Corsican High Level Route: GR20 (Cicerone Mountain Walking S.) - Tapa blanda

Corsica's GR 20 remains one of Europe's greatest treks. Here Paddy Dillon has gathered together in a totally new guide the critical information for a successful trek. This includes: how to get started and what to take, the best time to go, sketch maps for each stage, details of facilities on and off the route, peaks that can readily be incorporated into a full exploration of the island, as well as a crystal clear route description. He has brought this tough and marvellous route to life in a book that will inspire as well as inform. Corsica is not so much an island in the Mediterranean as a half-submerged mountain range. Its coast is amazingly rocky and barren, and there are few places where there is enough flat and fertile land for extensive cultivation. For centuries Corsicans have herded sheep, goats, cattle and pigs; driving them into the mountains for summer grazing, then retreating to the lower ground at the onset of winter. They created a comprehensive network of mountain paths, and built hundreds of bergeries, or summer mountain farms, in the most incredible surroundings. To this day some families maintain the tradition of 'transhumance' - the seasonal movement between the mountains and lowlands. The GR20 is more than just a walk: it's an experience to be savoured to the full - an experience that will provide excitement, wonder, awe and treasured memories. You shouldn't simply walk the GR20; you should live it and make it part of you life.

Paddy Dillon is a prolific outdoor writer with over thirty guidebooks to his name, as well as more than a dozen booklets and brochures. He writes for outdoor magazines and other publications, as well as for tourism organisations. Paddy lives near the Lake District and has walked in every county in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales; writing about walks in every one of them. Paddy enjoys simple day walks, challenging long-distance walks, and is a dedicated island-hopper. He has led guided walks and walked extensively in Europe, as well as in Nepal, Tibet, Africa and the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the USA. While researching routes, Paddy works directly onto a palmtop computer, so that his descriptions are precise, having been written at the very point at which the reader uses them. Paddy takes his own photographs, has appeared on radio and TV, and is a member of the Outdoor Writers' Guild.