Corsica - in Search of the Pasha (Writing Competition: third place)

In a quiet corner of the Corsican hillside village of Venaco there are some crumbling steps, which lead to an abandoned garden. Where once there were lovingly cultivated flower beds and perhaps a vegetable plot, on this particular September morning only thatches of parched, tawny grass overhung the terraces and brambles were rampant. A huge swathe of ivy, speckled with pale green flowers and alive with the hum of bees, hornets and blowflies, smothered the boundary wall. One or two colourful butterflies were also feasting on the nectar – Red Admirals, Cardinals and Queen of Spain Fritillaries.

Against a backdrop of towering and jagged granite mountains, the lower slopes smothered in maquis, and a deep blue sky across which Crag Martins wheeled and swerved, that small, abandoned garden seemed almost insignificant. Yet it was there that I found the creature which had been my principal reason for booking a place on Naturetrek’s Corsica in Autumn tour. Clinging to life among the unkempt foliage there was a fig tree, on which the fruits were in the early stages of decay, some of them split open and oozing like sticky wounds. Probing the fermenting juices of one of those figs was one of Europe’s largest and most spectacular butterflies.

It all began back in 2016, on another Naturetrek holiday to the Spanish Pyrenees, where conversation turned to the Two-tailed Pasha, a butterfly with a wide distribution around the Mediterranean, although it is usually confined to areas where its larval food plant, the Strawberry Tree, grows. We were at the wrong time of year to see it, but for me, a seed was sown.

I did my research and even made visits to several Mediterranean destinations, partly motivated by the hope of finding the Pasha, but in that respect those trips brought no success. My information pointed strongly towards Corsica, with September the most likely month, but rather than gamble on travelling alone and possibly missing out again, I decided to turn to Naturetrek.

I was not so single-minded about the Pasha that the broader experience of a week in Corsica passed me by. Tour leader David Tattersfield’s enthusiasm for all things natural and especially the island’s many endemic plants, was infectious. The Corsican cuisine, in particular the wild boar stew served on the first evening, was superb. And to spend a week in the company of a small group of like-minded eccentrics was wonderful.

None of us will forget the long and arduous hike up a boulder-strewn mountain track to reach a spectacular, high altitude glacial lake called Lac de Melo. What a treat awaited us when we arrived, with totally fearless Alpine Accentors and Water Pipits skipping around our feet. Unfortunately, our time beside the lake was all too brief, and not only because of the lengthy descent that lay ahead; a bank of dark cloud above the mountain ridge blotted out the sun and a sudden, stiff breeze began rippling the water, bringing with it an uncomfortable wind-chill.

Earlier in the week, a walk up Spelunca Gorge had been another highlight, particularly the picnic stop beside the Genoese Zaglia Bridge. While we tucked into a lunch of salami, pate, Corsican cheese, locally-produced vegetable pie, tomato, peppers and crusty French bread, Cardinal butterflies and the smaller, but equally colourful Corsican Wall Brown were dancing over stands of yellow flowers which grew among the bleached riverside boulders.

However, from a personal perspective the highlight of the week could only have been that visit to Venaco. To watch the Pashas – several were coming and going – and admire their fabulously colourful, stippled and spotted under wings as they dipped their long proboscises into the fermenting flesh of the figs was a moment to be cherished, and for me, one that had been 6 years in the making. Needless to say, the camera’s shutter button was in overdrive, leaving me with a lasting memento to take home, along with a host of wonderful memories and some new friends. What more could anybody wish for?

Read more about our 8-day 'Corsica in Autumn' holiday.