After a hearty breakfast we are trudging ourselves uphill. It’s 8:30am. The first meters are fine, on an old track leading to a cellphone tower. The next 500 vertical meters that follow are steep, switchbacking over rocks, small forest, loose gravel until it finally flattens out a bit across a meadow. Antonio spots a snake, which later turns out to be some kind of viper, the most venomous snake you can encounter here. Luckily it…
I lost my hiker legs. That was entirely expected after a year since any serious hiking (even running fell mostly by the wayside) but damn, it still got me by surprise. There’s expecting and knowing that you lost them, and there is the very real feeling of the burn and the pain and the sweat of lugging your pack up a steep hill asking yourself why you are doing this again. That was our first…
There are two types of countries in this world: orderly ones and chaotic ones. Upon exiting the airport in Tirana (Albania) I was immediately reminded that we are now back in chaos country. Although I guess it’s really not that black or white. Countries are not orderly OR chaotic but rather exist somewhere along a continuum that stretches out from one extreme end to the other. But Albania definitely leans more towards the chaotic side…
It has been just over a year since I completed my Pyrenees (GR11) hike in 2022. A day full of emotions: proud that I did it, sadness that it was over, excitement about going home and meeting up with Antonio again, and above all a deep sense of fulfillment. I walked almost 900km through the mountains. From coast to coast. Alone. A few days of relaxation in the coastal town of Cadaqués, a visit to…
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…