Corsica, a sea kayaking destination… some observations

Corsica is known in France as the ‘Isle of beauty’  and this is no exageration, the Island is exceptionally beautiful.

As can be seen in previous blog entries, we were very disappointed with our Corsican experience. The major issue for us was the lack of public services (Toilets, and  rubbish disposal) available for the large number of tourists. This inevitable led to rubbish discarded anywhere, and car parks and other public areas used as toilets. Where rubbish bins were provided they were full to overflowing and did not appear to be emptied regularly.

It was only the very small beaches with no land access, and too small to be attractive to leisure cruise markets that we found were clean, in all other cases the beaches were dirty, including all those with protected status.

I understand the attitude of the Nature Reserve officers having seen the unacceptable levels of pollution. I am just very sad that the measures enforced by the Nature Reserves actually fail to reduce the problem, let alone stop the problem.

We did bivi out on the beaches, including some protected. We also ‘wild camped’  in the Van, which was not generally a good experience because of the pollution at most available parking areas.  We also used campsites.

 

Prior to leaving I telephoned four campsites with a view of ‘booking’  All four I called explained that booking was not necessary …..

In fact these sites do not have ‘marked out’ emplacements, you turn up at reception and they will tell you “wander round the site and find a place to ‘squeeze in’, then come back and book in”        Instead we began telephoning sites to establish whether they had marked emplacements and vacancies, mostly they were full.

We attracted no attention from the Gendarmerie Maritime, or for that matter the Gendarmes on the road. We were approached by Natures reserve officers, and ‘advised’

Whilst we were on the Island in the height of the season, I do not believe it will be that different in the Low season.  Human waste needs around two years to decompose naturally.   A lot of the waste we came across was not from tourists, builders rubble and furniture including fridges (obviously not degassed) were fly tipped, this reveals a huge lack of facilities available to residents

Something we noticed was the absence of wildlife, very few seabirds and only very small fish in the water

We did chat with some locals, they all expressed concern for what they were seeing.

Without doubt there is considerable money made from the tourist industry, it would be nice to see some of this invested in protecting this beautiful island

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