France Gr5/55/52

Today was the last day!  No need for an alarm as I was wide awake by 4.45.  We set off at 5.45 to get as much of the distance done as possible before it got too hot and also to avoid the storms that were meant to come later.  Honestly, it was a brutal day! […]

Je dois poster au moins une fois en français pour mes compatriotes adoptés!  J’ai passé un moment extraordinaire sur le gr5 /55/52, non seulement parce que les Alpes sont extraordinaires, mais aussi parce que je suis bénie à chaque tournant par la bonté des inconnus. Remerciements spéciaux à : – Manu et Ben qui m’ont « récupérée

The plan today was to cross the hairy passes with my two young hiking buddies and stop at the refuge de merveilles.  But I was having so much fun chasing them down the hills that I kept walking with them until camp d’argent, an extra 15km which took an extra four hours.  Today was one

I tried to sleep in this morning!  The next town is two hours away and is the last grocery stop for three days so I there was no point arriving before they opened at 8.  But of course my eyes were wide open with the birds at 4.45am.   So I had a delightful slow

A lovely 6am still start after a rough night with snoring bunkmates and loud neighbours! I climbed the 1000 metres up to Col de Crousette in blissful solitude, interrupted only by five curious sheepdogs who came to check I wasn’t trying to steal a sheep. After the Col there was a challenging path up the

Hiking poles are useful in the mountains for a variety of things – today including being my lip sync mike, my drumsticks and my dancing batons, and maybe lightening catchers  Up and out of the Gite by 6am but I really wasn’t feeling the groove.  My body is holding up ok, although I am having

My mantra for today ‘the worst that could happen is that I will break a few bones, but I probably won’t die!’. I was up at 5.30 and scoffed down some nut bread, jam and coffee, and picked up the best picnic so far on the gr5 – ham baguette, fruit, chocolate and homemade tart

Dear bosses of French paths,  I am not a goat.  I admit I may have the stubborn tendencies of a goat, but I don’t have the balance or the small feet.   So why the hell are you expecting me to walk down a path that was clearly designed for damn goats.  Sort this sh!t

Today was a beast! I thought I would add in some extra mileage by taking the longer tougher variant called the 5b through Italy to make up for some of the distance I lost by skipping the Col du pallet! So I climbed a mighty 2200 metres over four different steep Cols over 41k! It