Day Seven: Over the Col De Vergio

It's Sunday and and already hot as we checked out the hotel early. We loaded the bikes ready for a big day in the saddle. Col De Vergio is another classic road climb, from sea level to nearly 1500m over the highest road pass in Corsica. We were reasonably confident in our e-bike supported legs and battery would hold out. The climb over the Col de Vergio is one remember fondly and wanted to do again .... hopefully we'll finish the day with more good memories !

The D84 is a really incredible road that passes through steep woods and towering mountains with ravines and gorges all around.  It's popular for motorbikes, cars and cyclists but the traffic today was light. The climb begins immediately you leave Porto . In the first10 kilometres you are climbing about 50 metres per kilometre.  it eases off  somewhat after that and it feels like a decent for a while, but you are still climbing. The sea is soon far below in the distance. Somewhere down below the road are rivers which you occasionally glimpse as you wind up through the valley. There are amazing views up and down the valley and higher up, views back along the winding route you have travelled that beggar belief - did we really do that climb?? Is that the road we came up to get here?

 We'd started early and arrived in the lovely hill village of Evisa just around 12 noon. We've passed into "Corse Du Sud" and are well into the heart of the Gorges de Spelunca. Wisely, we decided not to stop for lunch in any of the many extremely tempting places that were setting up to feed and water folk. A lunch break would probably have taken at least an hour and knifing and forking is never going to be conducive to the remainder of the climb!.

We paused for a rest and photos after we'd passed through Evisa and put temptation behind us.

Just as well, as it took us another hour of ascending to reach the Col. We wizzed on through and stopped at the hotel Castellu di Vergio just below the pass. It is a refuge for walkers of the GR 20 and the highest in Corsica at 1400m. The climb had required lots of power from the electric bikes, so we both had below 20% battery left when we reached the hotel. We made full use of the refuge and were able to charged our bikes up to over 30% while enjoying a welcome sandwich and beer. Last time we did this route we had finished the day and stayed at the Casellu. This year we opted to spend the afternoon cycling and carried on on down aways to the village of Calaccia.

It is a superb, long (and for once) safe descent through tall pine woods gracefully winding down a recently resurfaced Rd for the best part of 20 kilometres. A very smooth ride! We felt for the cyclists pedalling uphill toward the Col!

We arrived at the Grand Hotel La Scala in Calacuccia around 3:00pm with a mind to wash off the journey and jump into the pool. All the staff were sitting outside, and we were quickly intercepted and told to go away and come back in an hour. They smugly informed us that we couldn't check in at all until 4:00 PM. So we grumped off and went to the cafe next door. When we were finally allowed to check in the staff were super friendly but the damage had been done. Our ground floor room - a standard twin was very, very good.

We finally got to swim in the hotels lovely hillside pool with the corsican wildflower garden up the hill above it about 5pm. By then, it had clouded over and threatening rain.

Callacuccia is a ribbon of village, deep in the hills. It sits above a beautiful artificial lake that is popular for water sports. There is a fine church, a convent building and several hotels, bars and restaurants. We didn't spend much time exploring. The hotel had suggested 2 restaurants. We chose to go to the nearest one - the Auberge U Fucaghjolu which made us very welcome. It was a popular place with a nice ambience. Linda had the Muscat Petillant and and I had the corsican pastis. Very enjoyable and a pleasant change from our usual demis. To start, we shared beignets du fromage. Linda had lamb chops. I had fillet mignon with a lovely cream and chestnut sauce. Super lamb chops. Both came with legumes du sol When we paid the bill (99.70 E) we were offered a liqueur of chestnut chatigny. Another fine evening meal. Later we found the Auberge is #1 on tripadvisor which we'd endorse! It was so lovely we will be looking for that in the airport duty free.