Photographs from HRP 2013 with captions

All my photographs from my walk across the Pyrenees from 30th July to 9th September 2013 can be viewed through this link

https://plus.google.com/photos/107317326684564101108/albums/5924618751811596193?authkey=CMu4rYnx8O3hgwE

Now available on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136214554@N06/albums/72157658200999400

Day plus 44

Now in Banyuls-sur-Mer after 42 days continuous walking having missed out the three stages between El Serrat and Hospitalet-pres-l'Andorre so that I can get home for the wedding of a very close friend's son in Cornwall on the 14th.  I will type up my daily diary on my return to the UK and it will hopefully be published together with some photographs on Walkopedia.  I will also have available Viewranger tracks for some 40 days of the walk. I only ran out of battery power once when there were no refuges where I could recharge my batteries and no sun to charge my solar charger.  In fact I had superb weather for most of the journey and only got thoroughly wet once.

Day plus 25

Now at Salardu after 25 days .   Eating a large plate of macaroni bolognese with a bottle of Rioja to be folowed by a steak.  Missed out some of the high sections which required ice axes in this exceptional year with very late snow.  Lost a day at the beginning due to the excessive heat but have gained 3 days so am 2 days ahead of my schedule.

Day minus 4

Well just a few more days before we set off.  I hope that the thunderstorm that I got caught in on Tuesday morning isn't a forerunner for things to come.  I had no waterproofs or any cover on my rucksack and got soaked to the skin in less than 15 minutes.

Only a few more training walks, three hours tomorrow in the heat and humidity so that should help acclimatise me to the heat of southern France especially on the first day whilst still at relatively low altitude. One last trip to the physio to try and sort out the niggling pain in my upper back - I think from lying awkwardly whilst on the trip to Snowdon in June  - although shoulder injury from skiing in March still isn't a hundred percent.  None of them seem to have any effect on my ability to carry a heavy rucksack.  Also keeping off too many strawberries and peaches as they seem to give me gout - the pleasure of growing old.

All packed at slightly over Ryanair's allowance of 15kgs  (well to close to risk upsetting Ryanair) so have moved some of the heavier items to a carrier bag to carry as hand luggage.  Once off the plane I can unpack walking poles etc. and my total weight including food and water won't be much above that expected of 15kgs.  

Sadly just heard that a life long family friend died this morning at the age of 92 - he had walked the length of the Pyrenees in the 40s or 50s  (possibly whilst at Cambridge after the war) long before guide books, GPS, waymarks, refuges, modern lightweight gear etc. - well I suppose there may have been some mountain huts - he told me that they had to go down into the villages at night and I assume that he was walking on what eventually became the GR10.

Day minus 47

You might have wondered how I am going to make sure my mobile phone is always charged if I am relying on GPS with Viewranger on my mobile for navigation.  Firstly, I have bought three spare batteries - not something you can do with an iphone but simple with Samsung and secondly and perhaps more importantly I will be carrying a Goal Zero Guide 10+ Adventure Kit which includes a Nomad 7 (7 watts) solar panel.  I intend to carry this attached to my rucksack and just hope that we get some sunshine.  It seems to work although I am not sure that it will fully charge a completely empty phone battery but when I tested it in Kenya earlier in the year but it did increase the charge by up to 50% after just a few hours in the sun.

Training is going well with over 50 miles walked in the past fortnight and I am now carrying 35 lbs (15.8 kgs)   which is more than I plan to carry on the walk so hopefully I will be used to the weight on the day.  Next milestone is a walk up Snowdon next week carrying the 35 lbs.

I also didn't mention that diaries of some of my other trips can be found on the walkopedia website and in particular the GR5 on http://www.walkopedia.net/walks/display-walk.asp?WalkID=610 .

Day minus 60

Well, I am now almost ready for the walk.  Planning completed, equipment bought and tested and almost fit to carry 30 lbs up and down mountain paths for 7 weeks.  I am presently walking some 25 miles a week carrying 30 lbs and whilst this is not exactly on mountainous ground, it includes ascents and descents of about 150 ft per mile around Charnwood Forest.  This compares with the average ascent on the HRP of about 300 ft per mile.

I am planning on using my mobile phone with the Viewranger app to navigate and the route has been plotted using 1:25,000 French and Spanish survey maps with some 3000 waypoints.   The walk is approximately 450 miles and includes average ascents and descents of 3000 ft each day.  I will also have copies of 1:50,000 paper maps and the Cicerone guide book by Ton Joosten.

My main items of kit are:

Tent:                 MSR Hubba                         1.47 kg;  

Sleeping Bag    Gelert                                   0.60 kg

Sleeping Mat    NeoAir Xlite                          0.32 kg

Rucksack         Exos Osprey 58                   1.19 kg
Stove               MSR Microrocket                  0.09 kg
Stove               Trangia                                  0.15 kg
Boots               Salomon Quest                      1.30 kg
Mobile Phone   Samsung Galaxy S Advance  0.12 kg
Navigation app Viewranger                           nil

So my next milestone is a training walk up Snowdon in the middle of June and I just have to keep on walking and increasing the weight of my training pack, hopefully up to about 35 lbs which should be more than I actually have to carry.  I only carried 22 lbs on the Tour du Mont Blanc but then I didn't have to carry a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, stoves and fuel nor did I have to carry much food.