Corsica 1998 Patrick couldn't make it this year, so Mark and myself packed both our bikes into the back of his little Renault van, took the ferry across to Calais and drove 12 hours through the night to Villeneuve-Loubet (near Nice) where I used to live, rebuilt the bikes and caught the ferry from Nice to Bastia in the north of Corsica.
We stayed for just a week, staying in small hotels each night. We had taken sleeping bags intending to sleep out at least a couple of times, but in the end we never used them.
We ended up doing rather a lot of road-riding, but found some great areas for off-road riding (see Route Map below) :

• The Desert des Agriates between St. Florent and L'Ile Rousse, especially the track along the coast from Anse de Malfalco towards Punta di l'Ancola;
• The hill roads which head south  from Calacuccia across the dam and up over the mountains above.
• The woods from Lake Calacuccia up towards the ski station at Col de Vergio. This is the Forêt de Valdo-Niello. However some of it is off-limits, so you have to be careful where you ride.
• The area between Zonza and Conca. You come off the tarmac road just after the Bocca d' Illarata and there are loads of trails up over the mountains.

Corsica trip photos Route Map  [ Home ] 

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