Overview
Monte d'Oro is one of the six major mountains (Monte Cinto, Monte Rotondo, Paglia Orba , Monte Padru, Monte d'Oro and Monte Renoso) on Corsica. It stands out because it lies roughly in the center of the island so that it commands views in all directions all the way down to the sea. On the other hand - as with all mountains in Corsica - you need climbing experience, at least a little to bag the summit. Impressive are the temperature changes that you encounter when you start from sea level. In our case in May we started with around 30° C and ended up at the summit just around the freezing point (see the picture of Lac d'Oro).
Getting There
Take Route National 193 to Col de Vizzavona. This road is one of the two major highways of the island and runs from Ajaccio in the west to Bastia in the north. On Col de Vizzavona (or a little below you can find a couple of parking lots since near this pass you can find beautiful cascades the Cascades des Anglais.
Info from dmiki:
Check out the railway tunnel. The cool (even cold) air rushing out is really refreshing in Summer. (Of course, watch out for trains... (although the track is a dead-end).)
Be wary of using the toilets at the train station without consuming something at the bar. Staff might turn rather nasty if you do not.
Red Tape
No Parking pass, no Permits required. Take care of the wild pigs, though. Especially at the Col de Vizzavona there are a lot of them and they'll come to beg. These are no squirrels! At first it seems funny but I've seen a lot of people hastily jumping into their cars.
When To Climb
The adequate season is May through October. You certainly can climb Monte d'Oro in winter but you'll probably have problems finding accomodation.
Camping
There are a lot of villages along the Route Nationale 193 with a lot of hotels/auberges. Ther is a farm, the Bergerie de Potizelli, which more or less caters to the treckers on GR20. Camping is allowed, probably best near the bergerie but you have to ask.
Mountain Conditions
For Weather information for Corsica lookup the Meteo Corse page
Maps 'n' Books
As for Maps I used only a road map scale 1:200000 since the guidebook I used has maps and is really excellent.
The book is:
Corsica (Corse / Korsika)
Klaus Wolfsperger, Tom Krupp
Rother Verlag
ISBN: 3-7633-4819-0 (English)
ISBN: 3-7633-4907-3 (French)
ISBN: 3-7633-4280-X (German)
Images
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