bocca Lavaro, all of Stage 12 is on ridges and open mountain slopes. There are lots of great views west and south to more mountains, down into long valley strewn with villages below on right and glimpses of the sea to the east. Most of the walking is quite easy but there is a bit of rock scrambling along the narrow rocky crest around 2000 metres near the top of Punta Cappella.
Here are the statistics of today's hike:
- Distance: 16 km
- Total ascent: 1290 m
- Total descent: 830 m
- Time: 7 1/4 hours
And this is what the route looks like on the map:
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| Refuge di Verdi - Refuge d'Usciolu |
You can also get a pretty good idea of the largely open nature of the terrain from this perspective view of the route that I plotted in on Google Earth ...
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| Up from the forest and out to open ridges |
The early part of the route alternates between gentle and more steep climbing. We had a bit of a surprise when we reached a little saddle in the forest, about a quarter of an hour after leaving Refuge di Verdi. There were three pack animals standing quietly, seemingly waiting for their lord and master to return from somewhere ...
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| Waiting for Godot??? |
From there, we enjoyed pleasant and gentle ascending and traversing through a mixture of pine and beech forest. Steeper open slopes brought us to the Bocca d'Oru at 1840 metres ...
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| Our first milestone for the day: Bocca d'Oru |
It was great to realise that we'd already done almost half of the total ascent for the day. It was also exciting to reach the bocca because we suddenly found ourselves looking for the first time down towards the east coast of Corsica. The next photo isn't anything wonderful but I took it and have included it here because if you look closely you can make out a lagoon on the coastline ...
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| I see the sea! |
We paused there for a few moments, enjoying vistas both to the east and west and I took a couple of photos to make up this panorama of the view back towards the Bocca de Verdi ...
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| Looking northwest towards Col de Verdi |
From the bocca a pleasant track traverses gentle rolling terrain across the plateau towards Refuge de Prati ...
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| Lovely walking above 1800 metres in early morning light |
Great open views toward the Punta Cappella, the high point of the day's walk, lead you on for about a kilometre ...
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| Views towards Punta Cappella |
... before the Refuge de Prati appears, nestled into a saddle at 1820 metres ...
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| Punta Cappella and Refuge de Prati |
(If you expand the photo you can just make out the track at the right of the photo leading up toward the the open ridge.)
Refuge de Prati was situated in quite an idyllic spot, with expansive views down towards the east and sheltered from the main brunt of the prevailing westerlies. This would make a wonderful place to relax on a sunny afternoon if one structured the traverse allow for that. There was a bit of pasture for livestock and even a couple of shelters for them to get in out of the weather. For walkers coming up on the access path from the valley to the east, signposts show the way back to Bocca di Verdi and on to Bocca di Laparo ...
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| Which way? |
A memorial plaque marks the significance of this spot for resistance fighters when arms were parachuted in to them ...
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| Memorial plaque |
We enjoyed some nice atmospheric walking with mist coming and going as we traversed rocky slopes towards a craggy ridge, quite similar - but at a higher altitude - to some of the walking we've done in Tamania ...
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| This could almost be Tasmania! |
There were lots of boulders strewn about and from time to time big gaps in the mist would open to reveal patches of glorious blue sky ...
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| Granite boulders litter the plateau |
One of the really lovely aspects of this day's walk is the fact that your attention is continually drawn down past outcrops of rock to views of numerous small towns in the valley below and mountains in the distance ...
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| Just another craggy outcrop ... |
At another point a narrow ridge of small but impressive spires ascends from the valley ...
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| Granite spires look down on a town in the valley |
For some reason - perhaps because it got cool and windy up high - I don't have any photos of us traversing the rocky crest up to Punta Cappella (2041m) or the steep slabs descending the other side, or the bouldery slopes that sidle around the Punta di Campitello (1937m) or the climb up and over the lesser Punta di Latoncello (1722m). Hmm. Terribly remiss of me. The next photo shows us entering the lovely patch of beech forest around the Bocca di Rapari ...
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| A lovely path leads into beech forest |
We reached the bocca itself ...
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| Bocca Laparo |
... where we paused for a snack amongst the large granite boulders before continuing our walk.
A gradual climb out of the forest and then more steeply up a rocky and more exposed ridge led us to and over Punta Bianca (1954 m) and then around the shoulder of Monte Fumicula (1981 m) before descending a couple hundred metres to Refuge d'Usciolu ...
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| For what it matters: Refuge d'Usciolu is 1750 metres above sea level, not 1810 metres! |
The guardian's quarters and a little shop that sold lots of great food (including, surprisingly, very good and quite fresh bread) is at a slight remove from the refuge ...
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| Touches of civilization: solar panels and flower boxes |
The sun had again done its disappearing act for the day, despite the fact that it was only about midday when we arrived at the refuge. We were very pleased to be able to obtain lunch in the form of some great sauçisson, cheese the aforementioned bread and a hot cup of tea to wash it all down. Not having been able to get through previously to make a booking, arriving nice and early also meant that we were also lucky enough to snare spaces in the refuge.
Although quite an exposed place without a lot of plant diversity, there was still a delight here and there amongst the rocks, including this tiny community of ... whatever ...
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| I have no idea what these little plants are called |
Refuge d'Usciolu was a funny little place. Perched on a small shelf on a very rocky slope meant that there wasn't much space for tents and there were far fewer available for rent than at other places along the route. Here's a view looking back up at the refuge from below ...
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| Refuge d'Usciolu |
The refuge itself had a small eating area but no evidence of a kitchen. Unlike every other refuge along the route, there was no arrangement for petit déjeuner as such. One just bought provisions from the shop. We did wonder what the story was with dinner - which we'd paid our €9 each for! This mystery was solved a little later in the afternoon when I went back across to the shop to pick up a few snacks and saw big pots of pasta sauce bubbling away on a couple of burners set up on a shelf. Hey presto! The shop had been transformed into a small makeshift kitchen. It turned out that dinner was basically a big bowl of pasta, with seconds and even thirds available for those who wanted more. We found the one large bowl more than sufficient.
Well-provisioned with enough food for a reasonable breakfast in the morning and a hearty lunch along the trail, we went to bed early in preparation for another big day. If the weather co-operated we planned to double up again by skipping the normal stop at Refuge d'Asinau and going all the way through to Col de Bavella on the morrow ...
