Kilometres walked: 19km / Total distance: 212km/ Elevation gain: 872m / Elevation loss: 900m / Time walked: 6h45min Last night was windy, my tent again flapping in the wind. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong when pitching it: all the guylines and corner points are taut but the fly is still billowing. Or maybe I just need to get used to the noise? In any case, earplugs seem to be the remedy. At least…
Day 8: Kilometres walked: 18km / Total distance: 193km / Elevation gain: 987m / Elevation loss: 807m / Time walked: 5h45min. I walk out of the camping in the morning together with Nicole, another Dutch girl and member of the little hiking bubble that developed over the last few days. We’re heading for the real mountains! Yesterday I could see them coming closer and closer and today we are here! From the camping we follow…
Kilometres walked: 33km / Total kilometres: 175 / Elevation gain: 1280m / Elevation loss: 830m / Time walked: 8h7min When my alarm vibrates at 5:30 and I remove my earplugs I hear music. Apparently the town party is still going strong. Only at 6:30, as I make my way out of the camping, the music stops playing. Bleary-eyed drunk teenagers watching the sun come up in the town square. And me, walking through, trying not…
Kilometres walked: 16km / Total distance: 141km / Elevation gain: 326m / Elevation loss: 941m / Time walked: 4h7min. The campsite up the ridge from yesterday is beautiful but I sleep poorly. First, there are lots of cows and horses around and although the sound of their bells is kind of soothing, I keep listening intently to check if they’re coming closer, too close. Irrational fears of a stampede trampling my tent with me inside…
Kilometres walked: 23 / Total distance: 125km / Elevation gain: 1134m / Elevation loss: 638m / Time walked 6h33min Every time I stretch my legs they cramp up. I know this feeling from the beginning of a marathon training cycle, and it signals an adjustment period I have to go through. I also know that this adjustment does not happen without adequate rest, do I vow to take it a bit easier from now on.…
Kilometres walked: 32 / Total distance: 102km / Elevation gain: 1600m / Elevation loss: 1244m / Time walked 8h22min I wake up at my campsite after a broken night’s sleep. It takes me way too long to break up camp and make breakfast, I clearly need to develop a routine to smoothen this process, because right now it’s an explosion of gear, cold coffee, clothes airing out, and me trying to do three things at…
Kilometres walked: 37 / Total distance: 70km / Elevation gain: 1716m / Elevation loss: 1240m / Time walked 9h39min I thought those were the lyrics of that one song, at least that’s what I’ve been humming all day, but when I looked them up it turned out they’re quite different from what I remembered. In any case, my version works perfectly as a title. Basically, it’s a list of things that hurt. My neck &…
Kilometres walked: 24,5 / Total distance: 33km / Elevation gain: 912m / Elevation loss: 908m / Time walked: 5h40 Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Mike Tyson I had a plan and nearly got punched in the face. Rather than fighting at the risk of getting punched for real I figured it was better to avoid the fight in the first place and live to see another day. My opponent?…
Nighttrain from Paris to Hendaye and walking the first kilometres of the GR11
I’m leaving tomorrow, so today is the day I’m freaking out as I try to fit all the backpacking gear for the GR11 into my tiny, tiny backpack. It’s not tiny, it’s about 40L. Not big either, but not tiny, but I swear it has shrunk. Everything fits somehow, including the first three days of food and snacks. Whether I can actually carry it…we’ll see. I haven’t weighed it yet. According to my packing list…