Good Morning Campers!

Day 14. Stage 13: Refuge de Prati -> Refuge d'Usciolu

Last night we had dinner with the Germans, who it turns out are finishing after today's stage and heading to the coast for some water sports!

Ben and I caught each others eye and gave a silent look that said:

"I know, but it's going to be ok, we're doing the 'right' thing..."

If this was to be these guys last morning in the mountains, we wanted to share with them the spectacle of a Corsican sunrise, and persuaded some of them to get up at 5am to see this -'pictured'.

By the time we'd sat and watched the sun rise, packed up, stocked up on condensed milk and said good bye to our German friends it was after 7am and we were among the last to leave camp.

The guide book advises getting to the next refuge early as it is built into the side of a valley and level ground big enough for a tent is a premium! Motivation found, we headed off on a mission to catch and pass everyone on the trail that day!

Today had everything: Mountain tops, dense forests, fern scrub land, open clearings, and a kitchen sink.

That's right.

A kitchen sink.

In the middle of a clearing, miles away from anywhere, we found a sink. What's more, someone had left the tap on.

This was a spring that had been plumbed for convenience, someone had gone to the trouble to build a double sink with draining board to protect it!

As we reached the days highest peak, we had 2 miles left to the refuge, and we were still behind, but coming over the crest - we spotted the rest of the hikers strung out below us. Picking up the pace, we picked off the stragglers one by one, until as we started the last steep decent into camp, we muscled past the leaders and arrived, hot, shattered and sore, but immensely glad we'd put the extra effort in.

We found literally the only two patches of earth big enough for a tent that meant we wouldn't roll down the valley side in the night!

Ben and I had been travelling 'light' so far, and only carrying 'emergency' food - saved for such an occasion as this:

The 'bread donkey' hadn't arrived from the local village, so there were no supplies to be sold today! Maybe out of fear of being lynched by hungry hikers, or because the mountain air does strange things to you after a while, the refuge Gardien began to play relaxing electronic 'mood' music out through a massive sound system which must have carried the soothing 80s synth panpipes down the valley for miles!