“My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature”. Claude Monet Wanting time to stand still as we savoured our last moments in the high mountains before descending…
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“Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness”. – Frank Tyger Week 5 brought with it one of our toughest challenges when we tackled the Marimanha ridge. Last week had…
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“After a day’s walk, everything has twice its usual value”. – G.M. Trevelyan One of the highlights of ‘Week 3’ was looking onto the magnificent north face of the Vignemale massif. In just two…
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“There is pleasure in the pathless woods. There is rapture on the lonely shore. There is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea and music in its roar. I love not man the…
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The Last Leg… After 12 days on such an incredible trail, we felt a wave of sadness that our adventure in the Pyrenees was coming to an end so quickly. Having experienced some of…
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A Head For Heights… Launching ourselves into what would be our penultimate day on the GR11, we found that the trail once again took us to higher elevations. The shaded forests and wild meadows we had…
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Entering The Posets-Maladeta Natural Park… Having already been blown away by the spectacular scenery in the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park just a few days earlier, we didn’t expect more ‘wow’ moments so…
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Defining Degrees Of Difficulty… With regards to the level of ‘difficulty’ of a trail – ‘difficult’ can take many forms and be the difference between an experience of a lifetime or a disaster for different…
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Tackling The Lost Mountain… As the third highest mountain in the Pyrenees, ranking only below Pico de Aneto (3,404m) and Posets (3,371m), Monte Perdido at 3,355 metres stands as the highest summit in the…
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The Hardest Mile… Usually after the first week on any thru-hike we have our camp routines well refined and feel completely trail fit to tackle whatever we’re presented with along the way. Today however put…
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Mountain Highs… Bordering on the French Midi-Pyrenees, in the District of Aragon in the north of Spain, is one of the most unusual and spectacular mountain cliffs in Europe and one of the largest…
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Bagging A Zero Day! A ‘Zero Day’ is literally a day in which you do no hiking, hence you cover zero miles and make no progress towards your end goal. It can be an…
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Marvelling At Magnificent Mountain Lakes… One of the striking features of the GR11 is the amount of reservoirs, lakes and tarns you pass along the trail. From the calm, crystal clear Ibons d’ Anayet…
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A Chance At Night Landscape Photography… Camping under the stars literally every night has made us all the more appreciative and eager to capture the beauty of the night sky. So with our current…
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Lasting Impressions… Writing this trail report in the cold, fading light of autumn, some 8 weeks or so after our return to the UK, I smile wistfully at the summer adventure we enjoyed in the…
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The Best of the GR11? Instantly finding ourselves immersed in majestic mountain scenery, we were feeling wonderfully justified in our decision to begin our hike from Canfranc. Only having the time to cover just…