Tag 8

Christian is awake very early on this day. He takes advantage of this to take some pictures with the drone at sunrise. It’s the perfect opportunity, meanwhile, to take pictures of the mountains and the sea. After I get up too, we find a spot where we can stay for two nights. Why? Corsica is a very beautiful island, but not too big. This means we didn’t have to travel long distances every day to have made a round trip in the “mountains in the Mediterranean” after two weeks. Consequently, less driving also charges the battery in the car less. So we wanted a spot close to the water so we could cool off and set up the solar panel all day. We found one of these.
Everything is quickly packed and we drive to the vicinity of Marina Di Pevani. There, after a few minutes of off-road driving, we reach a large campsite only about 100 metres from the beach. As there are no other people there, we spread out. With the tarp in our luggage as sun protection, we build a camp. We have the camping equipment with chairs and a table with us. It’s fair to say that it may seem amazing what Edgar’s capacity is and how luxurious we are on the road. We have everything we need and are prepared for all situations and activities.

By midday, when everything is in place, we are more than ready to cool off. The sea offers us pleasantly refreshing water and we swim a round. If you do run out of breath while swimming, you lie on your back and let yourself drift for a short while. The salt concentration is so high that in some places you don’t even have to stretch out your arms long enough to stay on the surface of the water.
Another great feature of the Mediterranean is the clarity of the water. Even while swimming, you can see deep into the sea. It’s also worth taking your diving goggles at this point. It is so interesting to see what is in the water and to watch the fish swimming through the underwater world.
We don’t spend the afternoon lazily, gathering some more recipes we’d like to try and studying Corsica’s climbing guide. We wait until evening for temperatures to cool down and for the sun to be less intense so that we can take the kayak to the sea. The water is very calm and there are no waves.
This was the perfect place for Christian to practise the roll. It doesn’t look that difficult, but the movements are quite tricky. To approach it slowly, Christian takes an inflatable buoyancy support for the paddle. I think I’m more nervous than he is at his first attempts to see if he can roll his kayak. He gives me some instructions on how best to provide assistance. Then he gets ready, leans forward and dives. My tension rises and I get nervous. But there is no reason to be. With bravura he does the roll and resurfaces. Very good! It doesn’t just stay with the one roll. Christian continues to practise and gradually lets air out of the paddle float. To support the rotation, I hang on to the front of the kayak and he even manages the roll without any aids during the first training session.
Finally, I want to do some paddling and have them explain to me which movements I have to do to steer or push myself to the left and right. But that’s not enough and they suggest I try getting out of the kayak. Ahem… Ok. I realise that I should try this sooner or later to be prepared just in case. But fear suddenly shoots up inside me, my pulse rises rapidly and I feel like I can hardly breathe. It takes me a long time to calm down, wind down and force myself to try it. Christian is very patient with me and counts down: 10, 9, 8, … I take a deep breath and it went off in: 3, 2, 1 … and I dive. My fear is totally unjustified, because within a few seconds I’m back above the water. “And, was it fun?”, Christian asks me. I can only answer: “Yes. It was really cool. Can we do it again straight away?” Here I realise again that some limits are only a construct in the mind and that they can be easily overcome.