Page 84 - The Wish Stream Year of 2021 (Crest)

Ex CORSE SERPENT –
16 Medical Regiment
The GR20, also known as “grande randon- née” in French, translating to the words “great trail” is a 180km long trail that crosses the Mediterranean island of Corsica with an ele- vation gain of 12,000m. The trail is considered to be the most difficult of all the GR routes and consists of two parts, the northern part, between Calenzana and Vizzavona, and the southern part, between Vizzavona and Conca. Vizzavona is considered the middle of the route, this is where our hiking began on 19 September after flying out to the island on the 18th. We set off as a team of 18, all from 16 Medical Regiment; 13 of us walked the route with 3 of our Mountain Leaders and 2 personnel were our real-life sup- port team on the island to resupply us along the trail at rendezvous points with essentials such as food, medical equipment, and morale. We set off to walk the northern part of the route, which is considered a more demanding but beautiful part of the trail.
it being cloudy all around with high winds, therefore the scenery was little to none with the moun- tains hiding behind. Our first night was spent at refuge Bergerie de l’Onda where we pitched our tents, cooked our food, and tried to get our heads down with the
Day one was a low-level route giving us an intro- duction into scrambling for 11km, with an ascent of 1180m and descent of 670m.
The weather was not great, with
wind battering the sides of the tents all night.
Day two was an 11km low-level route along streams where we managed to get our first wild swim before meeting our support team to resupply us with food. With an ascent of 910m and a decent of 500m, the refuge for the night was Refuge de Petra, which was situated on top of the mountain,
covered in fog as the weather hadn’t improved; it appeared from nowhere during our climb.
Day three was a more challenging day, climbing along rocky ridges; we were about to be tested. However, the sun was shining, and the tempera- tures reached 25 degrees which made the views outstanding. We were introduced to the chains on the mountains this day, where we used the chain to scramble up the mountain edge carry- ing our backpacks weighing 20kg, testing our mental resilience and courage as we had no safety harness, just our Mountain Leaders to
The weather was not great, with it being cloudy all around with high winds, therefore the scenery was little to none
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