Our first destination of the day was Calvi. The winding road to Calvi went through the Agriates Desert. It’s a rocky area that looks completely sun-scorched. The area used to be the most fertile on the island, but it was destroyed by the practice of ecobuage (cultivation on burnt stubble). Finally, we reached Calvi. Calvi is one of the main cities, but does not feel big. The city sits at the end of a huge shallow bay and spreads out from the Citadel as well as on top of it. Atop the citadel is a maze of buildings spanning various centuries. The French Foreign Legion uses one of the large halls as it’s mess hall. Little military jeeps were zipping up the narrow cobblestone roads. We could not figure out why they were acting like they had to defend something. The citadel was last attacked in 1794 by it’s own people in an uprising. Calvi is also the birth place of Christopher Columbus, so the town really plays that up. It seems in our travels, Christopher Columbus has been used to promote tourism in 3 towns…Calvi (birthplace), Sevilla, Spain (final resting place) and El Granda, Spain (where he asked for funding from Queen Isabella).
The goal for the rest of the day was as follows: Drive to Porto, explore village, hike 172 stairs to top of Genoese Tower, view Las Callanques (dramatic cliffs) for sunset from the village of Piana, camp in Porto, in the morning, short walk to view Callanques in morning light, 11am boat ride to Coastal Estuary & view collanques from the ocean.
Well, non of that happened due to any of the following reasons:
- Hairpin narrow roads: impossible to stop
- No Campervan parking allowed
- No Campervan access allowed
- No Campervans within a 4km radias allowed
- No campsites (either closed or not equipped for campers)
- No sign that said “next campsite is 2 hours down a winding death road from here”
We both sat silently in camper driving further down the road away from Porto in silence watching the daylight vanish and realizing we were now going to be driving in the dark hoping for a campsite. At 8:45 pm, we finally rolled into a campsite just on the verge of closing for the evening. Neither of us have a clue where we are, but it’s somewhere on the Golfe de Sagone. Matt has gone to bed early, he’s exhausted from the drive and I think he is catching the cold that I am finally getting over. I’m just majorly bummed that I did not get a chance to photograph the Callanques or the Golfe de Porto. It was not one of our best travel days.
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