George & Mostyn - Walking the GR10
Introduction
This is the diary of our adventure walking from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean along the GR10, a long-distance footpath that follows the line of the Pyrenees.
It all began on one of our regular Tuesday and Friday walks in Languedoc. Mostyn Hart, my walking companion, said that he had always wanted to walk the GR10. "That's a co-incidence!" I replied, "So have I!" So began the plan to walk this challenging path, in stages, over the next few years. We started practicing by walking the longer and more difficult Petit Randonées in the area. We made lists of what we thought we would need to carry in our packs. And to check that we were ready, we did a two day walk along the GR7 (which runs past both our homes) with full packs.
A timetable was decided with the first stage to take place in September 2006. We planned to walk for 5 days, starting from Hendaye which is on the French-Spanish border at the Atlantic end, hoping to reach St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, 100 Kms distant.
Both of us kept a diary, an edited version of which appears on these pages.
We were planning to return in June 2007 to continue our adventure but, unfortunately, Mostyn injured his leg in Spring 2007 and we had to postpone progress until 2008.
In June 2008 we returned to Bidarray to continue our walk. The weather was very poor for the first week with rain on most days. I (George) abandoned the walk after the first week but Mostyn continued with a Kiwi, Ian, that we had met on the way.
The diary has now been updated to recount our experiences in 2008.
Thursday, 14th September 2006
George: Lyn and I left home at 7:30 to collect Mostyn from Boubals. We reached Béziers station well in time for the train only to find that it was one hour "en retard". We had a coffee while we waited for the train. The journey to Toulouse was uneventful and on arrival we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The service was very slow and we had to rush to pay the bill and then run for the train - in pouring rain.
From Toulouse onward it rained frequently. The river alongside the line was very swollen. At Bayonne, while the engine was being moved to the other end of the train, we had a real cloudburst.
We arrived at Hendaye on time but decided because of the weather to get a taxi to the hotel. I hadn't specified "deux lits" in my original booking so we had a room with a double bed. The owner arranged for a folding bed to be brought in so we didn't have to share!
We walked down to the seafront, only about 200 metres, and watched the surfers on the impressive breakers. Frequent squally showers swept in from the Bay of Biscay. We had a very good pizza in a waterside restaurant and walked back to the hotel.
Mostyn: Depart Boubals at 8.00 am, Lyn drove us to Beziers station. The train was delayed by one hour, which was neither here nor there, as we had to wait for the connection in Toulouse anyway, and it meant a shorter stay of 1½ hours. This gave us enough time to get a meal and make a quick dash for the train. We arrived in Hendaye just before 7.00 pm.
The hotel in Hendaye was comfortable. We went out for a meal at the Casino, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the start of our walk. The meal was good and reasonably priced.
