September 12th, 2022
We get up and are excited about our day …once again a clear, sunny day. Breakfast is a leisurely affair today as our day on the water will start in the early afternoon so as to take advantage of the light in the afternoon. As such, a few chores are on tap in the morning: stuff like laundry, some bill paying, and the ever-present picture editing and blog.
Our boat leaves from Porto-Ota about a 30-minute drive north of Piana… we will be cruising in the bay you can see in the pic below:
It is a splendid drive until we turn a corner and the traffic is barely crawling, while the twists and turns have now achieved an olympian status…
…luckily, we left ample time as we wanted to check out some places en route, as it turns out there is a section of traffic that can be changed to alternating one-way traffic when larger vehicles arrive > it being simply impossible for a larger truck and car to pass each other, even cars must slow down and carefully pass each other. The problem is that 2 camper trucks are trying to negotiate the “alternating lane zone” without the “flag person” being there (why is he/she not there… who knows???) anyway, it is a total gong show !!
Finally, we arrive in Porto and search for parking (interestingly while enroute Porto Lineas, the boat company had called us to confirm our booking). Parking is found, paid for and we pick up our tickets and wait for the boat, happily eating our sandwiches while watching the boat traffic > yes, including a “submarine”…
Some of the other boats are packed to the gills but Porto Lineas limits the number of passengers, so when everyone is seated it does not feel crowded. It is a 3.5-hour excursion during which we first visit the Calanques of Piana > rock formations made of red ochre, if you read the previous post there were pictures of these formations from the land side.
I must say that the Captain is a maestro when it comes to handling his boat, we have been on many boats, boat trips, etc. but never have I seen a guy drive a large boat so close to the cliffs nor turn it around in EXTREMELY tight quarters when inside caves while also explaining the history, background in three languages, etc. all the while playing classical and in some cases ecclesiastical music over the loudspeakers, totally COOL!!!
Our boat…obviously, I did not take this photo…but I wanted to give a sense of proportion as the boat is turned in a 360-degree circle to give everyone on board an equal chance to see the spectacle…
We then cross the bay and stop for a swim near an isolated town called Girolta, all the while watched by a cormorant:
The last part of the tour is in the Scandola Natural Preserve (a marine and land reserve) established in 1975 and realistically accessible only from the sea as mountains over 1000 meters high defend the area from encroachment. No fishing, trapping, spearing, etc. is permitted within the park boundaries. The rock structures are volcanic and as they cooled there were rather fascinating results:
Then back to Porto and the end of a lovely trip…both time and money well spent !!
The drive home is uneventful save for some goats who felt they could reclaim the grassy parts of the “highway”.
We celebrated the day by having dinner at La Voute a restaurant well versed in the art of fish ….good service, good food, good times!!
