Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
Pyrenees GR11 2003- Preparation
Saturday 2nd August - Friday 8th August
I drove to Dover for the evening ferry to Calais, then too a couple of days to drive
down to the Pyrenees. Organising supplies in the Pyrenees is not all that simple. Where
the mountain villages have stores, they don’t usually stock food suitable for backpacking,
nor do they stock gas for my stove. In addition, walking on my own, I would need a good
supply of books. I had decided to use the same system for supplies that I had on my
recent long backpacking trips, driving along the route beforehand and dropping off supply
bags. I hung some of these bags in the trees and left others in bars and refuges. A lot of
driving was needed over steep, narrow and often busy minor roads with high mileages as
the roads in the mountains mainly go north-south, rather than east-west. During this
period the temperature reached in excess of 40ºC every day in the valleys and was still
very hot in the mountains. This is exceptional for the western end of the Pyrenees.
I lost a day when I reached Viehla. The 5 km Tunnel de Viehla was blocked by a
rockfall. I was initially told it would be at least 4 hours before it re-opened, but it turned
out to be 18 hours. Even then there were more delay, as only alternate traffic was
possible with only one lane open. The tunnel looked in a poor state and they had just
started building a new tunnel to replace it. (Two tears ago I had been held up for 4 hours
at the same tunnel when a lorry had jack-knifed on the access road. I completed supply
drops up to Latour de Carol, just across the French border, and made an 8-hour train
journey to Hendaye on the French/ Spanish border by the Atlantic Ocean.
I arrived at 7.30 pm walked down to Hendaye Plage, where I knew it would be
possible to bivouac at the far end of the beach. In the evening, I met a British Lady with
son and Basque husband, who lived across the border in Irun. I also met a British family,
who had emigrated to Hendaye a few years ago.
I drove to Dover for the evening ferry to Calais, then too a couple of days to drive
down to the Pyrenees. Organising supplies in the Pyrenees is not all that simple. Where
the mountain villages have stores, they don’t usually stock food suitable for backpacking,
nor do they stock gas for my stove. In addition, walking on my own, I would need a good
supply of books. I had decided to use the same system for supplies that I had on my
recent long backpacking trips, driving along the route beforehand and dropping off supply
bags. I hung some of these bags in the trees and left others in bars and refuges. A lot of
driving was needed over steep, narrow and often busy minor roads with high mileages as
the roads in the mountains mainly go north-south, rather than east-west. During this
period the temperature reached in excess of 40ºC every day in the valleys and was still
very hot in the mountains. This is exceptional for the western end of the Pyrenees.
I lost a day when I reached Viehla. The 5 km Tunnel de Viehla was blocked by a
rockfall. I was initially told it would be at least 4 hours before it re-opened, but it turned
out to be 18 hours. Even then there were more delay, as only alternate traffic was
possible with only one lane open. The tunnel looked in a poor state and they had just
started building a new tunnel to replace it. (Two tears ago I had been held up for 4 hours
at the same tunnel when a lorry had jack-knifed on the access road. I completed supply
drops up to Latour de Carol, just across the French border, and made an 8-hour train
journey to Hendaye on the French/ Spanish border by the Atlantic Ocean.
I arrived at 7.30 pm walked down to Hendaye Plage, where I knew it would be
possible to bivouac at the far end of the beach. In the evening, I met a British Lady with
son and Basque husband, who lived across the border in Irun. I also met a British family,
who had emigrated to Hendaye a few years ago.