Today's ride is only 70km (cumulative elevation ~ 1200m), but have very steep roads in places. Having an early start allows me to take long breaks as often as I wish and still arrive at Porto Vecchio on the east coast before lunchtime. The gathering thunder clouds open, the first time this entire two weeks, but normalcy returns within an hour and the sun reigns one again supreme in the heavens.
Mihai, my CouchSurfing host, originally hails from Romania, but was determined to live in Corsica the moment he saw a photo of a beach in a travel magazine. He's lived in many countries and now spends nearly half the year travelling and the other half working and building his eco village. He currently lives in a tiny house of his own making, overlooking the bay. The kitchen and bathroom are separate wooden units and one can gaze over the bay from the kitchen table, sitting room or shower. His ideas coincide with mine and Henry David Thoreau, in that to become free from societal economic demands requires that you find a way to reduce all regular expenses to nil. With this in mind, he had bought 1.7 acres of land near Bonifacio with a view to developing it into an eco-village, all made by his own hand. All he needs now is to find a suitable excavator to help him prepare his multiple tiny houses; some to be shaped like Hobbit holes, others forest dwellings. He had plans to live off the land by growing his own food, drilling his own well and generating his own electricity from the abundant wind. This will prove no easy task, as I learn when I spend a few hours helping him clear away some of the underlying vegetation from a tiny corner of the land.
Once again I am propped on the back of a motorcycle and transported to local attractions, including a Romanian party, a nearby beach walk (St. Cyprien), the former salt beds and a point overlooking Porto Vecchio. Any gardening work that he has to complete for a local restaurant can be postponed, as he maintains that his free time is not worth the money.
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