27°C, perfect

Out for the first time on a road bike. E got caught on the climb. He rolled ahead while I plodded on. Then after a few hairpins, there he was walking! He blew too soon. The picture above, taken from Montemaggiore, E is just visible, doing (in his words) the walk of shame.

Eventually, we found somewhere to get coffee – Zilia. Then at noon, places started to serve. We joined an Italian philosophy undergraduate who was cycle touring the coast of the island.

Finally, the little place opened in Montemaggiore. A young Italian woman who was cycle touring joined us at the table. She spoke clear English and we enjoyed a free flowing conversation. She guessed that I’m a teacher and I enthused about the GR20. I don’t know whether she her questions were spurred on because she’s a philosophy undergraduate. She asked my why I liked it, was it the views.

It wasn’t just the views, there was a moving community, from refuge to refuge I explained. There were familiar faces each evening, we helped one another, we swapped stories from the day. If you sat on the trail, people would pass every 20 minutes or so, so you never felt alone. Lastly, there is the physicality of moving through those mountain passes; the scrambling, descents, route finding. These appealed to the Italian woman, with a grin, she said she would go next year. For now, she is following the coast of Corsica, anti-clockwise.