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January 16 Monday Bicycle touring France from our free bicycle seaside camping spot to Bonifaco Corsica We bid fond farewell to our seaside resort spot. This has been one of the nicest places for scenic, weather, and no crowds of people. A tough combination to beat. Lack of food forces us to move on. We kindly push our fully loaded touring bicycle steeds up a rocky, bumpy, gravel road and out onto the main highway. We look down to where we had been. We were well hidden by the shrubbery. We stop in a little town to buy bread in case we see a must-stop place along the road to eat at. We mail a packet of postcards home. The road we are cycling winds up, down, and around the sea coast some more, following bays and gulfs. The sun's rays bounce playfully off the water's surface. We arrive in Bonificio at noon. An immense concrete citadel sits imposingly on the hilltop. We cycle the narrow road winding up along the shore of the harbour. At the port for the ferry to Sardegna we find the sailing times of 10 AM and 4 PM which take one hour to cross. The ticket office is closed. We cycle back along the lower port road to a grocery store and hurry inside before they close for two to three hours at 12:30. No hours are posted, but after shopping for ten minutes the lights begin to turn off. We rush our purchases to the check-out where the cashier has already left to go and put her coat on. She rings us through, then a button is pressed to let us out the sliding glass doors, depositing us on a one-way street facing the harbour front filled with moored sailing boats and sight-seeing tourist excursion boats. Not much activity in low season. I don't see any ticket sellers open. The place is deserted. Leaving our fully loaded touring bikes leaning near a palm tree we wander into the sunshine and sit down on a make-shift bench constructed of a concrete plank atop two cement filled tires. We eat our picnic lunch of Corsica oranges, tomato, Swiss cheese and tuna sandwiches, accompanied by the watchful gaze of three local cats. Deciding it best to take the morning ferry tomorrow since we would arrive at 5 PM on Sardegna with little daylight and no money since Sardegna is part of Italy. Also, the ferry brochure assured that the morning ferry as minimum low season service, but could cancel the PM sailing at their discretion.Sharon has no desire to sleep on another terminal dock. We cycle along the road towards the beach and past the golf course. To my dismay this part of the island is a lot more developed than the side we just left. The town of Bonificio is on the southernmost tip of the island and separates the west of the island from the east. The road we are cycling is a narrow lane lined on both sides by high rock piled fences -- some crumbling in places. After backtracking from a couple of wrong turns, which we term "exploring," we end up in more or less the place we had intended. I think. Anyway, the road split, one going to a tourist complex which appeared deserted, the other ending at a small beach and rounded brown sandstone rocks. We found a cut grassy area with lots of room for our bicycle touring tent and bikes with a view of Bonificio Strait. Small islands dot the strait with Sardinia rising as a bulk in the background. Gee, it looks hilly over there too. The near full moon makes a handsome appearance over the water. Sharon bought paella which is rice and a seafood mix in a can. We add our boil in a bag wheat and eat a scrumptious dinner. Amazing what one can eat when one is a starving bicycle tourist. |
