Kilometres walked: 21km / Total distance: 539km / Elevation gain: 1588m / Elevation loss: 806m / Time walked: 6h58min I’m in Andorra! I walked all the way here, can you believe it? I’ve never been in Andorra before. But let’s back up a little. I wasn’t supposed to be in Andorra yet (according to my own arbitrary planning, at least). This morning I left the camping in Areu early after a rainy night. I was…
Kilometres walked: 14km / Total distance: 518km / Elevation gain: 810m / Elevation loss: 1045m / Time walked: 4h10min If I’ve been thinking much?, a friend asks me via text. Implying, probably with a hint of sarcasm, that I’m on a journey of self discovery, or out here to answer some bigger question. “Not really”, I write back. And it’s true, I haven’t been thinking much. The trail is a bad place to think. Most…
Kilometres walked: 14km / Total distance: 419km / Elevation gain: 303m/ Elevation loss: 1153m / Time walked: 5h18min Breakfast at the refugio. Café con leche from a thermos, toast with mini packages of jam and Nutella (of which I steal one to snack on later), little dry muffins wrapped in plastic, and some undefined fruit juice without actual juice. My hiker hunger has finally kicked in and I eat it all. A tiny climb to…
Kilometres walked: 27km / Total distance: 350km / Elevation gain: 1400m/ Elevation loss: 1042m / Time walked: 7h2min Another day, another pass, another up, another down. This is what life is, this is what we do now. We walk. Breakfast at the refuge (Pineta), easy forest trail, and suddenly there is cell service. I leave a long voice message for Antonio -to let him know I miss him, and that I’m proud of how I…
Kilometres walked: 12,5km / Total distance: 323km/ Elevation gain: 836m/ Elevation loss: 1807m / Time walked: 7h15min 12,5 Kilometer in over seven hours. For a runner like me, where distance and time are the only metrics that matter, this is ridiculous. But it’s a testament to the fact that distance matters very little here, and elevation and terrain are the determining factors in how much you can do and how far you can go. On…
Kilometres walked: 26km / Total distance: 310km/ Elevation gain: 1277m / Elevation loss: 388m / Time walked: 6h30min I leave the campsite before 07:00. I was awake for about an hour in the middle of the night, trying to download new books to my ereader using the WiFi of the camping. I haven’t read much, and not at all last week hiking with Nicole, but I hope I have the time and energy to read…
Kilometres walked: 15km / Total distance: 264km/ Elevation gain: 1076m / Elevation loss: 875m / Time walked: 6h57min My brain fabricates many stories of disaster that I have learned how to deal with over the years, but now there are very primal signals from my body that are screaming: “You can’t be here! If you move your foot you will fall and die!” I’m on a rocky ledge at 2805m, one hand holding on to…
Kilometres walked: 17km / Total distance: 249km/ Elevation gain: 995m / Elevation loss: 417m / Time walked: 4h51min (both days combined) First thing I do when I wake up in my hotel bed is checking the weather forecast. It is not looking good. The forecast for today has improved a bit, but tomorrow is looking worse. The Pyrenees are known for having afternoon thunderstorms that are short but intense, but the forecast is now predicting…
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…
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.…