I’ve been a bit tardy on my blog entries because we have
been on charter for the past 10 days….my first charter ever!! And man was it
easy! Six Russian guests travelling Corsica, Sardinia and Cannes and lucky for
me I picked the first late night and because we alternate Danny got all the
drunken Jagermeister and Limoncello nights so I definitely had it good.
 |
| Erosion effects |
 |
| A beautiful doorway in Corsica |
We managed to have quite a bit of time off considering we
had guest on board and Bonafacio, Corsica was our first stop. It’s a beautiful
island that depends heavily on tourism for survival. It is a quaint, clean, fresh
island home to some unexpectedly rough people so Im told – every second shop is
a knife shop! You don’t want to mess with a Corsican…or call them French, even
though it’s a French island and French is their native language (?). Anyway its
particularly beautiful when entering the port because you can see the effect
that thousands of years of erosion has had on the walls which gives the island
its fresh, clean look. The small bars,
restaurants and shops on the ports doorstep are only the tip of the iceberg and
if you venture up the winding path to the top of the hill you discover the real
Corsica. Shops with all leather items, a beautiful greenhouse blooming with flowers, rustic restaurants tucked away
in street corners, a shop containing every kind of hat you could imagine and
the best part once you reach the top are the breath-taking views. Its no wonder
the island can survive on tourism alone; definitely a must-see!
 |
| Bonifacio harbour |
After the guests got comfortable and enjoyed the island we
headed off to Corsica’s neighbour, Sardinia. It’s a bit, for lack of a better
word, weird to think that these islands so close together belong to completely
different countries, Sardinia being Italian. It has a completely different feel
to it; old world, rough and cosy. Porto Cervo, however beautiful and
prestigious, for me, was just a glorified network of ridiculously expensive
shops where credit cards go to be abused and it nearly caught me in its evil
web with a pair of 270 euro Tiffany and Co’s sunglasses, and that was the discount
price. Porto Cervo was built by the Agar
Kahn who is essentially a stateless king of Muslims and was paid in jewels from
Muslims the world over. Needless to say he became extremely wealthy and decided
to create his own resort. So Porto Cervo was born and is now a playground for
the rich and famous. It is a very pretty place, don’t get me wrong and it
reminds me a bit of a Smurf village, but unless you are out to do some star
spotting or serious and I mean SERIOUS spending, I wouldn’t give it a must-see-before-you-die-rating.
After a couple of nights there we started our trip to none other than St Tropez.
Not the greatest trip I must say, the boat rolling and doing corkscrews in the
waves while trying to serve tea and drinks is kind of a challenge but eventually
we made it.
It was such a vaaib as soon as we entered, you could feel
happiness bouncing off your skin. After a quick stop in Port we went back out
to sea to a bay nearby where the guests enjoyed jet skiing, seabobbing,
swimming and platform wars. I even managed to slip in a sneaky swim and the sea
was gorgeously refreshing. A friends boat also pulled up alongside ours and
they came to say hi on the seabob which was quite cool! Back in Port later that
night I managed to get a bit of time off to see friends and take a walk around.
Barbarac ice-cream was my first stop of course, try the cookies flavour if you
ever go, delicious! While we were there we also managed to go into a great
vintage shop called Blah Blah, Roberto Cavalli , just for laughs and continue
my hunt for awesomely reasonably priced sunglasses…which was unsuccessful
because we were in St. Tropez, duh!
 |
| Fireworks in Cannes |
Alas our time there had to end and off we went to Cannes. A
couple more days of jet skiing and swimming and an amazing and quite dramatic
fireworks show and the guests were off. By the end of the trip it was a close
contest about who had a better time, but I certainly enjoyed myself. So Im
quite happy to say first charter done and dusted, next up is the boss and his
family for 6 weeks of madness. I have been told to prepare myself so I am
stocking up on plenty of chocolate and red bull. Bring it on!
After the guests got comfortable and enjoyed the island we
headed off to Corsica’s neighbour, Sardinia. It’s a bit, for lack of a better
word, weird to think that these islands so close together belong to completely
different countries, Sardinia being Italian. It has a completely different feel
to it; old world, rough and cosy. Porto Cervo, however beautiful and
prestigious, for me, was just a glorified network of ridiculously expensive
shops where credit cards go to be abused and it nearly caught me in its evil
web with a pair of 270 euro Tiffany and Co’s sunglasses, and that was the discount
price. Porto Cervo was built by the Agar
Kahn who is essentially a stateless king of Muslims and was paid in jewels from
Muslims the world over. Needless to say he became extremely wealthy and decided
to create his own resort. So Porto Cervo was born and is now a playground for
the rich and famous. It is a very pretty place, don’t get me wrong and it
reminds me a bit of a Smurf village, but unless you are out to do some star
spotting or serious and I mean SERIOUS spending, I wouldn’t give it a must-see-before-you-die-rating.
After a couple of nights there we started our trip to none other than St Tropez.
Not the greatest trip I must say, the boat rolling and doing corkscrews in the
waves while trying to serve tea and drinks is kind of a challenge but eventually
we made it. 
No comments:
Post a Comment