Hey all,
Lovely chat with K last night – drifted off to sleep cause I was so nice and warm now that I have some insulation beneath me, but had the phone in my hand, was woken up when she called at 11:00. I know some people complain about the evils of technology – in fact I know people (let's call them mad raving zealots) who refuse to even take a watch hiking with them – but frankly I reckon there is something pretty cool about lying in a hammock on an isolated mountain-side in Corsica when the nearest human being is at least an hour's walk away and having a sleepy chat to the girl in Australia.
Slept in this morning – actually set the alarm, but then the sun was hitting the hammock and it was so nice and toasty that I went back to sleep. Due to morning cigar with coffee I did not actually start walking until 11:00 AM, which was fine as it was supposed to be an easy stage – my guidebook had the whole thing going for a total of five hours. But then it turned out I was further away from where I was supposed to end up last night than I thought, and by the time I got to this kind of restaurant/refuge that my book recommended getting a drink at before the final climb of the day – anyway, it was already 5:30. I spoke to this French guide I have bumped into three times now, who is leading a big group around, and he said that it was a good two and a half hours to the next refuge, and very steep. My book said an hour and three quarters, but then I am starting to think the guy who wrote it has some mountain goat DNA in there somewhere. So pulled up for the night here, as did English hippy and Holland. So will get up earlyish tomorrow, get the climb out of the way – unfortunately the next bit has my book waxing lyrical about “scrambling,” “crevasses”, and, alarmingly, “struggling” to remain upright. He has it taking five hours to cover a mere ten ks, so it must be pretty rough – for a human being, or at least a human being with a flaky ACL, a laptop, laptop charger, portable hard drive etc etc etc. I think that five hours will be at least seven. On top of the climb in the morning. So a big day tomorrow.
Came across a cow and frisky young steer today. They did not look wildly happy about having to move off the path for me. Then they seemed to start stalking me. I would be taking a rest break and around the corner behind me they would appear and just stand there, staring. Silent. Sinister. Also, saw my first actual wild pig – about five of them in the course of an hour.
Photos: 1. The advantage of the hammock – too steep and too rocky to set a tent anywhere on this hill. 2-4. The scenery today, wandering mainly through forest, and mainly on a contour. 5. The young steer that was stalking me – see how he is using the natural terrain as cover – just doing a quick heads-up to see if I am still in range. Look at the way he glares. 6. Another shot of the view. 7. A vicious red eyed slavering wild pig. In truth this one appears more lazy than deadly. 8. Another wild pig – this one was waiting in ambush to snack on a hiker, but got distracted by the yummy green stuff everywhere, forgot its evil plan.
Cheers, B.
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