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: 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…
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: 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: 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 &…