Walking in Corsica. Gillian Price
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Название: Walking in Corsica
Автор: Gillian Price
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 9781849656665
isbn:
Another curiosity is the Indian bead tree, planted in villages. It features lilac blossoms and orange woody ball fruits, which gave it its name.
One landmark tree for Corsica is the chestnut. Under Genoese domination in the mid-16th century they became the island’s mainstay. Later, a grand total of 35,000 hectares under cultivation was recorded in the 1800s, though it was destined to decline with the first blight in the early 1900s. A mere 4000 hectares are productive nowadays. The nuts were dried slowly in the typical double-floored séchoir huts over a fire burning day and night. They were later milled for flour.
Many of Corsica’s mountains have their lower 800–1800m zones cloaked in magnificent forests of endemic Corsica or laricio pine modelled into weird sculptures by wind action on exposed passes. Reaching up to a maximum of 40m in height they account for a good 50,000 hectares, including the Aïtone, Vizzavona and Bavella forests, and were highly prized by the Romans as masts for their galleys. Easily confused with the maritime variety, the Corsican pine has short rounded cones and dark bark with sizeable rough patches. The maritime, in contrast, features deeply fissured bark, often crimson, while its cones are large and pointed.
In terms of flowers, April is the best time for a visit on the coastal belt, though this will be postponed if the spring rain is late in coming.
Down at sea level many beaches are scattered with curious soft spongy brown balls, remnants of a flowering seaweed Posidonia oceanica (‘king of the sea’). As they detach from the plant and die, the broad fronds are broken up by the waves, which then roll them up and wash them onto the coast. They are quite effective for removing tar stains, an unlikely predicament. Other seaside habitués include the showy yellow horned poppy, with blue-grey leaves, and the widespread crimson Hottentot fig, a native of South Africa as the name suggests.
Old chestnut trees reach remarkable dimensions
Not far away is the inland habitat of highly perfumed French lavender, its tasselled head distinguishing it from the better-known variety cultivated commercially. The divine scent of an astonishing variety of yellow broom is another constant on Corsica. More perfume comes from sweet honeysuckle draped over walls and other shrubs. It comes in a deep red version as well as the more common creamy gold. An eye-catcher on otherwise bare rock surfaces is vivid purple and pink stonecrop.
Prickly pear cactus or the Barbary fig keeps a low profile, producing bright papery flowers in spring, followed by edible fruit for anyone patient enough to peel off the insidious spiky needles. Christopher Columbus is believed to have introduced it to the Mediterranean from South America. In the past the leaves were applied to wounds to stop bleeding. Giant fennel or ferula is a common sight towering over arid hillsides. Its tall dried stalks were once crafted into modest furniture and walking sticks, as well as serving as reliable, slow-burning torches. A sure sign of exhausted over-grazed terrain is the presence of the asphodel, tall lily-like plant with white flowers. The Greeks called it the ‘flower of death’, but in Corsica it was known as the ‘poor people’s bread’, as the bulb, rich in starch, was eaten widely until the introduction of the potato in the late 1700s. The dried plant is still used in rituals, and is widely held to be a powerful protector as well as an effective cure for warts.
Higher up, wet zones around mountain streams often feature pretty lilac butterwort, their sticky leaves ready to trap insects. There’s also the odd orchid, mainly the modest serapias, better known as the tongue orchid, rather nondescript burgundy-cream with pointy elongated petals. A more striking orchid look-alike is the violet-green thick-stemmed limodore. Other notable wood-dwellers include pretty crimson-purple cyclamens and the endemic toxic Corsican hellebore, with attractive drooping lime green flowers. Its broad leaves were used by shepherds to keep their cheeses fresh, while the roots produced a valuable disinfectant for livestock.
Lastly, two glorious showy flowers found in mountainous zones: a striking white lily similar to amaryllis and sea daffodil, the Pancratium illyricum, is endemic to both Corsica and Sardinia and is commonly encountered. Much rarer in the springtime are the bright pink peonies that grow wild on the edge of forests.
Flowers of the Mediterranean by Oleg Polunin and Anthony Huxley (Chatto & Windus, 1987) makes a valuable and enjoyable companion.
Wildlife
Thick woodland and impenetrable maquis do not facilitate observation of wild animals in Corsica, nor does the widespread hunting! Quiet walkers in the mountainous regions can hope for at least a glimpse of the ‘king of the island’, the stocky goat-like mouflon recognisable by its showy curling horns. With a history stretching back 8000 years, this native of Corsica and neighbouring Sardinia has reportedly become shy in the extreme in the face of species-threatening poaching. Protected herds of several hundred mouflon survive in reserves in the Asco and Bavella areas and small groups have been reported in the seafront Scandola promontory.
Foraging pigs
Much more successful is the introduced well-adapted boar (sanglier), their numbers around the 30,000 mark. Along with pigs normally left free by their owners, they roam medium-altitude woodland in search of edible roots, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. Not even the avid hunters seem able to dent the population. Again these are timid creatures, and the closest most visitors ever get to an actual boar is a hide left by hunters to dry on a fence. Both boar and pig are part and parcel of Corsican life – and cooking. In the legendary past they even organised a revolution, led by the talking specimen Porcafonu from Calenzana, who conducted discussions with the Almighty for more humane treatment for the hoofers.
Another ‘success’ story concerns small red deer. After they were shot to extinction in the 1960s, park authorities combined forces with hunters’ groups to reintroduce eight deer from Sardinia in 1985. This number rose to 103 in a mere three years, and they have since been released to fend for themselves near Quenza in the Bavella region.
In terms of reptiles Corsica does not have any life-endangering snakes, vipers being totally absent. On the other hand walkers have a good chance of encountering harmless green-grey and black snakes which will not hesitate to hiss fiercely, a strategy to give them time to slither away to safety. Other notables on the ground are the ubiquitous darting lizards.
Last but not least, the enterprising dung beetles are entitled to a mention. Key creatures on an island where livestock is an essential part of the economy, they are encountered on pathways in bands industriously dispatching cow pats, often engaged in clown-like bickering.
The best news relates to birdlife. Magnificent birds of prey such as splendid rust-red kites with marked forked tails can be seen gliding in couples surveying open mountainsides for small animals. The woods are alive with myriad finches, woodpeckers and the dainty tree creeper spiralling its way up tree trunks in search of burrowing insects to feed its offspring concealed in a crack in the bark. The curious hoopoe swoops and dips over light shrub emitting its characteristic ‘hoo hoo’ call (hence the name), its distinctive black–white wings contrasting with its warm orange-nut-coloured body.
Eight couples of lammergeier (bearded vulture) are known to breed on Corsica in high spots such as the Bavella massif. Known locally as the Altore (‘dweller of high places’), the imposing bird has a wing span up to 2.7m. It lives on carrion and is famous for its original practice of dropping bones from a great height to crack them on rocks. Despite local hearsay and shepherd’s tales, it does not prey on lambs, in contrast to the golden eagle, only a little smaller in size. Thirty couples of eagles thrive along the central mountain chain as well as the easternmost Castagniccia. The eagle has a wedge-shaped tail whereas the lammergeier can be СКАЧАТЬ