Departure 05h30 · Arrival 10h29. 13.2 km, +357 m, -1,155 m, 4h32 on the move and 4h59 in total. Our most efficient walk of the whole GR20, carried along by the urge to arrive.
That morning, there was no chance of dawdling. We packed up the moment 5 a.m. came around, more excited than tired. One thought crystal clear in our heads: whatever happened, we were not going to miss the midday apéro.
At 05h30, we leave Paliri. There's something electric about the start. This isn't a stage like the others anymore. It isn't just a trail to be walked: it's the final page of an adventure that began long before Calenzana, with months of preparation, of doubts, of gear chosen and chosen again, of training and of waiting.
« Proud to have honoured this adventure, even when it didn't turn out exactly the way we'd pictured it. »
I'd pictured an almost peaceful ending, a gentle descent down to Conca. Bad idea. The trail stays a GR20 trail right to the very end. Still more elevation gain, far more noticeable than you'd like to accept on a final day, and a lot of descent fully exposed to the sun.
On paper, this stage looks modest. In the legs, it's another story. The knee pulls, the body is worn out, the feet know every stone before they even touch it. But mentally, something has shifted: the pain is there, it doesn't go away, but it slips into the background. The finish is too close to let it take up all the room.
The scenery stays magnificent. Southern Corsica opens up little by little, drier, brighter. And then, around a bend in the trail, the bay of Porto-Vecchio appears in the distance.
There, something freezes.
I stop for a moment. Not long, but long enough to grasp what is happening. Behind us lie the short nights, the refuges, the storms, the aching knees, the laughter, the rough patches, the well-earned beers, the encounters, the huge landscapes and all those hours spent moving forward. Ahead of us lies Conca. The end.
The emotion rises slowly. Not an explosion, more like a wave. I realise we're about to finish the GR20. I also realise I'm about to touch something I'd been carrying as a very big dream. It's strange, almost unreal. For twelve days, all you had to do was keep moving. And suddenly, you have to accept that the adventure is coming to an end.
The last descent down to Conca happens with a mix of fatigue and euphoria. The knee keeps hurting — I couldn't care less. There's only one goal left: to go all the way.
And then Conca arrives. Not like in a film, not with some grand soundtrack. With that simple, immense feeling: we're here. After 210 kilometres, more than 13,000 metres of elevation gain, twelve days of walking — the GR20 is behind us.
Pride takes up all the room. Pride at having held on, at having adapted, at having kept going after Arnaud left, at having shared this with Benjamin right to the end. Proud to have honoured this adventure, even when it didn't turn out exactly the way we'd pictured it.
And of course, the midday apéro was right there waiting for us.