Corsica 2nd of May – 9th of May 2010

After all the anticipation of:” will we or won’t we go” what with all the volcanic ash in the air, we were pleased that we could finally go on our first proper holiday! We jet of on an airplane and on arrival to Ajaccio airport we pick up a brand new Peugot 308 with only 11km on it.

Our Brand new ride

We set off to the other side of South Corsica past some amazing landscapes and stopped off at a lovely beach (Roccapina) on the way to have some lunch.
We were staying at a place called Ranch Campo, which we lovingly started calling ‘the gay ranch’. Ranch Campo is situated near Palombaggia beach, supposedly the best beach in the area! After having arrived and settled in at our ‘mini villa’ we decide to walk the ’short distance’ and soon find out that although it’s a lovely walk with loads of plants, trees and flowers that Mike endlessly points out to me, it is quite far! The beach looks nice but we are not majorly impressed, we must have been spoiled with Barbados!!

As Mike had kindly read all of the lonely planet, done all the Internet research and made a loose plan and a top 10 of things to do or not to be missed, I was happy giving him the reigns!
So in the next week we saw loads of amazing beaches (courtesy of some website with a top ‘however many’ beaches of Corsica), explored nearby village Piccovagia and nearby town Porto-Vecchio and went on a few stunning hikes with the best one by far from a lighthouse on ’seven sister like’ cliffs to Bonifacio and scared ourselves driving along the cliffs in the mountains. Or it could’ve been just me that was afraid to look.

Mike not feeling too flash

We also went horseriding -at Chex Pierrot in the mountains near Quenza – with a lovely chap who did not speak any English, but in our little French plus hands and feet we understood each other. The Frenchman and his boss (Pierrot) were just having some lunch and whether we wanted to or not, we got some too: chunks of bread cheese and some red wine, very nice actually! And the fire place was very welcoming too as it turned out to be quite cold up there in the mountains. On the horseride it was Mike’s turn to s#!¥ himself as mr Frenchie, the dogs and me gallopped along, Mike was hobbling after us. Frenchie asked us: ‘good?’ and I said:’YEAH!’ whilst Mike just looked ill. He got the hang of it in the end though and despite the cold and some rain, we saw some awesome views up there.

chilling at the Bar on Palombaggia beach

Another of Mike’s plans was to go canyoning: climbering rocks and coves, through river and white water and some cliff jumping thrown in, all in attire of trainers, wetsuit and helmet. Sounded ace to me, but unfortunately the weather gods were not with us. The weather on the coast was amazing but up in the mountains, where the canyoning would have taken place, it was too cold apparently to do it, so unfortunately this was cancelled. At least it gives us a really good reason to come back one day!!

On the last day we checked out some more beaches but they were not that great. As as it’s really sunny and didn’t see the famous Palombaggia in the sun on our first day, we decide to see if maybe it is as amazing as everyone thinks it is. Sure enough, it is packed -which must mean other people think the beach is awesome- but makes it a tad less fantastic for us. We walk toward the distance where it’s less busy and sun it up, after a while we feel like a beer and see a bar further along. We walk over to check it out and BANG! This must be where amazing Palombaggia is! It is to us anyway, chilled out music, comfy wooden loungers and comfy chairs/sofas/beds on the beach, beer in hand, sun on face, what more do you want?! We are VERY content anyway, it’s the perfect end to a perfect holiday.