2017 CORSICA-TOUR (teaser)

Nog een paar nachtjes slapen en dan gaat het weer los............. de door Onno (wederom!) fantasties georganiseerde CORSICA-TOUR.

Hieronder de complete route, de deelnemerslijst en de 14-daagse weersvoorspelling (weeronline / accuweather).

Wie gaan er mee op deze historische PenguinMC-tour? 
(Nb. voor de onderstaande foto's zijn 'stand-ins' gebruikt)

Onno Spinder  BMW 1200GS Adventure

Joost Wichers  BMW 1200GS Adventure

Gerhard (Gerd) Scholhoelter  DUCATI 1200 Multistrada

Marcel van de Koolwijk  KTM 1290 SuperAdventure

Jan Hartman  KTM 1290S

Michel Dreijer  KTM 1190 Adventure
(vertrekt zondagmorgen voor ~1200km naar Valloire)

Overlevings-Tips................

En................ het weer?  In de dagen voor de start van de tour vallen in Nederland de mussen massaal van het dak....... meerdere dagen met +30C verwacht.  De 14-daagse Corsica voorspelling ziet er niet heel anders uit..............

Lijkt perfect motorweer................... boven de 30 graden, Variabel windje Bft4 en af-en-toe een verkoelend buitje!

Corsica Tour 2017

The destination of 2017: Corsica! This island in the Mediterranean Sea is located closer to Italy than to France, but belongs politically to the latter. Though the Corse don't like to hear that... The island is 183 km long and 83 km wide; the highest mountain is Mt. Cinto with its peak 2710 m above sea level. With its 8720 km of area, Corsica is the third biggest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Its coast is over 1000 km long and has about 300 km of bathing beach. 86% of the area is hilly country with more than 50 peaks above 2000 m, the flat coastal strip occupies only 14% of the total area and is inhabited by 240,000 people. Summers are usually warm and dry, but in the mountains there's snow until June. July and August are said to be rainless with an average of about two rainy days during these two months.

As already mentioned, the Corse are French - on the paper. They have a mentality of their own, they speak their own language, and most of them don't give a damn for France. Many Corse have French first names and Italian last names. There are strong movements of separatism, and their slogans are omnipresent. The Moor’s Head (flag of Corsica) is already 3 centuries the symbol of independent Corsica. The kings of Aragón use it to celebrate the victory on the Moor’s in the 13th century, and the local clan heads have adopted this symbol as such.

Day 1 • Transfer • approx. 861 - 997 km • 9:57 – 9:43 hr. driving time • Saturday 24 June 2017
From the Netherlands (997 km, 9:43 hr) and Germany (861 km, 9:57 hr) we drive to Le Grand Bornand in the French Alps. We know this hotel already from our pervious Alps Tour in 2016. In other words, all the essentials are there; a bar, good food, lots of booze, a comfortable bed and a garage for the motorcycles; any more wishes?!

Hôtel La Croix St Maurice
29 Place de la grenette
74450 Le Grand-Bornand
Tel. +33 (0)4 50 02 20 05

Day 2 • Central French Alps • ca. 344 km • 7:20 hr. driving time • Sunday 25 June 2017

Today we wil drive around 344 km (approx. 7:20 hr) from Le Grand Bornand to Valloire. By doing so we will concur the following summits of La Route des Grandes Alpes: Col des Aravis, Cormet de Roselend, Col de la Madeleine, Col de Chaussy, Lacets de Montvernier, Col du Glandon, Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Mollard and Col du Telegraphe. We will sleep in Hotel de Valloire et du Galibier.

Hotel de Valloire et du Galibier
Rue des Grandes Alpes
73450 Valloire
Tel. +33 (0)4 79 59 00 95

Day 3 • Southern French Alps • approx. 386 km • 7:02 hr. driving time • Monday 26 June 2017

The sea is waiting, but first we must climb some mountains on this tour of approx. 386 km (7:02 hr. driving time) from Valloire to the harbour of Nice. On this trip we will see the following summits and gorges: Col du Galibier, Col du Lautaret, Col d’Izoard, Col de Vars, Col de la Cayolle, Gorges du Cians en Gorges la Vesubie. The latter two are really really beautiful.
In order to spend time as efficiently possible, we will stay overnight on the ferry from Nice to L'île-Rousse on Corsica.
Departure Nice: 21:00 hr. and arrival at L'île-Rousse at 7:00 hr.

Corsica Ferries; www.nl.corsicaferries.com

Day 4 • Corsica North West • ca. 307 km • 5:20 hr. driving time • Tuesday 27 June 2017

We will arrive at L'île-Rousse on Corsica around 7:00 hrs. After breakfast at Via Mare (600 m after disembarking the ferry) we will head north bound and hit our first mountain area, with beautiful places like Speloncato. Back at the coast we will have coffee at Café L’Escale in the harbour of Calvi. The journey continues via the coastal road D81(B) towards the south and we will face many nice views on the sea and the mountains. After around 2000 bends on the road we will arrive at beach club Le Tahiti for our lunch. It will probably be difficult to move our lazy asses and start the engines for the afternoon stint. We will continue driving on the D81 in the direction of Ajaccio. After the Gulf of Sagone, the mountains are waiting again with numerous small curvy roads, which will probably reduce speed tremendously. In the village of Vico we will have our last stop today at Cafe National, after which it is around 40 km to our hotel Capo d’Orto in Porto.

Hôtel Capo D'Orto
Route de Calvi
20150 Porto
Tel. +33 (0)4 95 26 11 14
www.hotel-capo-dorto.com

Day 5 • Corsica Centre North ca. 308 km • 5:20 hr. driving time • Wednesday 28 June 2017

We drive from Porto via the beautiful Gorges des Spelunca and Col de Salto to our first stop at La Brasserie Acquaviva in Calacuccia. After coffee we will continue on the D84 and drive via Scala di Sta Regina towards the northern centre of Corsica. From there on we will take several small roads towards the east side of the Island, where we will have an Italian lunch at Pizzeria U'Casone in the little town of Cervione. Everyone is probably thinking of a siesta, but we don’t have time for that, some more kilometres have to be driven. We will continue on the small "white" roads at the eastern centre of the island. Dizzy of all these turns we definitely need some rest at Le Banana’s. After a refreshing drink we continue 18 km on the relative easy N200, after which we turn right again onto the small roads to our Hotel Hotel Arena Le Refuge near Corte in the Gorges de la Restonica.

Hotel Arena Le Refuge
Vallee de Restonica, D623,
22150 Corte, Frankrijk
Tel: +33 4 95 46 09 13
www.hotel-arena-lerefuge.com

Day 6 • Corsica Centre South ca. 308 km • 7:05 hr. driving time • Thursday 29 June 2017

After our departure from Corte we hit the N193 and after 10 km we turn left on some small D roads to get to the beautiful Col de Morelle. After the descent we have a coffee stop at Le Chalet on the junction of the N193 and the D69. The latter is a splendid curvy road, which leads us south bound. There are hardly any restaurants on this track through the centre, so we have another small stop at Bar A Parata before we continue to our lunch location, but not before we first tackle a white – red dotted road (indication for a difficult track) from Olivese to the N69.

Our lunch will by at Hotel de la Poste in Aullene. From there we drive a further to the south, after which we turn east and descend the mountains towards the hills of Porto Vechio, where we have our last stop of the day at L'oree Du Site. The last section leads us to the east coast and then upwards into the mountains again. There we will face two nice cols, first is Col de Larone and second Col de Bavella. One says that these are one of the nicest Cols on Corsica. From there on it is not too far away to our final destination; Hotel Sole e Monti in Quenza.

Hôtel Sole e Monti
Quartier Monticelli
20122 Quenza, France
Tél. +33(0) 4 95 78 62 53
www.solemonti.com

Day 7 • Central and West Corsica ca. 303 km • 5:25 hr. driving time • Friday 30 June 2017
Already the last day on Corsica, time flies ….. We drive from Quenza to the harbor of Ajaccio on the West coast. We take de D420 and drive to Col de St Eustage and Col de Tega, after which we start our descent to tiny Porto-Pollo for a coffee at the beach. Back on the bikes again we drive to Col de Cortone, Foret de Chiavari and numerous other local highlights. Lunch will be in style at Auberge Du Prunelli. Fully saturated we take the easy N196 and D27 into the mountains again, after which we turn left on the N193. Just before we turn right to the small D4 we will have our last stop already at Bar Mini.

This shitty place was the last café I could find before we start the last section towards our final destination in Corsica. The remainder of today is in good Corsican tradition curvy and narrow. When we reach the dinner location L'Altru Versuis, and inspect our tires, we’ll hopefully see that there is no flat middle section and that the chicken-strip is completely gone. At 21:00 we embark the ferry again, have some nice beers onboard and see the Toulon coast again at 07:00 hrs.

Day 8 •Vercors approx. 502 km •7:51 hr. driving time •Saturday 1 July 2017

Hopefully the sea was calm last night, so we do not enter our bikes to wobbly. Today we start our trip home again. This can either be done in the "Iron But Tradition" or in two days. When you choose the second option, the day will end in an apotheosis; the famous balcony roads of the Vercors. These roads are carved out of the vertical mountains with limited guardrails, so its not for the faint hearted. After disembarking we take the highway for around 210 km in the direction of Sisteron.

Breakfast we will have in one of the gas stations. After Sisteron the funs starts, first Col d’Espreaux, followed by Col de Gromine. Lunch we will have somewhere near the town of Die. Now the Vercors is waiting, we start with Col de Rousset, after which we will reach the famous D76, with its Combe Laval and Col de Machine. Then some nice small "white" roads to Villard de Lans. This is the start of the spectacular Gorge de la Bourne, followed by Route des Presles. We are almost at our destination of today, but not before we enter the summit of the balcony roads; Gorges du Nan. From there it is only 33 km to our hotel Best Western Palladior in Voiron. Not the most authentic place, but close to the highway, separate beds and a garage.

Best Western Palladior
4 Rue Alphonse Bouffard-Roupé
38500 Voiron, France
Tel: + 33 4 76 06 47 47
www.bestwestern.fr/fr/hotel-Voiron,Best-Western-Palladior-Voiron,93656

Day 9 •Transfer home approx. 899 - 996 km •9:12 – 9:28 driving time •Sunday 2 July 2017

Back home to Germany and the Netherlands, switch of your mind, vision to eternity and drive … We will probably arrive home with the following symptoms; worn-out, sore asses, headache and a swollen liver, but with the memory of one of the most legendary Penguin Tours ever!