Day 4 in Corse: From Galeria to Porto

PortoGetting up early and running into a boulangerie for a croissant, we drove out to what Cecile promised would be a wonderful sight: Les Calanches de Piana, which are masses and masses of porphyry stone eroded into mask shapes, dog’s head, bug faces and other crazy shapes. We laughed at the GPS saying it would be a one hour drive as we drove on the improbably twisty roads without even speed limits and with tiny little jagged stone barriers on the ocean side of the towering cliffs(we figured the dumb ones who go too fast would get weeded out pretty quickly). The drive down into Porto was stunning- cow strewn and lined with rocky cliffs that appeared to be straight from a movie set. In Porto we checked out the speed boat situation and decided that it was too expensive for all of us to go (and pretty windy too!) so Sven booked himself a two-hour speed boat tour of the cliffs and neighboring bays. While we waited for the boat trip to start we headed up to the Genoese watchtower, built on a rocky promontory jutting out into the bay. Afterwards, we spent a couple hours on the beach building forts and watching people stick their toes in the surf and run screaming out.The Genoa watchtower in Porto.

Sven’s boat trip was wild and windy... from Sven: Being it was the only time we would be here to visit why not, others were going right? At 1:30 I left the girls and jumped onto a speed boat that had seats you straddled more than you sat. From the start, as we crashed though the pounding waves on the beach, until we returned, we were bounced around as if we had no reason to be on the water. The speed boat, which seated 12 people, had 7 of us (either brave or just stupid) going out to see the cliffs of the Scandola nature reserve on such a rough day when many of the other companies had canceled their boat trips. I tried to see about getting Eilidh but she was too young, for insurance reasons to go on this boat. Our trip out to the reserve took 35 minutes or so- I tried to take pictures but was more intent on hanging on and timing the waves so I was slammed against the seat and looking at the rouged coastline wondering where in the world were all the sea birds. The entire time I only saw five seagulls and nothing more- this was bothersome.

Once we reached the reserve, I wasn't impressed until our driver took us in close and into the crevasses of the cliffs. As I looked up I began to appreciate the trip out.... such wonderful natural formations! The photos definitely don't capture the beauty of this area. Perhaps one day we will return and take an evening trip out on a calm day so we can all see the natural wonders. I thought our trip out was rough but going into the waves was just a little worse. Our driver would occasionally turn the boat so we would get splashed a little and we were bounced around as we turned the cape to head back towards Porto. On our way back we stopped into the small town "Girolata", mainly for boaters and tourists on boat trips like the one I was on. Like every where else we have been, they were closing up shop for the winter as most tourists had stopped coming (except for the numerous Germans for some reason). Girolata is only accessible by boat or 4-wheelers. We were given 30 minutes, but 45 minutes later we started back to Porto. I walked the beach and found some wonderful wood to carve and one piece that looks like a troll, or as Bella said "an alien." On our way back I was impressed by our driver- who not only understood how to quarter the waves but was able to calculate each wave so our return was not as bumpy as it could have been. Salt crusted and happy to have gone, I was just as happy to be back with my girls.

Later, we found a quiet little campsite in which to set up our tent and headed back to town for an amazing fish dinner overlooking the windy bay. Talking to the waitress, we discovered that this town would almost completely shut down in two weeks (the guide book said that it would be like a ‘ghost town’ by November). By the time we got back to the campground it was dark so we climbed into our tent and Sven started reading The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe to the girls, followed by the trading off of silly story telling. All of us went to sleep warm (weird feeling for a tent!) and woke up comfortable. Wonderful way to end a day in a wild and marvelous part of Corsica.