Corsican, Corsica, destination privileged of traditional tourism and the trekkeurs coming to measure itself with the GR20, is also an exceptional territory to be discovered with horse. With Horse in Corsica, pioneer of the equestrian excursions in Corsica, organizes circuits at the week or over longer periods. This account followed upon an excursion in the mountain of the south of Corsica. During one week, we followed old paths of transhumance accompanied by our Corsican horses and a mule of pack for the transport of the collective hardware. Each horse was equipped with satchels and a back roll for the arrangement of the personal businesses (clothing, necessary to toilet, camera…).
Started from Barracci, close to Propriano, we joined the plate of Coscione to the foot of Assembles Incudine (2134 m) before returning towards the sea, not of our departure.
Sea with the mountain
Yesterday evening, the participants in the equestrian excursion made knowledge with the farm of Barracci: Réka and Peter, a Hungarian couple, Lucie and Rudy, a Dutch couple, Elizabeth, who already took part in the littoral excursion of A Horse in Corsica, Lucie, our benjamine of the group and Emmanuel, our guide. A cosmopolitan group where the use of English and French will be involved like a sigh…
This morning, after having prepared the horses, we leave the gulf of Valinco towards the mountain. We go up D257 which we quickly leave for a forest track which goes up towards Fozzano. Some beautiful points of view on the sea. that feels the full maquis the nostrils. We are there. The doubt settles: I will have the level of necessary horsemanship? It is indeed, my first excursion with horse over several days. And we leave for one week…
By a small path, we join Fozzano and circumvent Punta di Sirau to borrow the pedestrian hiking trail Mare has southern Mare. We enter the enclosure of the Regional Natural reserve of Corsica starting from the collar of Altanarja (670 m). Vis-a-vis us mountains of the south of Corsica. The Taravu slope is dominated by Assembles Incudine (2134 m) and the plate of Cuscionu which constitute a true water tower for Corsica of the south. In the west, the solid mass of Renosu (2357 m) and the plate of Ese overhang Bastelica, village native of Sampiero Corsu.
We go down towards Loreno di Tallano and install a little further our bivouac at the edge of the Rizzaneze river. On arrival, each one deals with its horse, gives him its haversack of oats and lets it a few moments be rolled on the ground. A little later, each one in its corner, will be devoted to the toilet day labourer in the fresh water of the river. This evening is one evening particular. Today is on July 9,2006, day of the finale of the world cup of football between France and Italy. No the TV on the bivouac. A such misanthropist, I isolate myself in the helmet from my radio mp3 and listens to the defeat of the blue ones.
The following day, we climb towards Altagène, charming village of forty inhabitants which counted some more than 200 one century ago. In the center with 625 meters of altitude, draws up the parish San Pantaleone equipped with an elegant bell-tower. This church, out of granite, like the majority of the houses of the village, replaces since the 17th century an older sanctuary. We benefit from our passage to make drink the horses. They needed well for it because a large rise followed between the village and Punta di Serradu (1033 m).
We do it in several stages. We put foot at ground in path to relieve the horses when the ground becomes difficult. To the 1/3 of the rise, pauses meal in the shade of a chestnut followed by a small nap. At the time of the departure, the rain starts to fall and the thunder thunders. For several days, time has been heavy and the sky charged with low clouds. it was necessary that that falls! We leave, wraps rain on the shoulders, towards Punta di Serradu. The cold rain falls thick then grows blurred with height it collar to disappear on its northern slope is. Such an amount of better even if we are soaked. Because it is the moment of our first gallop: A beautiful ride on the high plateau of Serradu. This gallop reassures me… The week well will occur!
The path goes down by large laces through a beautiful forest from oaks and joined a track which leads to a sheep-fold. It will be our place of bivouac vis-a-vis the splendid needles of Bavella.
The Corsica mountain
1000 meters of uneven positive await us for this third stage of the excursion. We go up a brook by a pretty pine forest and recover the Mare path has southern Mare by a broad and released track. Quenza direction,
last civilized stage of the course. Built under Napoleon III on a slope of the solid mass of Bavella, Quenza is an old village of nature known for its crowned architecture and its formidable situation in the middle of the Alta Rocca. Small halt to make drink the horses with the fountain of the village.
We continue towards north by a path which goes up to the sheep-folds of Finosa. We equilibrize ourselves on our clamps to decrease the poid located on the back train of the horses. The vegetation changes as we gain altitude: the forests leave room to a close-cropped moor where thymes, ferns and shrubs men of the maquis are used as decoration. The odors, omnipresent, bore the sense of smell. I am rocked in a new world.
Sat against a solitary chestnut, I cut myself a sausage disc, while looking vis-a-vis me, a maple centenary being drawn up majestueusement in this plain. With the tail it, the riders continue their input in the Corsica mountain. Here, with the accesses of the plates of mountain pasture, we penetrate in a world of hard softness where run of small brooks and rove quietly of the animals in freedom (cows, bulls, horses…).
Creeks of Piana
It is the heart of Corsica who beats here. Centuries lasting of innumerable families flowed on this plate at the time of transhumance. At the rate/rhythm of our projection, we detect old sheep-folds destroyed by time. It in one of them, is repaired by A Horse in Corsica, whom we will make stage this night. Chiralbella is a single place where reign a great peace. This evening, the horses are entitled to their space of freedom: no the lengthening-piece fixed on a tree, just the high plateau as far as the eye can see.
The rock of Removed
In the early morning, we cross the plate of coscione, strange, quiet and wild place, offering a marked aspect eurosibérienne (beech, fir tree, odorous alder, pozzines) and correspondent to a wet and cold relatively nebulous climate. Its undulating relief, its many sources and ruisselets, its pozzines very developed confers an aspect laughing, single to him in the island. The floristic interest of the site is exceptional: Trisetum conradiae, Trisetum gracile, Aconite of Corsica (Aconitum corsicum) and Hernial of Litardière (Herniaria latifolia). One also finds there the single population of stags of Corsica who has been just reintroduced in 1998 and the moufflon. We leave in a gallop under the imposing glance Assembles Incudine (2134 m), the most node of Corsica of the south. We cross wild horses. I believe myself in another time… We continue our voyage and pass the sheep-folds of Frauletu. Cape on Punta di Giavingiolu. The path goes down, crosses the spaces isolated from any civilization until crossing a road. Fast return to our time. We cross it, reach a forest of beeches by a track and join the sheep-fold of Mixed to spend the night.
Return towards the Gulf of Valinco
We leave, for this short stage, the broad foliations of the beeches to penetrate in the forest of pines. We remain last once in mountain before going down towards the gulf from Valinco where we took the departure. We progress to the path which passes along the peaks and dominates the two valleys. The sky is dark and the thunder bursts in the valleys neighbourhood. The air becomes heavy and takes care in electricity. We must press the step in spite of the beauty of the places. Better is worth to avoid the thunder and the storm!
We pass Punta di Cavaletti (1414 m) and other nearby nodes, let us cross zones burned by the lightning. We start the descent. With the foot of strange granitic chaos to which it erosion of the wind gave form, we make the stage of midday. As by magic, time is assagit. Quietly, we can taste salad and Corsica pork-butchery before making the nap.
To foot, we go down towards the collar from Eustace Saint. Jose accomodates us in her estival refreshment bar and each one drinks glass, moment of relaxation and return to civilization. Large half an hour still to join a stone hut with in the middle of the forest of Valley di Mala. Magic night under the pines in the light of stars. The crossing of the forest of Valley di Mala is done in great silence. We will cross our last bull, savage that one, before leaving for our ultimate gallop on a sandy ground where needles and pine cones abound. A delicious wind carries the resin odors, per hour when we penetrate in the forest of the four communes of Vijanu.
The stage of this midday is done at the abandoned village of Vera. The majority of the inhabitants of this small hamlet were vine growers and the broad gates of the houses where the large tanks were stored testify to this past. We make halt with the foot of the village.
During all after midday, we will not leave any more the sea of the eyes. It faces us. One almost touches it by extending the hand. The maquis replaced the forest. We overlap through paths so narrow that we scratch ourselves with the spines of the shrubs. As we approach the gulf, the blue of the sea continues and one clearly distinguishes the tape silver plated from the ranges which hem Valinco. Nostalgia settles. It is already finished. After a last joint meal, we are left, happy moments lived together.
Large a thank you with Gregory for his participation.
I invite you to discover the continuation of my adventures on www.i-voyages.net.
Greeting 
Hirings Corsican
Yesterday evening, the participants in the equestrian excursion made knowledge with the farm of Barracci: Réka and Peter, a Hungarian couple, Lucie and Rudy, a Dutch couple, Elizabeth, who already took part in the littoral excursion of A Horse in Corsica, Lucie, our benjamine of the group and Emmanuel, our guide. A cosmopolitan group where the use of English and French will be involved like a sigh…
We do it in several stages. We put foot at ground in path to relieve the horses when the ground becomes difficult. To the 1/3 of the rise, pauses meal in the shade of a chestnut followed by a small nap. At the time of the departure, the rain starts to fall and the thunder thunders. For several days, time has been heavy and the sky charged with low clouds. it was necessary that that falls! We leave, wraps rain on the shoulders, towards Punta di Serradu.
last civilized stage of the course. Built under Napoleon III on a slope of the solid mass of Bavella, Quenza is an old village of nature known for its crowned architecture and its formidable situation in the middle of the Alta Rocca. Small halt to make drink the horses with the fountain of the village.
It is the heart of Corsica who beats here. Centuries lasting of innumerable families flowed on this plate at the time of transhumance. At the rate/rhythm of our projection, we detect old sheep-folds destroyed by time. It in one of them, is repaired by A Horse in Corsica, whom we will make stage this night. Chiralbella is a single place where reign a great peace. This evening, the horses are entitled to their space of freedom: no the lengthening-piece fixed on a tree, just the high plateau as far as the eye can see.
In the early morning, we cross the plate of coscione, strange, quiet and wild place, offering a marked aspect eurosibérienne (beech, fir tree, odorous alder, pozzines) and correspondent to a wet and cold relatively nebulous climate. Its undulating relief, its many sources and ruisselets, its pozzines very developed confers an aspect laughing, single to him in the island. The floristic interest of the site is exceptional: Trisetum conradiae, Trisetum gracile, Aconite of Corsica (Aconitum corsicum) and Hernial of Litardière (Herniaria latifolia). One also finds there the single population of stags of Corsica who has been just reintroduced in 1998 and the moufflon.
We leave, for this short stage, the broad foliations of the beeches to penetrate in the forest of pines. We remain last once in mountain before going down towards the gulf from Valinco where we took the departure.
The stage of this midday is done at the abandoned village of Vera. The majority of the inhabitants of this small hamlet were vine growers and the broad gates of the houses where the large tanks were stored testify to this past. We make halt with the foot of the village.
