On the edge of Corsica

We were literally and figuratively blown away by our visit to Bonifacio

on the southern most tip of Corsica, it is an intriguing town hanging precariously on the edge of the chalk cliffs.

We had such a great day of walking the ramparts and exploring the place.

Whichever way we looked were awesome views.

It was a great way to finish of this leg off our trip with yet more steps, this time the 'escalier du roi' which are 187 hand carved steps in the chalk cliff leading at 45 degrees down to the sea, strange and special climb down and up, Fred had his last swim in the Med too.

We enjoyed the french, both being able to talk and be understood, and finding french food, baguette to take home for supper and we had a vast plate of Mediteranean food for lunch - artichokes, courgettes, roasted peppers, tapenade, terrine, salade de chevre chaud, tarte de la tomate washed down with wine and water. The Med is the place for good food!

Birding in Italy:

I have been taking my binocs with me on all our walks and the birding has been low key, in fact they shoot them here as I saw one day on the Amalfi.

So my list is mostly the common birds one will expect to see. I did have a great sighting from the ferry across to Corsica though, the Cory's Shearwater, which is a seabird of the Mediteranean, which I was chuffed to see. The gull here is also new for me, it the Yellow-legged and also a bird of the Med. Another quirky sighting was the Spotless Starling, south of the Pyrenees one finds a plainer, oiler looking starling than the European Starling, so my list has grown.

We are now on our way to Florence to meet up with Bri and Di who are coming across from Spain. Looking forward to seeing them and chaffing wine!