Because of its landscape and pleasant climate, Corsica offers outdoor enthusiasts the chance to enjoy a variety of sports including, yachting, sailing, bicycling, kayaking, jet skiing, scuba diving, horse back riding and rock climbing.

My favorite sport though is one that requires a minimal amount of equipment and skill: Hiking

Thanks to the efforts of the PNRC, (Parc Naturel Régional de la Corse), hikers can enjoy 1,500 kilometers of well maintained trails for all seasons and fitness levels through valleys, mountain summits, lakes and sandy beaches.

Many of these trails let visitors discover Genoese bridges, shepherds’ huts made of stone, old chapels, abandoned villages, hidden cobblestone alleyways and even prehistoric sites. 

Corsica is a fantastic travel destination for those love nature and history. Mountain villages and hamlets have managed to remain fixed in time, a living testimony to a way of life that has disappeared from most of the modern world.

Some of the homes in these villages are still equipped with ancient olive oil mills fitted with a large millstone, the same millstone that Jesus spoke about in the Gospels. Imagine, two thousand year old technology! (Many families used these mills until the first half of the twentieth century).

Hiking provides the most effective way to enjoy the island’s rich diversity of flora and fauna, the most famous specimen being the ever present maquis, a wild blend of rosemary, juniper, myrtle and other aromatic herbs that cover more than half of the island. Walking along the coastline, one can feel the intoxicating scent of the maquis mixed with the smell of the sea.

The chestnut tree considered the bread of Corsica and the “Tree of Life” is very common on the island as well as the cork oak whose bark is harvested every eight to ten years. Vines, olive and fig trees seem to grow everywhere like weeds, sometimes in the most unusual places like the olive tree in the picture below.

I hope to be able to explore Corsica’s hidden coves on a zodiac or a sailboat some day but for now, exploring the island on foot gives me the greatest sense of freedom and the easiest way to become one with the landscape. Just a pair of comfortable shoes and a day pack let me combine pure, instant pleasure with exercise in a magical setting.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Filed under: Hiking in Corsica