by Cherie Allan

Well my time in Europe is coming to an end here and whilst it has been fabulous I am getting tired as I have been running around and pretending to be a billy goat some days hiking up mountains.

I love Corsica. It is a walker's paradise. The scenery is beautiful and it is just such a shame that this cannot really be captured in a photo. I dropped my camera the other day getting out of the car and cracked the screen in a couple of places. it is doing some strange things but still appears to be working and putting the files on the card.

I couldn't help myself when I hit French soil and headed off to buy foie gras which I am now well and truly over. I also am gorging on fish soup which I love and could eat every day easily. Also tried the sanglier (wild boar) which was really good.  I certainly know that I am eating free range food because every time I come round a corner I have to slow down for cows or pigs wandering aimlessly across the roads.

Driving here is very slow - still a few crazies about but not as bad as the Italians.  The roads are narrow and a little scary. I have barely had Fifi (the car) out of third gear for about four days. Have done just over 400 km now and Fifi is proving to be quite economical which is great considering the price of fuel here - very expensive at average 1.40 euro litre.  I get about 500 km to a 30 litre tank and my car at home does about 400 KM to a 40 litre tank.  There is some sort of car rally going on here and the testosterone is a pain.  These maniacs all think they are racing car drivers - hundreds of them.  Also a vintage car thing happening - cars from the 20's or 30's I think.

Weather has been OK but I got caught in a real downpour last night so just had to stay put in the restaurant and kept ordering....

Bonifacio was amazing except I did not dive. Because of the mistral winds and cold, both dive centres shut down the week before I got there.  The location of this town is set high up on a limestone cliff face and it is a beautiful town.  This island is dotted with medieval villages everywhere - absolutely lovely but I cannot imagine what these people were thinking when they built them 400 years ago.

The landscape here is totally different from Sardinia - very striking with the mountains and villages.  There are huge pine forests and I have seen my first chestnut trees and even brought some chestnut flour so hope customs doesnot give me a hard time about my bag of powdered stuff or my next email might be from jail.

Siesta isn't so long or common here, nor are there cover charges at restaurants and alot of the sites have no entry fees.  Accommodation is more expensive but otherwise I'm spending less here.

Tomorrow my last day here then it's an hour's drive to the Ferry, 4.5 hrs on the ferry and a 300km drive to Rome where I am going to pound the pavement for a couple of days.