Coastal Tour
Coastal Tour (for the spring, 5h)
"A magnificent scrub-scented walk around the Roccapina lion". rom the hotel take the RN 196 towards Bonifacio, pause at the viewpoint, in front of the Coralli inn (an excellent address for gourmets).
The pink granite Roccapina lion reigns over the most southern part of the island. Glancing towards the horizon, it sits imposingly on the peak between two beaches of blue reef and fine sand. Legend has it that he watches over the sea while the Omu di Cagna guards the mountain. The weather conditions have chiselled the rocks where the more imaginative will notice: an elephant, a camel, a tortoise etc...
From Bocca di Curali to the Ortolo river (1.30h)
From the Corali inn follow the dirt track descending to the west and forking out. Take the right fork towards the meadows and Asinaja sheepfolds.
Walk across the cistus-scented scrub spotted with white or purple flowers, the strawberry trees with their orange-red tinted fruit, French lavender opening its purple spikes, or the yellow calycotome that preserves its flamboyant flowers with needle-covered stalks.
This scrub awakens the five senses; fragrances, colours, and sounds are both attractive and secret, wild and precious. The intoxicating myrtle, pervasive juniper, then the serapias orchids (a rare and protected species), crinoid or Illyrian pancrace.
On the horizon the turquoise sea acts as a compass. The Roccapina cove, like the Erbaju beach and the mouth of the Ortolo are now protected by the Coastal Conservatory.
In the springtime Corsica is a botanical wonder with the rebirth of the fauna enchanting the most patient visitors with the riches nature has to offer. The Tiliguerta lizard exposes its scales to the sun, the bees collecting pollen brush against the poppies lining the tracks, the almost perfectly smooth sacred beetle.
From the Ortolo river to the Capu di Roccapina (1.30h)
Going down towards the Ortolo the view opens out to the North onto the Serragia scrub to the ochre-coloured hills of punta di solari, to the West, the punta di Grecu, to the South, the line of dunes of Erbaju beach.
The river winds among the willows, the pure waters glistening in the sun where you may see a grey heron or a little egret rummaging the aquatic vegetation, a plover, the hooded crow take flight.
Walking along the tamarisk the sea is a mass of white sand and rusty-ochre-coloured rocks. The dunes are home to colonies of shags and gulls. Geology plays with this setting, carving the rocks, sprinkling the beach with seashells. The cape’s rocks are shaped in a substance similar to the inlets of Piana (a flesh-coloured granite named granulite).
From Capu di Roccapina to Bocca di Curali (1.30h)
Return via an old pathway hidden in the scrub, taking the reverse direction to the far south-easterly point of Erbaju beach and take a path climbing back up to the old Genoese tower.
From the tower is the view of the lion, Sardinia to the South, the Roccapina cove, a treat to the eye: the sapphire sea, the sparkling salt of the rocks,
the pearly seashells, the ivory sand, the maritime pines of the bay.
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