We'd planned an excursion up the Asco Valley today and hopefully a less taxing ride toward Ponte Leccia. We rolled down to the Asco and stopped to admire the river as it opened out into the plain before heading up into the gorge. We then followed the increasingly steep and narrow road as far as possible - thankfully that involved a village and a very decent lunch - great burger and chips with even better views. The ride back was equally spectacular - a wild, lovely place and

We'd planned to ride via Monticello over to Belgodere, but when we checked out were advised to follow the valley route and what good advice !. So, back down into the valley and the climb up to Felicito. After that it was an easy ride along the contour line to Belgodere, with stunning views over to Santa and Monicello. Belgodere was a jolly place, gearing up for lunch but we were a little early and had many miles to go, so we had a cold drink and pressed on. Only to attempt a

our trip starts here

Woke early and took a photo of the early morning daylight over the bay. Again, we rode From the Hotel Santa we followed the edge of the valley, keeping high passing through Aregne, Cateri and arrived in time for lunch at Filicito. Then we dropped down to the valley botton and swung around the lake to clime back up to Santa Reparata. Again a relaxing swim at dinner at the hotel. This time with desert! We enjoyed another amazing sunset

A short ride from sea level up to Santa Reparata, where we left our bags at the Hotel Santa then rode on. A short rest day was planned, but we rode up to San Antonio for lunch and it became quite a long but lovely ride. we ate in a little, friendly place at the 'lower' entrance to the village - salad and beer then retraced our route back. We checked into the hotel and chilled in the pool. We ate at the hotel, sharing their famous cheese beignets, with veal chop (massive), St

We are staying in the L'Escale Côté Sud in the centre of Ille Rousse for Saturday night in town. est 46km

We have a choice of going via Col Teghime or direct down the coast (44 to 31 Km but some difference in gradient ! We are staying in the lovely Hotel Restaurant L'Europe again. Oligastro ride to St Florent via Nonza St Florent

a longer day on the bike - about 54 km. We are staying in the Hotel St Roche in Ogliastro A spectacular ride over the Cap Corse, with views over to Elba. Then down to Port Centuri for primavera pizza and large beers on the harbour.

Cycle about 37km out of Bastia along the East coast of Cap Corse. We are staying in the hotel U Ricordu in the fishing village of Maccinggio. Hoping to use the pool.

The plan is to fly to Bastia on a really early flight. Hopefully customs won't be too horrendous. We'll bus into Bastia and leave our bags at the Hotel . have lunch, check in and collect the bikes. Time will tell! We are staying at the Hotel Central in a Comfort Double Room with balcony over the street. All went to plan.

Our final checkout of the holiday - another hot day. We went for a walk after breakfast admiring the lovely mosaic pavements. We taxied to the airport and quickly got through security. But customs !!!! OMG we queued for at least an hour and a half to get through passport control, largely due to the lack of custom officers. The magnificent duty free was almost deserted with everyone waiting to get in then rushing for the plane gates. We had barely 30 mins to spare. Once on the

This morning we packed and called a taxi to Faro. We left our bags at the Senor Gigi guest house and enjoyed a coffee and cake at the cafe opposite. We strolled around Faro and went to the cathedral in all it's baroque splendour, and walked back via the marina. We had lunch in a little cafe near the hotel. In the evening we took a different route and discovered the main shopping streets nearby. Still not very hungry so we shared a risotto for the evening meal. The weather was

We ventured out into the heat of the morning at 10am intent on foraging and making the most of market day. Very many people - locals and tourists alike had much the same idea, the harbour was thronged. The whole space along the front lined with mostly fruit and veg stalls. Honey, cheese, eggs, olives - all very fresh and proper. We bought cheese, a slice of Iberico and more broad beans, plus strawberries, olives, lemons and bread. The bars were so full and busy that we abando

Early start again - kicking of with freshly baked pastell nata and americano's before hitting the road. We'd worked out a good route out of town, heading toward the coast path but carrying on to Queldes, swinging over on to Barrances and on up past quitados Poetas toward Estoi climbing higher into the hills around Sao Bras. As we climbed higher into the hills tha terrain became a little greener than down around the coast. The olive and orange groves were grassed with sheep gr

An early start to the 'rest day' as we wanted to catch the 10 ferry over to the Isla Armona. We had coffee and our first pastelle nata by the harbour before piling onto the ferry with a gaggle of eager holiday makers and a small army of excited young children, It took just 15 enthralling minutes to chugg along past the salt marshes to the island. After disembarking we walked the 1.2 km to the beach. It runs for miles along the lenght of the island towards Fuseta. Such a restf

The days are promising warmer fine weather and it was very sunny start to the day. We set off along a route K had mapped to get us out of Olhao. Thankfully the streets were pretty quiet and we quickly escaped the town into the glorious countryside. We had a lovely rolling ride towards Estoi with some steeper sections that the bikes took easily. Arriving in Estoi it was suddenly uncomfortably hot as midday hit the streets. We found a charming, welcoming and very busy restaura

Relaxed start - set off slowly and cautiously at 10:30 getting used to the bikes and the godawful one sided SPD pedals that we ordered by mistake. We'd decided to head toward Tavira by the coastal route. Finding the Ecovia was difficult - first to get out past the industrial/ port area and then to find the ecovera itself. It did not appear on google maps but in fact runs very close to the railway line at first. Once found the route was pretty easy along mostly board walks and

The Casa Rosa, Olhao, nr Faro on the Algarve It's 6pm and we're sitting on the stunning roof top terrace of the Casa Rosa listening to Fado and enjoying a glass of Sagres Cerveja. It has been cloudy and cool all day but the sun has just come through and it is very warm. All has gone amazingly well. Getting through Gatwick and flying to Faro was unusually smooth. On arrival however, we had to queue for nearly an hour to get through passport control. The delays seem to have be

Ravinda Bhogal "Slurp the blues away" - in The Guardian 28th Jan 2026 Khao swe ( (pronounced cow sway) is a Burmese sweet-sour noodle soup with hot coconut broth, springy noodles and a madness of garnishes, from boiled eggs, red onion, to peanuts or crisp shallots. Feel free to experiment. Ingredients 2 tbsp neutral oil 1 stick cinnamon 1 star anise 2 red onions , peeled and sliced into very fine half-moons 3 fat garlic cloves , peeled and finely crushed 2½cm piece fresh gi

This is from Polpo: A Venetian Cookbook (Of Sorts) by Russell Norman. We really liked his bread recipes but the other chapters not so much. The saltiness of the anchovy and the earthiness of the chickpeas here are great bedfellows. Its another of those make-a-big-batch-and/keep in the-fridge recipes that is just perfect for snacks. Ingredients for ten crostini 1 X 400g tin of chickpeas 10 brown anchovy fillets, plus some of their oil Juice of /z lemon 1 handful of flat parsl