Corsica: Sermano to Corte

The first day of walking was to take me from Sermano to Corte. I was driven to the start by taxi along the scary, narrow lanes that surround Corte.

Walk from Sermano to Corte, Corsica

It doesn’t take long before things start to go wrong. Crossing a stream I manage to put my whole foot in the water, fortunately only fleetingly and so I am not completely waterlogged.

A little while later I take what I think must be a wrong turning. By the time I get to the bottom I try to compensate for the error, but am still not able to see the “path on the left after a bridge.” On returning to the path I exited earlier I quickly cross a small bridge and there on the left is a path. I was right all along!

Walk from Sermano to Corte, Corsica

The karma shortly turned against me, as the path led me to a stream that I crossed and found no more path! There was supposed to be a wide, cobbled path but I never found it, instead falling back on battling my way directly up the forested hill. I have a number of scratches to prove it.

Walk from Sermano to Corte, Corsica

I never found out whether I took the right path at the top of the hill.

Luckily it was only the first couple of hours that I made such mistakes. The nearest I got to making a mistake again was in the afternoon when the guide suggested I walk through a hole in a fence. I found no hole and instead followed the way marked path. I think this path must have been blocked off when the guide had been written.

I stopped briefly in a couple of villages. In the one I stopped for lunch, I compared notes with a French hiker. The path she had taken from Corte was not well sign-posted. Given how easily I had gone wrong with a well waymarked path it’s just as well I took the path I did!

Walk from Sermano to Corte, Corsica

The afternoon was comparatively straight-forward. A lot of lose rocks (no fun to walk on) but few gradients and even they were not steep. Just my tiring feet holding me back!

Tomorrow I leave Corte and head west towards Calacuccia.