Four years ago we tried the "after season" trip to Corsica Mountains in September. We had quite bad weather conditions, lots of rain and wind, especially for the north part of the trek that is more difficult. This time we chose the South GR20 which seems to be easier.
Corsica is French island on Mediteraeen Sea,
When we did the north part of the GR20 we come to Corsica by plane, and simply walk from Calvi airport to the trek. This time it was not an option because it was a middle of "a long weekend" period: prices were up and reservations out. So we took a cheaper possibility which makes possible to arrive and leave the island in two different places: TGV form Paris to Marseilles and then a night ferry to Bastia; night ferry from Ajaccio to Marseilles and then TGV to Paris. The nearest place from Ajaccio to get to the GR20 is Corte, a very nice fortified city in the middle of mountains, easy to reach by train [but there is only few of them in a day] from Bastia. From there we walked Mare a Mare centre trail which joins the GR in the valley of Manganu.
Other [simpler] option would be go by train to Vizzavona as the GR goes through this nice small village. But we would miss some very nice views on mountain lakes.
Although easier than the north part, the GR20 is for us the reference for physical walking... We have begun on 400m and finished on 100m but wait there was more than 2000m in between!. In total we did on 144km trail +9145m and -9787m. See denivellation plot from my GPS.
Weather was excellent, excluding one rainy day at the beginning. Moreover we had better photographic equipment, better shoes, rain jackets, new GPS [for fun!], and more time [2 weeks].
Going there we hadn't thought that we would walk on the snow many times. Justina found a walking stick very useful. If snow were more frozen on some parts of the trail, it would be very dangerous or even impassable because of exposure. I would even say that small crampons and a stick are obligatory for May trekking.
It is possible to buy some in refuges but few of them were closed [but with sleeping possiblity]. A night in any refuge costs 9EUR. I think that it is possible to walk with no tent but sometimes you will have to pay for night, we didn't! Note: we didn't pay for any night in refuge! That's a privilege of walking before the season [ ]
That was not a problem because May is a snow-melting season.
No problem on this trek, you do not need a gps :) but anyway you can get my track with waypoints here [Garmin mps format].
That was one of our nicer treks but it is a very physical too! Once we did
two Lonely Planet guide legs in one day and we were dead at the end of the day.
The biggest pleasure was that temperatures were just right and there were only
few people on the trail.
|
|
|
|
