Porto & Piana, Corsica
Another marvelous day in the Mediterranean! Beautiful day, cool and not too windy. After breakfast we anchored off Porto, in northern Corsica. Having boarded buses, we travelled a winding road along a very old forest. This forest is one of the few examples of the original forest that covered most of the northern coast of the Mediterranean. Pines, madrones, oaks, and many big and medium bushes, including the tree heath, are now in bloom. A while later, we were already at the Calanche, an area of very old reddish granite that over time eroded into many forms, Corsicans refer to it with many different names. A few kilometers later we were in the small town of Piana, where we left the buses and walked along the very quaint streets of the little village. Bakeries, coffee shops and shops with postcards and local handicrafts…
Back to the buses, which took us down a few kilometers, we started walking down the highway enjoying the fantastic views and plants: orchids, heaths, tree spurges, lupines and stonecrops. A great day for botany! A short distance later, we were met by the buses at a postcard shop, where we again used these vehicles to drive back to Porto. Here, we boarded our Zodiacs. Back on the ship we had a long-awaited lunch. By then our ship was moving south, where we again stopped and anchored to enjoy the sunny afternoon. We kayaked, hiked up and along a very difficult trail, and rested at a small beach with rounded pebbles instead of sand. Again the plants were very interesting!
After dinner we stopped at the town of Ajazzio, where we had the opportunity to walk around and see the small city at night.
