Day 16 - Cauterets

Arrived here after the four hardest days of the trek so far and probably of all of it. Managed to do a bit of shopping last night in between the thunderstorms and now about to head off to Luz St Saveur - scheduled to be a 7 hour (+ stops) day. Weather dor the next few days stormy !!!!!!!!!
Got some photos of magnificent mountqins to post up when I get back. If there's access at the hotel at Luz tonight will post more;

Friday - it's still raining

So the very nice couple who run the hotel where I'm staying have let me use their netbook for awhile as I only have a short walk today to Esterencuby.
Here is their hotel at St Michel, about 2 miles from St Jean Pied-de-Port.
After 5 days of very tough walking, it's good to have an easy day. Yesterday's section would have been very pleasant had the conditions been decent rather than like a wild October/November day on Winter Hill.

Rain has stopped so time to go.

If you would like to donate to either Guide Dogs or British Heart Foundation it would make the hard bits easier.

St Jean Pied De Port, Thursday Day 5

Just arrived after a good walk over from St Etienne de Baigorry.
Quick update from office de tourisme as they only allow 10 mins at a time.
Weather has been horrendous. Hadly seen the sun. Worn thermals for past 2 days. Despite this, times are now quicker than schedule. Did today in 5hrs against book schedule of 6:20 probably because it was too cold to stop on the tops in 90mph wind.

Just been shopping for a few essentials and decided to throw my trustworthy Merrell walking sandls which have started to come apart. Onlyt had teh, for 14 years and only a few thousand miles. Should I ask for a refund? Anyway replaced with a new much cheaper model whuich would not last very long on decent walk but will be fine for inside the gite d'etapes and hotels which is where I'm off now. Tomorrow is an easy short day in readiness for the longest one yet on Saturday. If anyone wants to contact me, easiest way is to text on 07787 948671

Looks like weather is still poor for a few more days. In a hotel tonight so will catch the meteo. Hear it's crackin t'flags back home.

Paris, Saturday Morning

An hour to spare and free internet access in the hotel so may as well add a short post. Arriving in Paris yesterday evening it was very hot and the metro was extremely busy. This morning it is raining with storms forecasted. Hopefully by the time I get off the train in Hendaye the worst will have gone past - I am camping tonight.
I will also need to buy a new gas canister as they don't allow them on Eurostar so it got confiscated - or rather they dont allow them, going out of UK - told by the officials I'll have no problem bringing one back in! Madness!

Many thanks to Terry for sorting out my last minute problem yesterday morning.

If anyone is going to come out and walk part with me, send a text to 07787 948671.

I'm on my way

In about ten minutes I shall be heading for the train. Tomorrow night in Hendaye (watching England v USA) then the walk starts on Sunday morning.
The pack is currently much heavier than I would like at 15.9Kg but I shall be eating my way through some of that today.

This ain't no fun run

So please if you've any affinity to the help that either Guide Dogs or British Heat Foundation do, please make a small donation to one of the charities. The target will be reached - both are well on the way and I'm know there is additional to come in.

Guide Dogs For the Blind
Britsih Heart Foundation

One week to go

It's now a case of going through the checklist.
Training - all done and happy with it. I'll finish off with Duddon Fell Race tomorrow, but just the short one of nine miles. I'll then amp overnight to test out of the tent and stove and may walk the route of the full Duddon Fell Race on Sunday with my full pack. This will give me about 30 miles and 9000 foot of ascent in two days - the biggest consecutive two days in the GR10 schedule give 28 miles and 10050ft of ascent (7500 ft descent) or 23 miles and 10800ft ascent (but only 6000ft descent).
Tickets- all trains and Paris hotels booked; also a booked five nights accommodation on the GR10 route.
Equipment - all done - will test out this weekend.
Fundraising - coming along nicely - now at about 50% of target - hopefully the target will be reached whilst on the walk. I aim to update the blog where possible, e.g. St Jean Pied-de-Port, Luchon, Cauterets. Merens, Arles-sur-Tech.

May targets not acheived

Due to the third week being so short on mileage and almost non-existent on ascent, I didn't make my target in May but as I'd exceeded my ascent target in April by 5000 feet, I feel that I'm ready for the Pyrenees.

Week 30 - big mileage, big climbs

As the previous week had been so massively short on both mileage and ascent, I had to make a strong effort to get back on target. I knew reaching the target of 210 miles and 30,000 feet ascent for May is likely to be unobtainable but I'd try my best to get near.

The easiest way to start would be my oft-used route over Winter Hill to Belmont and back so that was Monday's run followed by a seven mile walk on Winter Hill on Tuesday. Back to the Belmont Run on Wednesday then a walk to Bolton to get my new camera on Thursday. The walk is mainly along the Middlebrook Trail, not the most scenic of walks but least it meant most of the route is traffic free. Another run on Winter Hill on Friday followed by the Saturday morning run with the wfdbwgua group.

Normally I would rest the day before a race but the mileage was important so following Saturday's fairly leisurely run of nearly three hours, on Sunday my warm up for the 5 mile Smithills Serpent trail race was to run the five miles to the start and followed the race by running home to give me 15 miles on the day.

Overall this gave me a total of 75 miles for the week of which 58 were run. I don't think I've ever run that many miles in a week before, even when training for a marathon - probably the most I've done is 52 miles, twice both at race pace as part of the Tour of Tameside.