My first follower

Welcome on board, Ed.

All I need to do now is get as fit as your elder brother and I'll have no problem.

The Route

The route starts on the Atlantic coast at Hendaye, close to the Spanish border, before meandering through the lower hills of the Pays Basque for a few days reaching the possibility of snow in June on a high pass towards the end of the second week.

Click on the map to view in reasonable detail. The route is shown as a yellow dashed line.

I'm quite likely to come back and improve these maps when I get a bit of spare time.

On a 50 day schedule Fos will be reached in about 25 days.

At the moment I'm using the schedule from Paul Lucia's book.

The GR10 Challenge

In February 2007, I had some very mild chest pains on a couple of days, 4 days apart. After a phone call to my GP, I went to get myself checked out at the Royal Preston Hospital and all of a sudden I was strapped up with electrodes and then for 12 hours the doctors were telling me that they thought I'd suffered a heart attack. I was rather astonished and told them I'd had worse toothaches. Anyway the second set of results came back the following morning to reveal that I had not. Further tests (angiograms are not the most fun things if you want get back to running) confirmed that my heart was in perfectly good working order.

However, the experience made me realise that I ought to set myself a challenge whilst I was still young enough and fit enough. I've never considered myself capable of say a Bob Graham Round completion but I've always enjoyed walking in the hills. I have also loved the Pyrenees whenever we have holidayed there and have done a few walks (and the occasional race) there.

Therefore I decided my challenge would be to complete the GR10 long distance footpath which goes from Hendaye on the Atlantic to Banyuls on the Mediterranean, a distance of just over 900km (about 550 miles) with 50,000 metres of ascent (and descent!).

My original idea was to undertake the challenge last summer but I put it off, hoping that the value of the pound against the euro would recover a bit. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but next Summer is now the ideal opportunity for me and plans are well on the way to get me into condition.

Also as a response to the wonderful care I had with my little ticker scare, I'm trying to hook it up as a means of fundraising, 50% to the British Heart Foundation and 50% to Guide Dogs For The Blind (for whom my wife does much voluntary work and as she will suffer much of my preparation, etc for the walk, I think it only fair).

I have set up two justgiving sites, one for British Heart Foundation and one for Guide Dogs for the Blind and hope to raise the modest sum of £500 for each charity, more if possible.

There is a lot more to go in this blog in line with much preparation. I'll keep you informed.