Do you like blog title: 'Bordering on the Extreme'?
It's a bit of a play on words, since it is my intention to walk a route that largely follows the national border between France and Spain from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean, sticking mainly to the (extreme) high passes through the Pyrenean mountains and climbing a few peaks too.
The idea of walking such a route is certainly not new. It is referred to as the Haute Randonee Pyreneene, or HRP, and has been described in books written by Georges Veron, who first devised the idea in 1968, and Ton Joosten, whose book I have in my possession. The point is that the route is a concept rather than a specific path. Sign posts are apparently rare or non-existent and paths can be faint or barely discernable at times.
There are two other European designated paths that follow the line of the Pyrenees; the GR10 which follows the foothills on the French side to the north and the GR11 on the more sunny southern Spanish side (GR is short for Grande Randonnee in French which translates in English to 'Great Walking'). You may ask, why do the Spanish accept a French designation? After all, they are not always the best of pals. Fortunately, GR can also mean Gran Recorrido in Spanish, which means Grand Tour, and also Grote Routepaden in Dutch, meaning Great Hiking Trails and finally Grande Rota in Portuguese, meaning Great Route. Wow. True European integration by accidental lingual coincidences.
Anyway, the route of the HRP is located roughly mid-way between the GR10 and GR11, and occasionally borrows from each of them. The Grande Randonnees generally pass through more populated places so that walkers can be assured of regular meals and a bed for the night. In contrast, the HRP is wilder, and although it is possible to devise a route that ensures shelter daily in mountain refuges, a tent is advisable for the more free-spirited.
As an aside, you might just have wondered about the origins of the URL www.piri-knees.blogspot.co.uk. Well the piriformis muscle resides in the buttock, and the sciatic nerve passes close by and sometimes through this muscle. Just lately I have been suffering from twinges which seem to move around my upper leg; from my buttock to my hip to my thigh to my knee and back again. The mobility of the irritation assures me that the cause is not joint related, but more likely the result of an irritated nerve, presumably the sciatic nerve. OK, maybe a bit of a guess since I am not a medic, but the thought is actually quite comforting since these things tend to go away eventually whereas joint pains would signal a more ominous future to my walking career. Those that know me will not be surprised that I do not consider 'twinges' to be a reasonable excuse for abandoning my walking plans. After all, Mark Inglis did not consider a lack of legs to be an impediment to climbing Everest!
Anyway, on with the show. Below is my approximate walking route, based largely on that described in Ton Joosten's book. I can't promise that I will stick to it. I may deviate up a few attractive mountains that take my fancy, or I may head for the valleys if the weather deteriorates. I've highlighted a few places which I expect to visit. Click on the red blobs below to see where they are. My first (left-most) blob is Hendaye and my last is Banyuls-sur-Mer. Between the two is about 40 days of walking.....but we'll see.....
I can't promise I will be able to write the blog 'in real time' since radio/WiFi contact is not assured, but I will record my experiences using a non-keyboard method if necessary (do you remember what writing with a pen is?) and tell you about it when I get home.
For now, take a look at my route on the map below (red line) and try to imagine my experiences. The reality might turn out to be even stranger....
....p.s....and indeed it was much stranger because snow thwarted my plans to walk a substantial part of the central Pyrenees, so I was only able to explore here by 'hopping' along the route using public transport. However, this did give me the unexpected opportunity to visit Pau, Lourdes, Cauterets, Luchon, Carcassonne, Amelie-les-Bains and Ceret. What with visits to Santander, St. Sebastian, Irun and Hondarribia before I started walking and Argeles-sur-Mer, Collioure, Cerbere, Portbou, Barcelona and Montserrat at the end, the trip turned into quite a tour. I have shown my actual route betqween Hendaye and Banyuls-sur-Mer in blue on the map.
...p.p.s...and then I came back in 2018 and completed the Pyrenean traverse, my journey shown by the green line below.
