Welcome to Conca

Day 16. Stage 15: Refuge d'Asinau -> Conca!

CONCA
Arrival of the GR20.
You have reached the end of your Odyssey.
You have traveled approximately 180km.
Bravo!

The final stage of the GR2o - drops from the mountains down to sea level, and comes with all sorts of warnings about heat stroke and dehydration as the temperature rockets upwards near sea level.

With this in mind, we set off before dawn to get as many miles under our belts as possible. On our way, we reached an exposed headland over looking the east coast as the sun rose. Amazing sunrises have become expected and the 'norm'... They will be sorely missed.

Maybe it was the altitude or completely psychological, but the moment the sun came up, it was like someone switched on the heat in an oven. Around the same time we began a 200 climb up to a small peak. By the time we got to the top, i was in a foul mood, and couldn't bring my self to even talk to the annoyingly fresh faced Ben who was waiting at the top. I realized i was wearing my warmest clothes, my bag was rubbing my hips, spiders webs were EVERYWHERE, and my boxers we finding ways to get to placed they had no right being.

A drink, a 'readjustment', a rest in the shade and a spell of walking down hill, and I was back up to speed within 5 minutes. Feeling human again, meant i started looking around me, and noticed that the bare rock had been replaced by shrubs and small trees - reminding me of a botanical garden!

Ben and I both had a mixture of emotions today - glad to be near the end of this immense challenge, but sad that it would soon all be over. With 6km to go, we found another cool stream, so stopped for an hour or so to swim and reflect on what we had achieved...

2 hours later, rocks gave way to paths which gave way to tarmac...

We had made it to Conca - a very sleepy village in South East Corsica. This sign (pictured) was attached to the wall of a bar....

We walked in, were faced with a bar and an ice-cream fridge and checked our wallets. We both had just enough for 1 beer OR 1 ice-cream...

Something strange happened... we walked out of said bar with 2 icecreams...

That evening, we got a bus into the local big town - Porto Vecchio, found a campsite and headed to the nearest beach. The sea was bath temperature!

This could be a very good couple of days!