Last leg(s)?

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Well, already the weeks have whizzed by and I am about to start the last leg of the trip (apart from the flight to Melbourne and the Gull Bus home).

We spent an inordinately beautiul week on Corsica with its strong separatist, independence movement. Like in some parts of Scotland and Wales, there are people who burn down (or in Corsica's case, blow up!) the houses bought by overseas people as holiday homes. The weather was beautiful, and we started the Mare a Mare Sud walking track from Porto Vecchio on the east coast with an 18 kilometre uphill walk. It was a lot harder than expected and our backpacks were probably heavier than they needed to be. Better organised people were having their luggage transported from one gite (lodging) to the next and only carrying a small daypack. A couple of days in, one of our party had a knee problem so we caught a bus to Propriano on the west coast - a pleasant town for boaties and many tourists. It has a few beaches which are a very coarse sand (which I think is actually better than the fine sand we have that blows into every orifice and sticks to anything wet).

A couple of us took an overnight trip to Bonifacio in the far south (extreme sud) and had a whale of a time. Can't upload pics to this silly blog but look it up on Google images! Hitchhiked (auto-stop) back the following day.

Took a bus to Ajaccio for a couple of days and walked the Isles Sanguinaires and had dinner out on the docks with some French chums. Next day was off to Marseille by ferry (overnight) on a calm sea and pretty much straight out to Aix. Hooked up with a young couple (Couchsurfing) and spent yesterday walking from Rousset village through wineries and lavender fields to St Antonin sur Buyon at the base of Mount St Victoire. Then walked up to the priory and the cross on the summit. To say you come from Australia is a real passport! Local Frenchies push out their bottom lip and look impressed and then give you special insights and small tours of places or special treatment.

Today is a bit of a 'lay-day' moving to a hotel for tonight and catching the train to Paris in the morning. My mate is heading off to Sweden for several weeks tomorrow while I spend a few days with family in the 'city of light'. Don't expect a blog from now on but I'll bore you to the devil with stories long into the future!

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