Thoughts following completion...

Just completed northern sector between Calenzana and Vizzavona: done late Sept, in 4.5 days.
Some thoughts re: the walk to add for posterity. Obviously each experience is different but...

First - this is one of the finest challenges we have ever undertaken. The daily distance, ascent and descent are punishing, but the experience is highly rewarding. The views from the northern section down to the sea over ridge after ridge after ridge, with the evening sun turning the distant ripples a warm orange will be with me for absolutely forever. As will the experience of doing cirque de solitude in the drizzle.

Accom:

- Generally sensible to make sure you're at the huts before 6pm to ensure your carefully planned reservations are not cancelled in favour of others!
- Ortu Piobbhu guardian was lovely: made food for us late and generally mothered us. Awesome cakey pud with dinner used as breakfast the next day...
- The Gite D'etape hotel at Haut Asco (Stagnu?) was good and had hot showers, if the accom is a little spartan. Hotel may be better for the pecunious.
- Castel Verghiu hotel was great - decent food, lots of snacks to purchase and fresh bread on sale. room was nice too, with hot shower and (!) bowl style toilet thank heavens.
- Petra Piana hut, hot and smelly, and the guardians were a little off with us because we arrived at 6.30 just before dinner. dinner cost €16 each and was distinctly less good than other places (as noted elsewhere here). Several people outside the hut during the night being ill as a result. Would bivvy next time (perhaps go to Bergerie down the hill from PP). Also, some slight suspicion of insects inside the hut also, but no bites in the morning.
- We didn't stay anywhere else on the route, but lots of bergeries on the way looked like they had tents set up for those looking to stay overnight. Carrying a tent therefore seems superfluous.

Transport:

- taxi from Poretta Airport - Cassamozza = €30 ish on a Sunday when Easyjet flight arrives from London, although cheaper in the week. It is however better to splash €90 on a taxi to Ponte Lecche and get the train on from there to Calvi, given the amount of time you have between landing and train departure. It's only 25 mins in a taxi to PL and the train waiting time at PL gives you an extra 10 mins to get there. Between three of us the total cost of arrival at Calenzana from Bastia was c. €160, and we were starting at 1.30pm on Sunday, not Monday morning like most.
- Taxis seem to operate on a sundays / evening rate most of the time. If you have a local contact see if they can book taxis for you on the non-local rate. Always get the price first, and keep eyes tightly shut for duration of the journey unless you have nerves of steel!
- trains are a bit sporadic if fun: on the way there, CassaMozza - Ponte Lecche was rail replacement, and on the way back, Vizzavona to Bastia was rail replacement also. Check corsicabus.org for decent info. Graffiti ruined our view out over the northern coast also.
- You can get off the route before Londa by going down the Mare i Mare to the road north of Vizzavona. The replacement bus stops at the service station near the request station as a first stop after VV.

En Route:
- Beware the dog mess on the way out of Calenzana. lots of locals seem to use this area by the start of the path as a dog toilet.
- Water sources en route were fairly plentiful, and we were comfortable with 3 litres each per day, refilling mainly at huts / bergeries. Isotonic powder seemed to work well, although nice to have one pure water only..
- don't share water bottles around if someone gets sick on the route. Obvious, but...
- Take loo roll with you!!!!!! You will not find much wedged behind a stand pipe above a ceramic hole in the ground when its 2am and raining outside and you're already halfway through a "maneuvre"!
- Take cash for the huts and keep it in a dry bag. Some of the hotels accept cards, but you don't want to find it doesn't work and you're short on cash...
- It is well worth getting up early if the weather is nice for most sections, as the views at the high points are unbelievable. A decent camera is worth the weight too...
- Take trekking poles and learn to use them: the ascents and descents can be brutal as the the track can be very steep and the ground uneven. Our knees were suffering hard on the last stage...
Footbeds for your boots may also be very sensible.
- Go light I implore you! So many people carrying tents and billy cans around, which seems so unnecessary, given the ability to book places now. Carrying 7kgs is 1000% easier than carrying 15kgs and will reduce the impact on your knees / feet.
- Take gaffer tape and vaseline in quantity. You can use these things to solve any problem whatsoever.

After:
- The centre of Bastia and the harbourside is great for evenings post-GR20. Plus lots of people seem impressed locally when you tell them you've been on it.
- Bastia hotels get booked up quick, but Hotel Forum on Av. Paoli was €60 for a 3 bed room and let us leave our bags hanging around after we checked out. Stone steps up to reception were a killer for our knees though!
- If you have time hit the north shore over the hill from Bastia, e.g. St. Florent or Ile Rousse.
SF was a bit quiet when we were there, but plenty of opportunities for beachy fun. Helps to have a fashion model join the trip at this point also we found...

Cheers all, looking forward to doing the southern bit next year!

GC

More thoughts following completion .... !

My girlfriend and I completed several sections in the North (going South) at about the same time as Moireach and "Broken-Knee". The weather during the second half of September this year was pretty awful for walking, and we had a lot of rain (I think this was due to a very large weather system rather than local). We bailed out at Castel Verghio; partly down to weather, partly down to lack of food, but mostly down to our tent being ripped to pieces by foxes during a stormy night at the campground there! Note to self; leave food bag hanging up a tree next time.

We carried an excellent 2-man tent (Coleman Epsilon 2 for the kit nerds out there), short self-inflating mats (Wee Airic from Alpkit.com, whose products I cannot recommend highly enough - thanks guys!), and down sleeping bags. We planned to "go light", as many people here recommend, but this is much harder with a tent, of course. My personal view is that, if you want a proper wilderness adventure, be as self-sufficient as possible and take a tent. Yes, you might need slightly stronger legs, greater fitness and perhaps you will travel a little slower, but it will be worth it, I assure you.

We were driven into the huts on a couple of occasions and, despite being grateful for the relative comfort of a dryer, warmer place to sleep, I wouldn't want use them each night. For sure, they are noisy (though I suspect I might have been one of the snorers - sorry Moireach!), yes, they are smelly, and there are often boisterous parties of (guided?) walkers knocking back wine and singing those awful "campfire" songs certain hikers seem compelled to do for some reason. We also experienced problems with bed-bugs/fleas and met a couple of people who were literally covered with painful bites. I'm not sure if this was a "bad" year (can others who've travelled in previous years please comment?), but for this reason alone, take a tent. Finally, sitting outside your tent after nightfall, looking up at the impossibly-bright stars, and being able to see the Milky Way with the naked eye, is an experience that will make you forget the extra weight you carried during the day.

Many trekkers are asking about the quickest way to do the GR20, as they have limited time. For me, this is missing the point of being there in the first place! I've never understood the "summit-bagging" attitude of some people who see the mountains as a challenge to be conquered; a collection of statistics about height, distance and time to be talked about in the evening in some self-congratulatory way. It made me so sad to hear people asking each other how many hours they took for that days stage. We aimed to do the GR20 slow, taking in some "side-trips" to the mountains along the way. Some of our finest memories are sleeping in later, waking to find the place empty, and having the mountain to ourselves. Climbing Monte Corona and sitting down to watch the clouds swirling up from the valley, listening to goat-bells far below. At Carrozzu, once the pack had left, we sat drinking tea while nature calmly moved back in and reclaimed the place; birds filling the trees, and "mouflon" grazing nearby. Take your time, stop, be quiet for a while and let your eyes roam.

Don't take the guide-book advice as gospel, but find your own way as much as possble. L'Albadu in Corte is highly recommended by Paddy Dillon, Guide Routard, etc., but I thought it was just barely OK; a collection of tired-looking, slightly shabby, smelly rooms and chalets knocked together with little care, with a lot flies everywhere (I mean A LOT ... and I've spent time in the Australian bush ...), especially in the kitchen and dining room. Not lovely. Several people were sick.

The accommodation at Vizzavona is functional, but pretty poor, I think. In contrast, the campsite at Tattone (Le Soleil) is excellent; clean, tidy, friendly, flat pitches, morning bread orders, and with hot showers. Go there instead.

On the subject of food. We took the usual stuff; soup, couscous, oatmeal porridge, powdered milk .... On the subject of soup, I would look closely at the ingredients. Several contain a lot of Maltodextrin, MSG or palm oil. Apart from being nutritionally suspect, these ingredients leave a slimy residue on bowls and cups that is difficult to clean with cold water. Avoid. I took a few single-portion "treats" such as Nutella, mustard and marmite, which did a lot to vary the taste of our food and lift the spirits. A BIG THANK YOU to Chris at http://www.condiments4campers.co.uk for supplying them.

Finally, consider spending a few days somewhere else after the mountains. We went to Roccapina, which has a beautiful, quiet beach and it was a great place to recover and relax.

Mike