Last year, we went with kids (6 and 9 years) for 110 km hike in Lapland – Kungsladen and it was the best vacations I ever had with kids. This year, we were doubting if we can at all make a multi-day hike as we have additional 7kg+7 kg luggage which has legs but is still not able to use them for carrying his body weight. And then it happened without any big planning, that we appeared in the middle of GR20 on Corsica. How it was on Corsica? And how we made it, that we could make at all multiday hike with this time 3 kids (5 months, 7 years and 9 years)?
Some highlights and disclaimers:
Beginning: As we did not know till late June how will be the travel situation, we booked flights to Corsica without much thinking (just with the hope that maybe it will not be that busy this year) in the end of June, when borders to France opened. We had a lot of work till the last moment before leaving so we also did not pack carefully plus we could not take much food with us as with the additional baby weight our backpacks got really heavy. All this made the way a bit more challenging and less planned. To avoid the long drive with kids, we found cheap flights to Nice and then took a ferry to Corsica. Back we were flying from Bastia to Prague. With a car, it would be cheaper, but not having a car on Corsica was in the end creating options for new experiences. In Nice, we managed to buy a gas bomb for our VAR thread (it was a high bottle, so we had to hold it during all cooking, but it was fine). We arrived by ferry to Bastia in the evening and I really enjoyed the town in the blue hour of the evening, welcoming us by its lights, reminding me about my last and only visit Corsica 20 years ago.
Then we walked to the camp Red Sands south of the city to stay overnight…Being a few hundred meters from the camp, Jan asked me, if we do not stay sleeping on the beach. It was already almost 11 PM and the beach was nicely hidden from the street…why not? We put on sleeping mats and we started our Corsica stay by sleeping under the stars on the beach, Robert between us, having an amazing view of Bastia and sunrise. We could hear a bit of a disco from the camp (making us happy that we do not have to stay there). It was great…until I got waken up by biting mosquitos, which were not mosquitos, but ants, and since then I spent the rest of the night removing ants from Robert's head 😊.
In the morning, we found out that they explored thoroughly our backpacks and for the rest of our stay we were transporting these ants around the island to multiple locations, wondering how these relocated ants will survive in new colonies. We were thinking about moving to the mountains from the first day on, but the weather forecast for mountains did not look good, so we moved first by train to Calvi, where we went to a nice camp de Champs and showed the little one the sea and taught him long day sleep after bathing😊. After half day on the beach, we had enough and decided to try to hitchhike to the Fango river with cascades. The coastal walk is amazing, but after an 8 km walk when there were only 5 cars with no space passing us, we finally understood what one guy tried to tell us – that this road is not used anymore.
As the sun was getting higher, we better walked back to Calvi and then 2 Italians took us half the way. In the shadow, we got immediately (before getting too desperate in the middle of the nowhere) another lift directly to the Fango cascades. The cascades are a great thing – it is fun, and it is perfect in hot weather. The Fango river was actually nicely warm. We had some fun and even when we did no real canonying, we were jumping, swimming and having a nice river walk. Back we hitchhiked on the correct road and it took us less than 5 minutes to get a lift. Last day in Calvi before moving by train to the mountains we decided for a walk to a mountain. Unfortunately, clouds were already gone and we did not manage to get up early so in the middle of the hill, scratched from all that bush, I had to rotate and Jan finished the walk alone. The view was worth it 😊.
Then we moved to Vizzavona – 950 m.n.m. – by train. Trains are nice, going over bridges, through tunnels, with great views, but a bit pricy (not for the time, but for the distance 😊). And here we are, Vizzavona, almost ready for next hike. The weather for the next 3 days should be good, the plan is finally here.
Packing: The only option which we found out to manage a multiday hike was to leave as much stuff as possible in the camp. So, we took only necessary things and left a backpack with the rest (swimsuits, sweatshirts, etc.) in the camp, telling the guy that we expect to come back in 3 days, but that we might come also still today or later 😊. Kids got their backpacks with sleeping bags and clothes and we started.
Water is on Corsica mainly drinkable – or at least we had no problem with drinking the water in the mountains (though we mainly used nice springs), so, fortunately, you do not have to carry too much of it.
In the refuges, you can get typically some food. But the stuff and price seem to vary a lot. Normal baguette/bread we got only at lower stations, but not sure, how is it in other parts of the way.
Walk:
We walked in the end only from Vizzavona through GR20 to Corte. It is not too much, but there were two mountains over 2100 and then coming down under 1000. The first day, we started late and did not manage to get to the next refuge d’Ondra.
Interesting was, that as people start to walk typically in the early morning, in the later afternoon in the middle of the distance between refuges was nobody. Otherwise, there are quite some people on the way. The most impressed we were the first morning when before Robert was waking up at 6, we heard tent sticks as people started to pack their tents. When we looked out of the tent at 7, there were only 3 tents from approximately 30 left…
As we were slow, we were, in the end, sleeping behind Pointe Muratello, on a meadow with some cows and a truly glorious sunset. Girls playing with Robert in the tent, loud laughing hearable to far distance. At that point, I felt that it was a great decision to go.
Next day, we got up actually at 6 and at 7 we were already walking down the hill, people against us. We continued down to cascades on Manganello river and spent there nice 4 hot hours. The walk through the valley to the refuge of Petra Piana is really nice and full of shadow. After the trees disappeared, there was a cottage in front of us. It was like from a fairy tale. Standing alone, small cot-tage, with a well, outside shower, solar panel, seating, but nobody around… We made there a dinner and then just decided to stay. This time, the place was flat and nice.
In the morning, we finished the hill and walked up to the highest point of our walk – Bocca Muzella 2200 m.n.m. Then we went on carefully descending on a bit slippery stones. There we saw a great view of the lakes in the valley of Restonica (Lac de Melo and Capitello). The lakes are really beautiful and seeing them from the top is a cool experience. We got down to the Restonica river and as we missed the bus at 5PM, we hitchhiked and got easily a lift to the camp in the valley. On the day after we walked to Corte and took a train back to Vizzavona.
The walk was not too long and we could manage to walk maybe one or two more days, but we were running out of underpants 😊 and diapers (as we did not take our reusable ones) and our food resources were after 3 days this time also gone …so it was time to go back and enjoy that everybody managed and enjoyed.
To be honest and not to paint everything pink: It was very nice, I loved the way and was impressed that I can even with kids enjoy these touching moments in the middle of the mountains, kids also enjoyed nice views and moments and were helping a lot and almost not complaining, but next time, we might again select something flatter for kids because as Terka said: “It is really nice here, but it is difficult to enjoy, when my legs and backs are hurting from the backpack.” 1000 m up every day with a backpack is a challenge for everyone.
Corsica is also quite hot during the day – so you need fewer clothes, but the walking time is significantly reduced...
Ending: After the walk we spend one resting day in Vizzavona, bathing in cascades and writing diaries, and Jan made a round walk alone to Monte d`Oro. Then we took a train close to the airport and walked/hitchhiked to the camp by the sea.
We got a lift by Corsican people. I asked them, how it is to live in Corsica. They said, that it is great, that it is like living in a paradise 😊. We enjoyed the last swimming, walk around the cost (btw the coast close to Bastia airport is really cool with a dead white forest looks like tropical paradise) and in the morning made the last 3 km walk to the airport.
GR 20 is an amazing hike and I hope that one day we will finish the rest of it. (so far we have only approx. 30km and 2500m ascent from 200 km and 11,500m of ascent)§
Some highlights and disclaimers:
- We did only 3 days of the whole GR 20 - that was 2 days more than we expected 😊.
- Hiking with kids was great and it was again a great experience.
- Sleeping in one tent with 3 kids is a challenge, but it is fine if you do not have a sleeping mat which makes terrible noise whenever the kid moves on it.
- Taking a baby for a hike is a great choice. Whenever you are sweating too much and your knees/shoulders are hurting, you just look down at the little one and he laughs at you back 😊.
- GR20 (or at least the part we walked) is quite safe and fine for 6 and 9 years old, but an adult will sweat a lot, especially with a huge backpack on the back – it is really not an easy ridge hike.
- I would not go there with kids if the weather is not great. Wet stones are really slippery…
- If you want to scare racers, just sleep with kids somewhere in the middle of the way between the refuges. When you get up in the morning and start walking, first racers will overrun you, fascinated when and from where you started 😊. It happened to us two days in a row and it was really fun to see their confused faces – especially the guy who was going GR20 in 4 days was really disturbed😊.
- Hitchhiking at Corsica was for us easy (but we did not try it much as we used it mainly for shortening walking distances) – they took us quickly even when they did not know that we have any baby/kids with us. It is just a good idea to hitchhike on the way where are at all some cars going 😊.
- Sleeping outside the camp is in Corsica forbidden, but it seemed to be no problem to find a place where to spend a night. We did it anyway only 3 times as we used campsites for stor-ing our backpacks.
- The best recipe for deep long kid sleep is 10 minutes bathing in the sea.
- The best camping places cost some sweating.
- French language is useful on Corsica. Our vocabulary consisting of greetings, numbers 1-6, bread and cheese was in the end enough – who would buy more then 6 breads anyway, right?
- How is it to all the time wake up at different places than you fell asleep?
- You will quickly learn that getting up at 6 is the best option how not to get grilled on the sun 😊. It works even for kids motivation…
- I am considering starting importing oats to Corsica as they seemed to be worth gold. It was not easy nor cheap to find them (in camp they wanted 5 euros per package same as for Muesli, in the shop we got them for 2.2 euro).
- Corsica is not cheap, but cheese is cheaper and better than here. So how it actually was?
Beginning: As we did not know till late June how will be the travel situation, we booked flights to Corsica without much thinking (just with the hope that maybe it will not be that busy this year) in the end of June, when borders to France opened. We had a lot of work till the last moment before leaving so we also did not pack carefully plus we could not take much food with us as with the additional baby weight our backpacks got really heavy. All this made the way a bit more challenging and less planned. To avoid the long drive with kids, we found cheap flights to Nice and then took a ferry to Corsica. Back we were flying from Bastia to Prague. With a car, it would be cheaper, but not having a car on Corsica was in the end creating options for new experiences. In Nice, we managed to buy a gas bomb for our VAR thread (it was a high bottle, so we had to hold it during all cooking, but it was fine). We arrived by ferry to Bastia in the evening and I really enjoyed the town in the blue hour of the evening, welcoming us by its lights, reminding me about my last and only visit Corsica 20 years ago.
Then we walked to the camp Red Sands south of the city to stay overnight…Being a few hundred meters from the camp, Jan asked me, if we do not stay sleeping on the beach. It was already almost 11 PM and the beach was nicely hidden from the street…why not? We put on sleeping mats and we started our Corsica stay by sleeping under the stars on the beach, Robert between us, having an amazing view of Bastia and sunrise. We could hear a bit of a disco from the camp (making us happy that we do not have to stay there). It was great…until I got waken up by biting mosquitos, which were not mosquitos, but ants, and since then I spent the rest of the night removing ants from Robert's head 😊.
 |
| Sleeping under stars with the view to Bastia and sunrise. |
As the sun was getting higher, we better walked back to Calvi and then 2 Italians took us half the way. In the shadow, we got immediately (before getting too desperate in the middle of the nowhere) another lift directly to the Fango cascades. The cascades are a great thing – it is fun, and it is perfect in hot weather. The Fango river was actually nicely warm. We had some fun and even when we did no real canonying, we were jumping, swimming and having a nice river walk. Back we hitchhiked on the correct road and it took us less than 5 minutes to get a lift. Last day in Calvi before moving by train to the mountains we decided for a walk to a mountain. Unfortunately, clouds were already gone and we did not manage to get up early so in the middle of the hill, scratched from all that bush, I had to rotate and Jan finished the walk alone. The view was worth it 😊.
Then we moved to Vizzavona – 950 m.n.m. – by train. Trains are nice, going over bridges, through tunnels, with great views, but a bit pricy (not for the time, but for the distance 😊). And here we are, Vizzavona, almost ready for next hike. The weather for the next 3 days should be good, the plan is finally here. Packing: The only option which we found out to manage a multiday hike was to leave as much stuff as possible in the camp. So, we took only necessary things and left a backpack with the rest (swimsuits, sweatshirts, etc.) in the camp, telling the guy that we expect to come back in 3 days, but that we might come also still today or later 😊. Kids got their backpacks with sleeping bags and clothes and we started.
Water is on Corsica mainly drinkable – or at least we had no problem with drinking the water in the mountains (though we mainly used nice springs), so, fortunately, you do not have to carry too much of it.
In the refuges, you can get typically some food. But the stuff and price seem to vary a lot. Normal baguette/bread we got only at lower stations, but not sure, how is it in other parts of the way.
We walked in the end only from Vizzavona through GR20 to Corte. It is not too much, but there were two mountains over 2100 and then coming down under 1000. The first day, we started late and did not manage to get to the next refuge d’Ondra.
Interesting was, that as people start to walk typically in the early morning, in the later afternoon in the middle of the distance between refuges was nobody. Otherwise, there are quite some people on the way. The most impressed we were the first morning when before Robert was waking up at 6, we heard tent sticks as people started to pack their tents. When we looked out of the tent at 7, there were only 3 tents from approximately 30 left…
As we were slow, we were, in the end, sleeping behind Pointe Muratello, on a meadow with some cows and a truly glorious sunset. Girls playing with Robert in the tent, loud laughing hearable to far distance. At that point, I felt that it was a great decision to go.
 |
| The best camping places cost some sweating :-). |
Next day, we got up actually at 6 and at 7 we were already walking down the hill, people against us. We continued down to cascades on Manganello river and spent there nice 4 hot hours. The walk through the valley to the refuge of Petra Piana is really nice and full of shadow. After the trees disappeared, there was a cottage in front of us. It was like from a fairy tale. Standing alone, small cot-tage, with a well, outside shower, solar panel, seating, but nobody around… We made there a dinner and then just decided to stay. This time, the place was flat and nice.
In the morning, we finished the hill and walked up to the highest point of our walk – Bocca Muzella 2200 m.n.m. Then we went on carefully descending on a bit slippery stones. There we saw a great view of the lakes in the valley of Restonica (Lac de Melo and Capitello). The lakes are really beautiful and seeing them from the top is a cool experience. We got down to the Restonica river and as we missed the bus at 5PM, we hitchhiked and got easily a lift to the camp in the valley. On the day after we walked to Corte and took a train back to Vizzavona.
The walk was not too long and we could manage to walk maybe one or two more days, but we were running out of underpants 😊 and diapers (as we did not take our reusable ones) and our food resources were after 3 days this time also gone …so it was time to go back and enjoy that everybody managed and enjoyed.
To be honest and not to paint everything pink: It was very nice, I loved the way and was impressed that I can even with kids enjoy these touching moments in the middle of the mountains, kids also enjoyed nice views and moments and were helping a lot and almost not complaining, but next time, we might again select something flatter for kids because as Terka said: “It is really nice here, but it is difficult to enjoy, when my legs and backs are hurting from the backpack.” 1000 m up every day with a backpack is a challenge for everyone.Corsica is also quite hot during the day – so you need fewer clothes, but the walking time is significantly reduced...
Ending: After the walk we spend one resting day in Vizzavona, bathing in cascades and writing diaries, and Jan made a round walk alone to Monte d`Oro. Then we took a train close to the airport and walked/hitchhiked to the camp by the sea.
We got a lift by Corsican people. I asked them, how it is to live in Corsica. They said, that it is great, that it is like living in a paradise 😊. We enjoyed the last swimming, walk around the cost (btw the coast close to Bastia airport is really cool with a dead white forest looks like tropical paradise) and in the morning made the last 3 km walk to the airport.
GR 20 is an amazing hike and I hope that one day we will finish the rest of it. (so far we have only approx. 30km and 2500m ascent from 200 km and 11,500m of ascent)§
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