Travel

Hello there!
My boyfriend & I will be walking the Corsica GR20 route end of July/August this year.
(The busiest time I know, but being a teacher I have no choice!)
After lots of reading inc Paddy Dillon's book, maps, lonely planet guide & climbing guide (for after the gr20) as well as internet searching I now know a bit about what we should take & what to expect.

I still have a few worries however, & am hoping some kind people will help!

1. We're going for 5 weeks (longest holiday I've ever booked!), hoping to spend about 3 weeks on the gr20 then the rest of the time climbing & maybe diving, but where do you leave your extra gear?! Obviously don't want to carry rack of gear & 60m rope etc on gr20! Flying into Bastia, so any ideas on (cheap or free) baggage storage options? This could be around Bastia or Calvi or Conca... anywhere!
e.g. Would campsites let you leave a bag there for free/small fee?

2. Just how easy is it to buy your own food and cook it? We don't want to eat at the refuges but hope to be able to buy pasta etc on route, is this available at each refuge? Or do some refuges only serve their own cooked food without having some kind of little shop (and if so, which ones?)

3. As we're going to be around corsica for a week or two after the gr20, we'll need to get around. I've read that public transport is awful & unreliable & that we'd be better off renting a car, but we were hoping not to have to do that considering the mad way I've heard the locals drive & the windy narrow roads! How easy is it really to get around on buses and trains? is it really that bad?

Any advice would be much appreciated, as well as any tips on any extra walks & nice villages just off route/good rest day places!

Also heard about the having to book camping in advance malarkey - which would not suit our plans of taking things easy and being flexible at all! I'll keep checking the PRNC but I get the feeling they haven't really thought it through at all, as if they turn people away, I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of sneaky wild camps this year!

Please Help!

I've reliably left gear at cheap French hotels, which works as they know they'll get a room booking out of you when you return. Not sure about leaving (tasty) gear at a campsite though ...

Wow! Thank you for the super fast reply

That's helped put my mind at ease regarding leaving our climbing stuff somewhere.
Looks like we'll have to book into a hostel/hotel in order to leave our stuff in it though!

We're going to have to think carefully about the car situation though.
We'll definitely get the train from Bastia to Calvi to begin with, which i've heard is pretty good, and have a good look at the maps to decide.

I'll put in a post all about how it goes with the new book ahead system when we get back anyway!

Thanks again