Dark Days

It’s probably a good thing I couldn’t post anything last night, as it wouldn’t have been very positive. I had a wet and windy night on Tuesday, on a hill about 2 hours outside Hendaye, and the rain carried on all through Wednesday. I arrived at what should have been the end of day 1 completely soaked and demoralised, and stayed in a hostel to try and dry some kit out.

During the night in the tent, I was woken by the incessant cow-bells, which seem to get through ear-plugs! They were so close that I worried a cow might trip over the guy ropes and land on top of me, so I got out and took the two side guys out at about 2am. I’m not sure whether this was important, but I woke normally a few hours later, without a cow on top of me.

As I packed up I tried charging my iPhone, but the second battery suddenly died (the first had died on the train), so I’m currently without iPhone power: route logging won’t be possible and blogging is only going to happen when I find a PC.

The rain paused briefly as I packed up, at which point I met my first fellow walker - bizarrely he was a lad from London called Nick! He paused for a rest as I set off, and I soon left his path (the GR10) so didn’t see him again.

Not long after I left him, the rain started, and it didn’t stop until lunchtime today. I’d been hoping to make up a bit of time after starting so late on Tuesday evening, but Wednesday was a really tough day. The rain was extremely depressing and I began wondering why I’m doing this. I think I massively underestimated the impact of doing it alone too - I’m sure it would have been easier with a mate around, but I struggled yesterday and was wondering whether I wanted to carry on.

I presume the storms I was walking through are the same ones that have killed 25 people in the south east of France.

I reached the end of the guide book’s “Day 1” totally drenched. I could have carried on a bit further and camped but there would have been no way to dry any kit, so stopped in a hostel and hung everything up. Even the “dry bags” had let water in.

When I woke this morning it was still raining, most of my kit was still wet, and I struggled for motivation again. After breakfast I packed up and shipped out about 10:30, and actually began feeling more positive. The rain subsided at lunchtime which made a big difference, even when some drizzle arrived later in the day.

I haven’t seen a single view yet as I’ve been walking in fog the whole time, which has also made navigation quite interesting! Even with guide book, map, compass, GPS and altimeter I’ve gone off-course a couple of times.

I’m now at the end of the book’s “Day 2”, with a couple of shorter (5-6 hour) days ahead, so I may be able to make up time.  I’ve been encouraged by the speed I’m covering ground - today I ended up taking 7 hours in total for a day that the book thought would be 7:15 of walking, so not including lunch, breaks, and the 20 minutes I spent getting lost. The downside is that my legs are toast - I really need to lose some weight from the bag.

The other problem I’ve got tonight is blisters. I stupidly wore damp socks this morning (I can’t remember why, but I think it must have been because I thought the boots were already damp) so my feet are now suffering. Hopefully I can patch them up and make some good progress tomorrow.

I’m feeling a lot more positive today - I just hope I get a few decent days of sun. No photos I’m afraid, as I’ve blagged some internet time from the lady who runs the bar in Arizkun (where I’m currently staying) but don’t have any way of downloading from the camera.