On Tuesday we arrived at our 4th accommodation on Corsica, in Pietrosella. We booked it via AirBnB and we have to say: It‘s by far the best. During this vacation we have stayed at some mobile homes on campgrounds as well as in apartments that we found on AirBnB. We really prefer the AirBnB apartments – they are just so much better equipped than the mobile homes – those usually don‘t even have an oven, which did affect our choice of cooking to some degree. That‘s why we‘ll probably stick to AirBnB apartments the next time.
But now to our time in Pietrosella. One of the best known surfer beaches here in Corsica (Plage Ruppione) is just a 4min drive from our apartment, so we hoped for good conditions – sunshine for the kids and swell & waves for us. And we got lucky.
But our first day program started out with a small walk to the Tour de la Parata, an old Genoese tower from the 15th century. Right next to it are the Iles Sanguinaires, so the view was (yet again) breathtaking. Equally breathtaking were the parking cost (€4,20 for 2 hours), a first for Korsika. We had planned to visit another beach (Plage Capo di Feno) which was just a short drive from the Tour de la Parata, but unfortunately we had forgotten to pack the sand toys and life jackets for the kids. So we drove back to our apartment, grabbed everything and headed to Plage Ruppione where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately the waves were still nonexistent so we had to wait once more.
The forecast for Thursday had some bigger waves (2 ft) and also some intermittent sunshine so it seemed like a perfect day for beginners just like us. After an early lunch (Scorpion fish from the local fishdealer) we headed to the beach.
We stayed there for nearly 5 hours – this is how much fun we had. The waves were perfect, both for us to work on our (still small but growing) surfing skills and for the kids and their bodyboards. It was truly a perfect afternoon, we even managed to catch some waves.
We got up early on Friday morning as this would be our last chance to catch some waves: Starting at 6 am the waves were already at 4-5ft, too much for swimmers. Once we got there we already saw 10 surfers in the water. We talked to some of the locals (The Corsicans are really friendly and helpful) and they showed us the best way to get in the water and where the current is. The kids saw the power of the waves today firsthand with their bodyboards – compared to yesterday they (and we) really had to be careful. Even with their lifejackets we only let them get a few feet into the water, as the waves were pretty strong and almost knocked them over a couple of times. It was also very hard for us on the board to even get past the breaking waves as every wave pushed us back towards the beach. Once we got out it was impressive how quickly the incoming waves carried us back to land on our surfboard – sometimes the push was so strong we didn‘t even manage to stand up, we just held on to the board and hoped we would somehow reach the beach together. By 12 o‘clock we left the water, as the waves had already reached a height of 8-12ft – too much for us. Tomorrow they are even supposed to reach 16ft – we‘ll definitely stop by, but only to see what the good surfers would make out of these waves.
As of noontime today the storm has finally arrived here with all its might – it‘s impressive and also a little bit scary to see how this storm has turned the tranquil waters from two days ago into a raging sea with 12 ft waves. Noam even had trouble to stand without holding on to someone/something.
