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corsica camping?

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 Tony the Blade 27 Jun 2015
Good morning,

Our lass and I have two whole weeks booked in corsica during last week of July and first week of august.

Many of the guidebooks state that you should book your campsites well in advance. Given that we don't know where we'll be as we'd prefer a free reign to go trekking at our own pace and decide what we do and when we do it ad hoc. So, do we really need to book in advance or can we leave it to chance?

Also do you have any trekking and/or beach and/or places to recommend.

Many thanks... have a great weekend
 mbh 27 Jun 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

We did the GR20 in 2011, from Vizzavona northwards, over 9 days. Any part of the GR20 is lovely. You can dip in and out of it as you please, and we saw many parties doing that. Most (all?) of the refuges allowed camping, but I don't think you're allowed to wild camp anywhere else near the path, and if you camp they don't seem to like you using the kitchens indoors .
In reply to mbh:

Yeah, no wild camping so I'm told.

I see there are 19 IGN (1:25,000) maps to cover the island... are the 1:50k maps suitable as a general guide and then get 1:25k when we're there?
Lostsky 27 Jun 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

We spent a glorious month there last year (july-aug) and we didn't book anything in advance. We had no problems. If you can get a copy, find the wild swimming in france book- the Corsica section is brilliant and made our holiday. The (?)Rother guide (small with red cover) was good value but not the sunflower one. Have fun
In reply to Lostsky:

Excellent - thank you for that.

Never thought of the wild camping book... I'm slowly working my way through the UK one... Top tips

Thanks again, TtB
Lostsky 27 Jun 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

The wild swimming guide not the wild camping one ! They get very shirty about wild camping- mainly due to the fire risk. we just looked on tinternet in advance there are loads of sites.
In reply to Lostsky:

Sorry that was my typo... I know not to wild camp there. I meant wild swimming.
 Trangia 27 Jun 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

It's few years since now, but I have wild camped in the Viro Valley several times. When we found the body of a German climber who had been killed falling from the Cinque Fratti, the police came to recover his tent and possessions as it turned out he had been wild camping near us.

They told us that although wild camping is banned they would generally turn a blind eye so long as you choose a discrete spot well away from habitation and don't polute water courses. They didn't move us on.

A word of warning about wild camping though. Don't leave any food in your tent. We had our tent trashed and our food stolen by wild boars.
 mbh 28 Jun 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

Yes, probably,as long as you think you will have time to go out and buy the 1:25k maps once you are there. I knew we didn't, so got the ones we needed before going. But then, we knew our route in advance and had a tight pre-booked schedule. We also had the rough Guide 1:135k map for the whole island to get an idea of the general geography.

For the GR20, we used the Paddy Dillon Cicerone guide, but the German and French guides, available in the local shops, have better maps of each stage.

I particularly liked the Pietro Piana refuge. We had to bail there because of bad weather (we had three teenagers with ius) , and walked down a very lovely valley to the railway at Tattone/Savvvagio, where there is a camp site that serves great food, past the fantastic Bergeries de Tolla - for cheese, bread, sausage and wine. We spent a night in Corte then took the bus up to Col Vergio and rejoined the GR20 there. I recommend a scramble up the Paglia Orba if you stay at Ciottulu di i Mori.

Calvi, at the northern tip, is rammed with cafes etc and a bit of a let down after the interior.
 Stairclimber 01 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

Just back from a glorious week camping at 'A Marina' between Ile Rousse and Calvi. You can walk to the big white sandy beach in 2 mins and mix fantastic bouldering with snorkelling at its northern end. The site has big pitches and lots of mature trees. We paid mid season prices of 16.50 euros per night for tent, 2 people with a car. Big supermarket 5 mins drive away and a small one at the site entrance. Calvi is 15 mins away. Several crags nearby. It's a tortuous drive but worth the effort to go to Portu for some cragging off the beach, which is much better than you'd expect it to be. Variety of climbs that are really well equipped. Camp sites at Portu look good from driving past.
I would warn you that any driving away from the main roads takes longer than you think it will take.
 Elsier 02 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

I've just been on a climbing trip to Corsica- it was amazing, so much to do!

I'd really recommend both Bavella and Restonica. There are the two main climbing areas on the Island but I think they would probably offer great trekking too, especially Bavella, it's spectacular and not to be missed!

The area around the North West is nice for beaches as others have said and there is also some nice trekking up at Bonifatu.
 john ryden 07 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

I'd stay as flexible as you can, you will find places that take your fancy & just want to stay
The mountains have been particularly unsettled this last couple of months. A tragic avalanche on the GR as result of rockfall brought on by mid day storms. We were 10 miles away on the hill in sunshine! I think there are still diversions in place on the Cirque de la Solitude. Lot to be said for staying by the river or coast but keeping within shooting distance of the higher hills.
Porto/Piana have campsites and great walking if you get up before the day gets too hot.
Bavella might have overnight wild camping options on the col, great walking. Zonza & Quenza down the road have good camping.
Corte would make a good base if the weather is settled.
Monte San Petrone gives a day out with great views (cloud permitting) a great shaded approach. Campsites in the Castaniccia villages & shaded waymarked paths -
http://www.castagniccia.fr/pages.html/pages_francais/cartedessentiers.html

Garages sell decent scale IGN maps, book & sports shops with walking guides in Ajaccio (place palmier) Bastia & Calvi. Loads of stuff if you trawl the web -
http://www.l-invitu.net/randonnees.php#senetosa
http://corse-sauvage.com/liens-randonnee.html

Have a great time, I still am after nearly 50 years of the place!
 Dave Garnett 07 Jul 2015
In reply to john ryden:

Very useful thread; just looking at booking a last minute combined beach/walking climbing holiday on Corsica. Never been before but it looks good!
 ChrisJD 07 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:
We had an amazing time there last year travelling around in our van. Last two weeks August, first week September. went to some amazing places (all over the Island!); we stayed away from Corte as very busy.

Campsites in the mountains should be easier to get into (though you going at the busiest time). Campsite near/on the coast generally not very nice at all, overcrowded, average facilities and very expensive! Beaches are silly busy.

The high mountain river swimming is just brilliant.

We'll be going back for sure.

We had eighteen (out of 21?) of the 1:25,000 maps for the island which proved very useful for finding off the beaten track places.

The Islands has 1,000s of wild pigs (not boars). Makes for a different hazard to sheep when MTBing at speed.
Post edited at 14:20
 john ryden 07 Jul 2015
In reply to Dave Garnett:

For climbing info check out
http://escalade.corse.topo.free.fr/index.php?menu=gdv_gb&page=Climbing%...
There is a guide to each of 'Sports Routes', 'Adventure Routes' & Bouldering.
 bluerockman 07 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

Tony,

I guided on the GR20 last year covering the whole route in 10 days. Due to this ambitious time table we didn't book any of our sites for the route in case the plan changed. We worked in contingency into our time line and worked of an ad hoc basis. What was of great benefit was booking the campsites at the start and the finish. This made a huge difference of getting good spots for myself and the team. From the sound of your OP you're not planning on doing the whole GR20 so my advice would be to dabble in the Northern Section of the route. This give a more mountainous feel to your days out and with a bit of planning you can get some very good 2-3 day excursions in.

Each of the refuges have camping areas and bunk houses. The bunk house will need booking and are notoriously "rustic". A basic level of French is very beneficial, even to show the Corsicans that you're making an effort. English is far less common on the Island than in the rest of Europe. Secondly arriving early at the refuges give you the best spots to pick from and in the high season they can get very busy. A couple of days around the area that takes in the Cirque de Solitude is a great way to see more of the rugged parts of the Island, as long as you enjoy your scrambling and are steady on your feet.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me and I'll try an give you more advice where I can.
 ChrisJD 08 Jul 2015
In reply to bluerockman:

Reading TtB posts, I don't think they are planning 'to do' the GR20. More aiming to go trekking at different locations across the island?
 jonny taylor 08 Jul 2015
In reply to bluerockman:

> A basic level of French is very beneficial, even to show the Corsicans that you're making an effort

Your experience might have differed, but I found that in the bergeries even a few words of Corsican pleased them a lot more than fluent French - I get the impression they don't identify very strongly with the French.
Rigid Raider 08 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

History would seem to support that impression!

On two occasions when we've been in Calvi the local Foreign Legion have held very public and visible exercises in the bay, parachuting and charging around, which I'm sure is designed to remind the locals that France still rules Corsica.

It actually looked so good that we strolled up to the exhibition in the citadel where we asked about joining the Foreign Legion as they do climbing, canoeing, parachuting, kicking doors open and camping but the French soldier in a képi wan't very amused by our request. So we thought about joining the Corsican Mafia instead but they Godfather type who owned the restaurant and sat watching everybody with his beady eyes looked quite scary so we ordered some more wine instead.
 DrIan 08 Jul 2015

Dont skip the south of the island, the beaches are stunning and loads to choose from plage roccapina, Palombaggia, recommend Santa Guilia the main beach is gorgeous but we always head to the smaller beach past the marina next to the rocky head land crystal clear water and boulders to swim out to and sun bathe on...
Post edited at 13:51
In reply to DrIan:

Wow wow wow I didn't realise there were follow up posts. Thank you all for taking the time to comment.

We fly out next Thursday and as someone said we're not doing the GR20, nor anything resembling it, however we are spending two weeks walking, snorkeling, camping etc

I can't wait, and some of your tips have really helped us focus on the start of the holiday.

Thank you
 ChrisJD 16 Jul 2015
In reply to Tony the Blade:

Also be aware that eating out is really really expensive on Corsica (especially compared to northern Spain and the Basque country where we went at Easter).

And it seemed hard to get a decent coffee.

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