Thursday 23rd November 2017

During the night our ship docked somewhere on the Italian coast to take on a large number of lorries. It was probably Genoa but I don't know for sure as I was only vaguely awake at the time. The PA system woke us up at 6.00 and asked us to vacate our cabin at 6.30. We docked at Bastia at 7.00. We hung around in the self service restaurant waiting to rejoin our van when the vehicle decks reopened.

We rejoined our van down on the vehicle deck. As you can see the staff had made us park directly beside a pile of metal pipes which do not appear to have been secured in any way.

Corsica Ferries staff had also directed the driver of a hire van to drive so close to our van that the mirrors had collided.

It was impossible for us to get out of the left hand side of our van.

We therefore had to clamber out of the right side of our van onto this pile of apparently unsecured and unstable metal pipes.

Just across from the pile of pipes this notice gives evidence that Corsica Ferries are failing to adhere to basic safety standards over and above the question of how our van was parked by them. I have now made a formal complaint to their customer services department about all this and I have also asked them to let me know how to pass my concerns about their flagrant disregard for basic health and safety standards on to the Italian Maritime Authorities ( the ship is registered in Genoa).

We eventually got off the ship - last but one I think! We cleared Bastia and climbed over a steep pass descending to the south west coast of Cap Corse. We then went north along a beautiful coast, very unspoiled and reminiscent of California's Big Sur. We stopped for the day at the Aire at Ogliastro. The parking area is in a beautiful Tamarisk grove just next to the beach. 

We took a walk. The beach is shingle but very lovely.

The weather was really warm and sunny.

We found some beautiful rocks at the far end of the beach.

Ann went for a paddle. Apparently the water is quite warm She is thinking of going for a swim tomorrow!

At the other end of the beach is an old coastal defence tower. This was probably built on the orders of Napoleon who originated from Corsica.

The tiny village here is gorgeous and incredibly low key. It has a very small but interesting chapel.

A little higher up in the village there is a garden with a nice citrus grove containing oranges, lemons and limes.

The village restaurant has an inviting sign up on the main road but is closed. I think that it may open at weekends.

Back at the Aire neighbours have arrived.

They're German.


To day we traveled 25 miles (40 kilometres) driving our van and excluding the distance traveled on the ferry from Nice to Bastia. We are at N42.81082 E9.33527


Ogliastro