Goodbye Corsica!

Our last day on Kosika greeted us with wonderful sunshine. The mountains shone in the morning sun and we enjoyed das breakfast in front of the Giga-Mega-Super-Bergpanorama of our great hotel.

Later we said goodbye to the nice innkeeper couple to drive up the Asco Valley completely. The dead end road leads a total of 33 kilometers up into the mountains to 1,450 meter up to a ski station. There may still be snow here until May. The Ski station is located at the foot of Mount Cinto, the highest mountain in Corsica at 2,706 meters. It's good that we were there early, because we could still enjoy the silence undisturbed.

Finally, we packed our belongings and rolled down the valley a bit. As we scanned the river course and the footpaths that led down from the road, Our intention was to go swimming in the Asco River today.

The water of the Asco River was crystal clear and ice cold! Scattered in the river were large and smaller rocks that had wonderfully rounded by the water. A wonderful place to linger! The strong current did not allow us to "swim out" here, but in protected areas, a refreshing full bath was possible. Since our ferry will only depart from Bastia at 9 pm, we had almost all the time in the world and enjoyed the stay to the fullest.

In theory, we could have driven directly to Bastia in less than two hours from there, but even on the last day we took we took every opportunity to see as much as possible of our dream island. So we went down the Asco Valley again and then on the expressway up to the north to the edge of the Désert des Agriates. The Agriates Desert is a rocky stone desert and extends almost forty kilometers along the north coast of the island. It can only be accessed on foot, by mountain bike, or by off-road vehicle. Unfortunately, we were denied access, so this desert went straight to the "wishlist" for our next stay in Corsica.

By now the sky had become significantly cloudy and the climate had become humid and oppressive. Therefore, and because the time schedule might have become tight, we decided against a complete circumnavigation of Cape Corse, the pointer finger of Corsica, and only drove to Nonza on its west side. The place looked pretty and from the road an interesting, square tower could be seen, which is why we spontaneously decided to take a short walk. With the weather and our motorcycle gear, we barely made it to a restaurant at the foot of the tower. Arriving there, we were amazed: the beach, which could now be seen from here, was dark gray to black, and it looked almost like asphalt.

In fact, the black is a waste product of asbestos mining, which used to take place here for a long time. Although the problematic material has not been mined for decades, the unattractive coating remains on the beach. At least the dark surface is suitable for permanently writing oversized (love) messages that can be read well from a distance. We have saved the over 1,000 steps of the stairs from Nonza down to the black beach for the next visit to Corsica (or for the one after that...). ;-)

We were glad to have arrived dry in Bastia against all expectations. We spent the remaining time until we were allowed on the ferry in a (air-conditioned) mall, drank a coffee or two, and bought some travel supplies.

Checking in for our ferry, the MobyLines heading for Genoa, which was decorated with huge figures of the Looney Tunes, namely Tweety, Sylvester, Coyote, Daffy Duck, Road Runner and Co., was quick and easy.

In a few minutes we were in our cabin and first took a good shower. Later we went up to the deck and watched our ship's departure maneuver against the backdrop of Bastia.

For the appropriate end of the beautiful day we looked for a table in a somewhat secluded location in the self-service restaurant and opened the bottle of Corsican red wine we bought today. It tasted great even from the plastic toothbrush cups that we fortunately found in our cabin. We also had local wild boar salami and wonderful cheese - what a delight!

Goodbye Corsica, it was wonderful!