UPDATE

Looking for a guided trip on the legendary GR20? We’re making plans to take two groups on this amazing journey in 2012. Right now we’re planning a trip starting 23 July 2012 for two weeks and another on the 8 Sept 2012. We’re going to be travelling from South to North to finish with an amazing day in the Cirque de la Solitude.

Is this going to be your next challenge? Contact us and make it happen!

I’ve just got back from a couple of weeks on Corsica leading a group on the GR 20. The GR20 is one of the most famous treks in the world and reckoned to be fairly hard.

There’s a fair amount of scrambling involved, some travel over snow and fixed equipment like chains and ladders etc. so it’s fair to say it’s pretty challenging. The term “rugged beauty” might have been invented for Corsica though, it’s spectacular and I really enjoyed my first trip to the island.

There’s a slightly different flavour to the refuges to the normal alpine huts and I’d been particularly looking forward to staying at the bergeries which are where farmers live and tend their flocks for part of the year following the old practice of transhumance, they didn’t disappoint and I loved trying the local cheese, and the charcuterie which is famed for being produced from semi-wild pigs who roam around the island foraging and searching out their favourite food of chestnuts.

Tags: Corsica | GR20 | Hiking | trekking

UPDATE

Looking for a guided trip on the legendary GR20? We’re making plans to take two groups on this amazing journey in 2012. Right now we’re planning a trip starting 23 July 2012 for two weeks and another on the 8 Sept 2012. We’re going to be travelling from South to North to finish with an amazing day in the Cirque de la Solitude.

Is this going to be your next challenge? Contact us and make it happen!

Often reckoned to be one of the hardest of the GR’s in Europe and one of the worlds classic trek the GR20 cover the high ground on Corsica using refuges and campsites. This was my first time on Corsica and the first time on the GR20 so it was a challenge!

We had a great couple of weeks on the GR20 and had the opportunity to stay in bergeries which are the high mountain farms used by farmers to keep goats, this is still a very traditional way of life and you can sample some of the locally produced cheese, in fact they’ll often send you out the next day with a picnic using local cheese and dried sausage. The island is famed for their charcuterie which they claim is so good as the pigs are free range and forage naturally in the forest particularly liking chestnuts, that seems pretty accurate as it’s very good indeed!

It’s a fairly hard route, there’s about 1000m of ascent each day and most days you’re crossing some steep and difficult terrain and scrambling. A  few days involve fixed equipment like chains and ladders and some movement over small snow fields.

Tags: Corsica | GR20 | trekking