Wednesday, October 9th - Day 29 - Plage de Cupabia and Hike to Tower
Wednesday morning we opened the electric shutters to a glorious, sunny, warm day with just enough of a breeze to keep things comfortable. We immediately thought we had to get out on a hike, and quickly decided on a local one that started at the left end (southern) of our local beach (Cupabia) and ended after 1.5 hours of what was advertised as "easy" walking to a local defensive tower. With that plan in mind, we worked on the blog for a couple hours in the morning, as we were in danger of getting hopelessly behind on our travel reminiscences.
Around 11am we packed a picnic lunch (including 2 bottles of Corsican beer - one a 'blonde' and one IPA) and drove about 15 minutes to the beach - the roads here are narrow but are at least two lanes (for the most part!) and that makes driving easier than in Ireland, for example, or in the 'villages perche' around Monaco. The quality of the road surface is highly variable - yesterday's was pretty rough. The switchbacks that appear constantly in this mountainous terrain make progress slow - I guess we've been averaging about 30-40 km per hour in all our driving here today.
The beach was lovely - soft, white sand. There were a couple of dozen sunbathers and swimmers when we arrived. One surprise (that caught Munroe's attention) was that several of the women were topless! Gotta love the French! We walked about 1/3rd of a mile in the soft sand and found the well-marked trailhead.
The walking initially was good - sandy trail with modest ups and downs. However, at about the 1/2 way point we encountered more challenging terrain and footing from time to time. But it was the last 15-20 minutes of the steep climb up to the tower that took the cake. Heavy rains had washed away a lot of soil and what was left was loose rock and large boulders that at one point may have made good steps. We struggled on the way up - by this time we were hot and a bit tired - but worried all the while about the descent.
Getting to the tower, all was forgiven and we both loved the panoramic view over the Mediterranean and the local beaches and mountains. Simply glorious. We enjoyed our picnic lunch - baguette sandwiches with charcuterie ham, tomato, and cheese, with some melon on the side. Munroe consumed both beers (since Deb didn't want hers and he was determined not to carry one all the way back - in the backpack, at least!).
The tower was constructed by the Genevese who controlled Corsica in the 16th century. They used the tower both to defend against invaders, to monitor and keep out ships that hadn't been sufficiently quarantined or posed some sort of health risk, and as a conduit for communication, as there were many of these towers around the coast of Corsica. You could see the next tower to the north easily and they would have communicated by using fires.
Zooming in on the beach
The tower has been nicely preserved and restored. We discovered that you could actually climb up the tower - an outside solid metal ladder took you to the living quarters about 1/2 way up. There you found another nice ladder that took you to the top of the tower. Deb decided against this part of the adventure but Munroe went up. He took a video of the lovely panorama - but sadly it fails to do justice to the beauty of the place.
To our surprise (and relief), the descent wasn't as bad as we'd feared as we climbed. We were very careful to establish good footing while stepping down and generally took our time. The hike back seemed shorter than the one out - something I've noticed frequently when we go out on walks.
We got back to the car and drove to nearby Porto Pollo, a nice seaside village with a lovely marina, several shops, hotels, and restaurants. Deb wanted to find a post box to mail her postcards back home, and after asking at the shop at the marina, we finally managed to locate the small box. We had hoped to visit the Spar supermarket to pick up some meat and milk but they were closed until 4:30.
We couldn't wait that long. Munroe had to be back to make a call to Paris to order a new travel CPAP machine - his old machine from home was giving up the ghost and managed to find about the least convenient spot imaginable to do so. He had done some internet research and tried unsuccessfully to get one from a local company in Ajaccio. So his next plan was to wait until Tokyo and purchase one - hopefully cheaper than we could at home. A bit of research, however, showed that buying CPAPs in Japan is next to impossible (need a Japanese doctor's prescription after a sleep test there), and up to 10 times more expensive than in other places! Fortunately, the French are much more permissive and the guy Munroe spoke with said "if you have a CPAP machine now, there is no problem getting another." What a relief. So we have one ordered and it will be shipped priority post (1-2 days) to our hotel in Nice where we'll be on Monday night. Our Airbnb host kindly offered to use his address for shipment (our apartment is on an unnamed track, so there isn't much of a postal address here to use) but we are so remote - an hour at least even from Ajaccio, the nearest city - that we didn't want to chance shipping it here and to miss the delivery.
We had a quiet night (as always!) - chicken and pasta with a tomato sauce made with the remarkably flavourful Corsican tomatoes. Unfortunately, Munroe put in a coarsely chopped local green chili and it really turned the heat up on the sauce. Munroe loved it but Deb wasn't as positive about the effect! For dessert, we had some vanilla ice cream with a Corsican limoncello sauce. DELICIOUS. Then off to bed for some reading until light's out. Another glorious day!