Kilometres walked: 24km / Total distance: 848km / Elevation gain: 774m / Elevation loss: 776m / Time walked: 5h23min I wake up buzzing with excitement, but also with a strange reluctance to get out of bed. Is today really the last day? Am I really done walking after this? The trail is finished? I have a hard time conceptualising the idea. For days, ever since seeing the sea for the first time, I’ve been trying to figure…
Kilometres walked: 42km / Total distance: 824km / Elevation gain: 1142m / Elevation loss: 1560m / Time walked: 9h30min No matter how groggy I wake up from a night of mosquitoes, heat and city lights, today I set myself a challenge: can I make it all the way to Llança in one day? Llança is a coastal town about 10,5hrs walking away* (walking time, so without accounting for breaks) which is a lot, but I think I…
Kilometres walked: 29km / Total distance: 782km / Elevation gain: 965m / Elevation loss: 930m / Time walked: 6h26min Today is a filler day. After the excitement of seeing the Mediterranean -my destination- for the first time yesterday, today is just a bit bland. Fine for covering distance, but nothing really special. The first section after town (Maçenet de Cabrenys) is quite nice with a rocky trail through the cork forest, but later in the day…
Kilometres walked: 16km / Total distance: 753km / Elevation gain: 664m / Elevation loss: 531m / Time walked: 3h51min I’m staying at a big fancy campground where the little backpacking tents are hidden away in a corner behind a row of ugly bungalows. When I wake up -I gave myself the gift of setting no alarm after yesterday’s bad night- it’s raining and I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. I guess this means…
Kilometres walked: 32km / Total distance: 737km / Elevation gain: 1466m / Elevation loss: 1650m / Time walked: 8h31min Remember how I said yesterday that surely no one will come by in the middle of the night? Well, I was wrong. Last night I woke up around 02:30 because people were walking through the field where I was sleeping: from the forest on the edge of the field to the track leading up to the…
Kilometres walked: 28km / Total distance: 705km / Elevation gain: 886m / Elevation loss: 1644m / Time walked: 7h01min In the morning I set out from the hotel on my own, after having a long breakfast with Paul and Maria. It’s Maria’s birthday today, and they’re taking a rest day in town. Yesterday was the last day of the high mountains. We joked that from here on it’ll be all downhill, but the first climb…
Kilometres walked: 20km / Total distance: 677km / Elevation gain: 1033m / Elevation loss: 1695m / Time walked: 5h45min Today is the last high mountain section of the entire route. Not only that, its the highest point of the trail! There has been a pass of 2805m before but today is not really a pass, we just walk along a ridge and some small peaks that form the mountain between Spain and France. But before…
Kilometres walked: 19km / Total distance: 657km / Elevation gain: 1398m / Elevation loss: 768m / Time walked: 5h43min Paul, Maria and I leave the camping together. It’s nice to hike with other people again! Mushrooms On the first climb we see lots of middle-aged and older men (only men, weirdly enough) with little woven baskets. They’re looking for mushrooms, and there’s loads in these woods! Too bad I don’t know my mushrooms very well,…
Kilometres walked: 28km / Total distance: 638km / Elevation gain: 1109m / Elevation loss: 961m / Time walked: 6h41min Some days just aren’t it, and this is one of them. The day starts with a roadwalk out of town. My feet still hurt from yesterday’s tarmac and what’s worse is that my pack is heavy from the 3 liter of water I’m carrying: there is little water on this stage. And of course I went…
Kilometres walked: 30km / Total distance: 614km / Elevation gain: 931m / Elevation loss: 2225m / Time walked: 8h8min I didn’t sleep very well last night. It was hot in the room and I had restless dreams where I kept losing things; my earplugs, my passport, my toothpaste (?). In the end I read my book for an hour until I fell asleep again. Double coffee for breakfast, along a bit of toast, a small…