Day: July 6, 2013

Bonafacio to Porto

/ brisbanefrannie / 1 Comment
Had a great nights sleep and nice breakfast (for 15 euros – why we have to pay in France I don’t know)
Then a taxi to the airport to pick up our hire car and away we went.
Oh boy , what dramatic scenery along the way. Winding roads, sheer cliffs, breath taking views. We really enjoyed the travel and hopefully Steve enjoyed the driving! He’s having a few beers now to recover.
We had morning tea at Propriano, a lovely little very French boating village, and lunch at the much larger Ajaccio which reminded us a little of Nice. Lots of boats, shops, cafes and gelato.

Propriano 

We moved on through the coastal route to Porto and it was so dramatic climbing hills and dropping down to the coastal towns. Some really lovely sandy beaches. Corsica is proving to be a well kept secret. It’s really lovely.

We arrived in Porto at 4.30 and our hotel is well located on the little harbour. We booked a boat tour tomorrow to explore the coast by sea and will head up to Girolata where there is a National Park and the Sandola Gulf. Hope we can get a little swim in. I am missing our time on the boat and even miss the swims!

Porto – mountains meet the sea

Just completed a survey from Swim trek. All good comments from us!

Saw the results of the Lions Wallaby game. Dismal result and Robbie Deans could be out of a job !

Had a beautiful dinner at La Mer -right on the front of the harbour with the most beautiful view. Steve had duck and I had just had the first meat meal since I left. Pork ! And very nice it was too.

Goodbye Sardinia

/ brisbanefrannie / Leave a comment
Last day in Sardinia started with a 1km swim at 7am,  which I did with the diehard swimmers out the front of the hotel with Francesco in the front (with his little tiny yellow boat) and Gleno in the back. No stingers was a bonus. 
Then back to the hotel – breakfast all together and then the goodbyes started. It was such a great week and so many really nice people. 

Francesco and his little yellow boat

My last swim

Memories include: meeting all the swimmers first night and discovering so many coincidences; finding I could manage to swim at least half and more of the distances; making new friends; laughing hysterically at Chris G’s ballad of Gleno – a very funny poem which started with Glen our guide but then moved on to mention everybody. This was backed up with boisterous singing led by Chris, our French American party boy. Oh how cute is he! Then there were the crystal waters, great lunches, interesting walks, funny beer sessions after the swims ( Francesco couldn’t get over the number of beers the group could go through) lovely dinners out with the group, and of course our lovely Francesco who hails from Rome and speaks English so well and has a great sense of humour. Last but not  least was the encouragement I received from everyone and to my surprise being presented with the Capo Bianco. 

I really must keep swimming! 

We packed up and, with the Freemans and the Ambroses’, caught the midday ferry to Palau where we then caught a bus to Santa Teresa for the ferry to Corsica. It was magical travelling across and arriving to see the rugged cliffs of Corsica and Bonafacio perched on the top. 

Our hotel, the Santa Teresa was high on the cliffs and our room had a birds eye view. We wandered the town – the old one which was interesting with its old gates, but its quite touristy. Had a great meal with local wine and got back to the hotel quite early as the sun went down at around 9.30!