Week 4 – Tuesday July 20 – Bonifacio

Things are slowing down a wee bit at this stage, which is nice – it's supposed to be a holiday and we've seen heaps, so we're having longer lunches and dinners, watching Le Tour from our hotel room, not doing too much driving, doing more swimming etc. We're fairly well adapted to the heat at this stage and although it's mid 30's everyday at the moment, the sun doesn't burn to anything like the extent it does in New Zealand, so 4 weeks in and my arms which haven't really seen any sun tan lotion are nicely browned and my face which sees sun tan lotion daily is also tanned. In the interests of health of the general population, everything else stays covered up most of the time, so it's all still white.

I'm not sure what's happening to me, but after years of ridiculing them (and I can hear my sister starting to laugh now), I am starting to see a pair of Crocs in my future. Is that how you spell them – Crocks..... Crox.... who knows, but you know what I mean... those dreadful gumboots, cum sandals that come in all sorts of garish colours (plus black fortunately) that people seem to swear by. After 4 weeks in a campground, where my rubber jandals have always been too tight between by big and second toe, and my posh Merrel leather slip ons gave me a rash on both big toes after a morning of intense walking round Porto Vecchio, I might just have to succumb to buying a pair of Crocs for camping at Christmas.

After two days in Porto Vecchio, we now have a night in a hotel in Bonifacio, from where we catch the ferry to Sardinia tomorrow. We checked into our hotel at lunch time and fortunately the room was available. This one is much bigger than the previous two nights and is a five story building, with the ground floor on the marina and the top floor on the road to the town, so reception and the carpark is on the top floor.

Prior to lunch we went for a walk up to the top of the cliffs to get a view back over Bonifacio's uptown (Haute Ville). It's yet another steep climb, which had the archilles screaming by the time we got to the top. Once you're there though, you can walk along the top of the white cliffs and get magnificent views of the cliffs, the sea, the Haute Ville and the superyachts sailing in the sea below.

Lunch was again down at one of the Marina side restaurants. I amused myself for half an hour observing the expressions on pieces faces as they trod on a small deposit made by a small dog outside the neighbouring restaurant.

We watched the Tour de France for a couple of hours in the afternoon, before pre-dinner drinks and drinks down on the marina. Walking to the restaurant I noticed that there were two Euro coins on the ground outside a couple of the restaurants, which I'd never seen before. Remembering the previous restaurant's antics, I walked on without bending down. Outside the next restaurant, we observed a woman bending down to pick up something on the ground, then stand up and walk, looking back to see the waiting staff laughing at her. Sure enough, as we walked past, there was a 2 Euro coin stuck to the concrete.