The Golfe de Roccapina has a glorious mile-long curved beach, backed by dunes covered in sea lavender and whirly blue thistles. The water is turquoise and refreshingly cool, and the whole cove is ringed by ornate rock formations in rosey, sparkly granite. The picture is from our aft deck, where we are about about 50m off the beach anchored in 9m of water.
It is only accessible by an unsealed road, by boat or foot, so even on this beautiful June Sunday, it has a bare smattering of people dipping in and out of the sea. (In the evenings, though, it does have mosquitoes.)
We decided to try and walk up to the tower, which is at the other end of the beach. Although we left quite early, it turned into a hard slog along the sand, which is quite pebbly and rough, and mostly very soft. The soles of our feet are unused to such treatment, and our calves will feel it tomorrow. At the other end of the beach, we could not discover which of the many paths in the maquis led to the peak with the tower on. Lots od ead ends and wee temptations only got us to the very tip of the headland of Roccapino. This was lovely too: great boulders of pink stone glittering in the sun, surrounded by fantastic beasts and birds moulded in rock by wind and water. Rhino, hippogriffs and eagles abound.
The boulders lead down to a tiny cove of rocks, where the water is so clear, you only know it is there by the ripples that shudder across the bottom and the gentle rustle as it meets the shore.