Serra di Ferro & Cupabaia

It’s not often I get the whole day to myself, so after a leisurely breakfast of coffee, toast and marmite on the balcony (old habits die hard!), I decided to venture a little further afield and head up to Serra di Ferro.



Serra di Ferro is a pretty flowered village slightly inland of Porto Pollo and Cupabaia. It’s fairly small, but there is a nice café/restaurant with terrace where they sometimes hold Corsica evenings with polyphonic singing, a little shop selling Corsican products such as charcuterie (local cured meats), wine, honey, souvenirs and handmade knives, and an interesting little chapel with double belltower and al fresco pews!



I was still unsure of my intentions for the day, so I’d packed both my walking shoes and beach gear in the car. From here there are several marked walks; Porto Pollo (40-45 minutes), Cupabaia (30m) and Olmeto (6h). My hayfever has been really playing up recently so a hike across the Maquis probably wasn’t a great idea. Fortunately common sense kicked in and I headed through the village and about 10 minutes further on, came to the fine white sand dunes of the Plage de Cupabaia.



Most people arriving at Cupabaia tend to stick to the first stretch of beach they come to, but I prefer to head to the far end by the rocks where the sand is a little coarser and it’s generally a bit quieter. By 11am it was over 30 degrees with no breeze so the water looked more like a lake than the sea. Although I’m a bit of a sun-seeker, after a couple of hours even I was too hot and decided to head back to the Valinco.



It’s amazing how much the beaches change from one area to another, and within 20 minutes I was alongside the granite outcrops and more golden sands of Abbartello. I was in no real rush so I decided to stop off at ‘La Crique’, one of the beachside restaurant/bars dotted along the coastline. Of course I really should have been shopping in preparation for tomorrows bank holiday (yes, another one), but then again…