Nice to Bastia

October 7, 2018

Corsica here we come

We awoke today to cloudy weather and thought, that's okay as today is a travel day. We were booked on the ferry to Corisca at 12:45. It started to look like it was about to rain so Scott decided it was time to put the fenders that we had been packing with us on the bikes. By 09:30 it did start to shower and by 10:00, our departure time, it was raining. We put on a rain delay of 15 minutes but it was of no use. After several trips out to the balcony for the most current weather forecast, we decided that things were not going to improve quickly. Time to leave our apartment and start riding to the ferry. We planned to pick up some snacks on our way but as it was Sunday, our favourite sandwich shop (yes 2 days in Nice and we have a favourite) was closed! We had to settle for wraps from Monoprix - just not the same but maybe better than ferry food.

There was no hiding from the weather and we do not do wet weather well. We were happy that we only had about five kms to ride to the ferry dock and we knew the route. Even still we were quite damp when we arrived at the ticket check and the strange, airport like security scanners. The scanners were located in a small temporary looking shack and we stood in the rain as we fed our bags into the machine. The security personnel requested a secondary hand search of one of the panniers. I think they just gave up looking for what they saw on their screen and figured we did not fit the terrorist profile and waived us on.

Back into the rain we moved to one of two tent like structures while waiting for our time to board. It was dry but far from comfortable. The structure had no sides and only the center was dry -- as if Nice never gets rain. Right beside us was a brand new 100 million dollar super yacht and we fantisized that someone would come down and take pity on us - demanding we spend our time on board with them! Hypothermic maybe?!?!

Not a great picture of the Elandess but you get the idea.

By the time it was our turn to board the ferry, fortunately the rain had stopped as we had waited in a long line with the other foot passengers for another ticket check. We pushed the bikes onto the ferry and a crew member pointed us to an alcove to store our bikes. No other cyclists boarded with us. Maybe because a bike costs 1/2 the full passenger fare for that lovely alcove space! Safe on board we grabbed some dry clothes and changed out of our wet ones at the first opportunity. That was a relief and we began to warm up. As luck would have it we snagged a couple of window seats in the dining area - facing the "right" way and did not move other than a few exploratory trips for the next seven hours. The time went quite quickly as we watched the wild weather out our window - rain, hail and a bit of sun. We had it all from our dry vantage point.

Our window seat and table were really quite comfortable.

We arrived in Bastia alittle behind schedule and the sun had set about 45 minutes earlier. It was dark, so we put our lights on the bikes and headed the short distance to our hotel. We quickly hung up our wet clothes and headed out for a great Italian dinner. Scott has discovered that he needs to remember to switch from the expenve draft beer (7 euros for a pint) to wine (5 euros for 1/2 litre). This was not the first time we had noted this!! Tomorrow we spend a day in Bastia sight seeing and planning our next few days riding on Corsica.

Sun setting over Corisca and we are still 45 minutes from the Port of Bastia.

The Bike Friday special alcove on board the ferry..

A number of these race cars boarded the ship. There is a race on Corisca in the next few days. Corsica is host to some large road rally races. One is known as the race of 10,000 turns.

Pat is ready to leave the ferry. It is a busy and very noisy place during docking. We were pleased that it was no longer raining in Bastia. In fact, it was a lovely, warm evening. As soon as we got outside, Pat recognized that she was WAY over dressed and shed the top two layers!!

The back of the ferry. These ships are very large.

Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 460 km (286 miles)

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Scott AndersonI don’t know if you’ve planned any of your Corsican itinerary yet, but hopefully you’re planning on the loop of Cape Corse. Highly recommended. It could be done in a day of course, but we stayed over at the northern tip in Maccinagio.
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6 years ago