Bonifacio

Thursday 21st May

Marina d’Oru to Bonifacio, Corsica

The weather wasn’t too bad this morning but we still decided to leave the campsite and head to Porto Vecchio.

A quick shop in the Super U (obviously not quick as the shop is so blooming big, but they sell Gareth’s favourite cereal, which we’ve stocked up on before leaving France) and onwards.

There are only a couple of places to park the van which are in walking distance to the old town of Porto Vecchio. And sadly, the only safe one was full. Oh well, we’d practically seen what there was to see driving through so we then opted for Bonifacio. Another ferry port where we hoped to get the ferry to Sardinia.

As it turns out the ferries from Bonifacio and Porto Vecchio are fully booked for the next week! Sod’s law, we thought we could just rock up and get a ticket for the 1 hour crossing but no, we can’t, not when we want it anyway.

Arriving at a little camperstop in Bonifacio we quickly checked all of the ferries from Corsica to Sardinia and have booked one for Monday from Ajaccio, so looks like we’ll get to have a look around the old town there in the end.


The port and old town of Bonifacio was just a few minutes walk from the camperstop. The ‘old town’ is within the walls of the Citadel, which is very big.

You can see that it must have been quite a stronghold in its day, perched on top of a rock.

Walking past all the posh restaurants in the harbour we climbed up to the citadel. Blimey, its quite a walk, but the views are amazing. You can see across the sea to Sardinia.

The rocks along the coast are amazing. Gareth likened it to the white cliffs of Dover. One part of the citadel sits precariously on a overhang. We’ve no idea if it was built like that, but hope that it isn’t coastal erosion, that doesn’t bode well for the citadel.

The lanes inside are lovely. As you’d expect, chic little shops next door to artists, icecreams and restaurants.

One thing that did make us laugh were the staircases to the properties. Some don’t have doors so you can see the stone steps turn into wooden staircases leading up to the gods 😲. You really take your life in your hands going up and down them. We decided that young able bodied people must live at the top of them 😁.

View of Bonifacio marina from the Citadel

One of the gates into the city still has the iron wheels that worked the gate, with a channeled plinth each side for the wheels to run down. Wow, haven’t seen anything like that for ages.

Obviously we had earned an ice cream for the climb and just before we left, we stopped at a cute little bar for a drink. We both had a half of draught lager and paid the most so far on this trip. €11 😲, thank goodness we only had the one 😁.

It was really nice to wander around a town again. The weather was cooler today so perfect for climbing hills 😃 and I think, after so many beach days, we finally cracked out 10k steps. That’s not going to work off our dinner but it’s better than we have been doing.


After dinner, Gareth was sat outside on his stool when he opened the door for me to look, there was a lone wild boar snuffling around the camperstop.

The neighbouring van was feeding him. I managed to get a photo. Bless his heart, I just hope he stays away from the road as its fast and busy most of the day.

We’ve seen a couple of comments on our stops saying they have seen wild boar and finally we get to see one 🥰.


Trip summary

Leave a Reply

Discover more from GK Tours and adventures

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading