Corsica's West Coast: Scandola, Girolata and the Calanques de Piana
Corsica, France
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450
XP
+100 France
= 550 total
2 days
Corsica's West Coast: Scandola, Girolata and the Calanques de Piana
450 + 100 XP
The Scandola nature reserve on Corsica's west coast has been protected since 1975: 1,669 hectares of volcanic organ pipes, red granite cliffs and sea caves, 919 of them on a peninsula reachable only from the water, with a strict 70-hectare core at its north-west end. Since 1983 it has formed one UNESCO World Heritage site with the Calanche de Piana and the Gulf of Girolata, listed together as the Gulf of Porto — and this challenge visits all three of them. Girolata, the hamlet at the head of its gulf, can still be reached only by boat or on foot.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Take a boat trip from Porto to the Scandola Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 with its red volcanic cliffs and sea caves
2
of 5
At Girolata, climb to the fortin above the hamlet, built in 1552 by the Office of Saint George against the Barbary raids: a bastioned polygonal wall round a square keep, the Torre Grande with the smaller Torre Mezza built into it, a chapel inside and the powder magazine below. It was in this gulf, twelve years earlier, that the Genoese fleet caught the corsair Dragut at anchor
3
of 5
Take the low path into the Calanche de Piana from the hairpin on the D 81 at la Tête du Chien, an hour each way over broken rock, down to the pinnacle they call the Château Fort at 332 m — the only way back is the way you came. If you would rather walk the ancestral mule track, start from the Santa Maria oratory and follow the old Piana-to-Ota path, held up in places by dry-stone walls several metres high
4
of 5
Climb to the Genoese tower above Porto, one of the works the Office of Saint George put up when it fortified this gulf against the Barbary raids in the middle of the 16th century, and see how much of the bay and the entrance to the Calanche a single watchman could hold in view
5
of 5
Walk down to Girolata from the col de la Croix on the D 81, the 7 km of mountain maquis that Guy Ceccaldi covered every weekday until 2006 to deliver the hamlet's post — the sign at the col says an hour and a half, and he did it in forty-five minutes. See how close you get
Take a boat trip from Porto to the Scandola Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 with its red volcanic cliffs and sea caves
At Girolata, climb to the fortin above the hamlet, built in 1552 by the Office of Saint George against the Barbary raids: a bastioned polygonal wall round a square keep, the Torre Grande with the smaller Torre Mezza built into it, a chapel inside and the powder magazine below. It was in this gulf, twelve years earlier, that the Genoese fleet caught the corsair Dragut at anchor
Take the low path into the Calanche de Piana from the hairpin on the D 81 at la Tête du Chien, an hour each way over broken rock, down to the pinnacle they call the Château Fort at 332 m — the only way back is the way you came. If you would rather walk the ancestral mule track, start from the Santa Maria oratory and follow the old Piana-to-Ota path, held up in places by dry-stone walls several metres high
Climb to the Genoese tower above Porto, one of the works the Office of Saint George put up when it fortified this gulf against the Barbary raids in the middle of the 16th century, and see how much of the bay and the entrance to the Calanche a single watchman could hold in view
Walk down to Girolata from the col de la Croix on the D 81, the 7 km of mountain maquis that Guy Ceccaldi covered every weekday until 2006 to deliver the hamlet's post — the sign at the col says an hour and a half, and he did it in forty-five minutes. See how close you get
Before you go
Scandola is a strict reserve: no scuba diving, no recreational fishing, no camping or bivouac ashore, no fires, no drones or any flying below 1,000 m, and no close-range photography of nests. Anchoring is regulated and banned altogether in the 70-hectare core, so go with a licensed operator rather than your own boat, and clean your anchor if you do have one — invasive algae travel on them. The reserve is already suffering from too many visitors, so go early or late in the season.
The Porto boats to Scandola and Girolata run 1 April to 31 October; nothing sails from November to March, and Girolata can only be reached by boat or on foot, so out of season the only way in is the 7 km walk down from the col de la Croix.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
450 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
550 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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