Into the wilderness
Although today is Friday, there’s an undeniably Sunday-eveningish feel to it at the moment. After three days feeling pretty relaxed, it’s back to work tomorrow. We’ve managed a few hours by the pool today, but the time has come to start getting stuff ready for the next 10 days.
Most of the preparations have gone well, but there’s been the odd minor irritation. For example, I wouldn’t say €1.65 is a lot of money, but it’s a frustrating amount to have to pay for four fragranced pink toilet rolls, when you’d be quite happy with a single unfragranced white roll. Once again, I can’t help thinking these villages could cater better for walkers.
A few weeks back I was walking with a French guy who lived in the Alps. He told me that, although the Alps are bigger, the Pyrenees are much more of a wilderness - there are fewer trails, fewer villages and fewer people.
The fourth section of the HRP is titled “Eight days through a mountain wilderness” in my guidebook, which rates it as the toughest section. It’s by far the most remote of them, so it may well be that the next blog post is several days away - please don’t assume I’ve been eaten by bears if nothing appears for ten days. Having said that, we do pass the odd hamlet and the Spanish networks have been amazingly good in the mountains, so it may not be too much of a problem, assuming I can convince the iPhone to survive long enough.
I parcelled up my ice-axe and crampons this morning and shipped them back to the UK, so I’m hoping the snow is less of an issue from here on. The theory is that the passes are a few hundred metres lower, we’re nearer the Med, and the snow has had ever more sun, so hopefully we’ll be OK. At the very least I’ll be over 1.5kg lighter, so should be able to skip across any snow like Legolas.
By the way, a brief update for anyone worried about the marmottes after my switch to using shower gel: it turns out that Sanex Zero % is specifically designed to be biodegradeable and environmentally friendly, so the wildlife should be OK. Which is nice.
Dearest Sedgely.
The V family have been following your blog with interest - we are glad to hear that you are fit and well and keeping (reasonably!) safe - keep up the good work! V Jnr #1 is a little perplexed that you are apparently surrounded by snow but have not yet used the opportunity to build a snowman. This simply does not compute in the mind of a three year old!
Anyway, glad that you are making good progress. It must be great to have some company to help you through those longer sections?
BV
PS: Sorry to hear that you have effectively been forced to purchase fragranced pink toilet rolls. If it's any consolation, I found myself in a similar situation in Sainsbury's last week!
Happy birthday for tomorrow Sausage. Wherever you may be! xx
I hope everything's fine with you two after the unexpected visit (!) on saturday night. Wasn't nice to hear about it, but luckily nothing really bad happened...
Good luck the coming days with the wilderness to overcome :)
Greetings from Sweden,
Koen and Natalia
Hey Sayce-Face,
Have a magical birthday!!
S&S xx
Happy Birthday Sauce! Hope it is sunny and storm free!
H
xx
Happy Birthday, Sedgely, Sedgely, Sedgely, Sauce!
Hope the hills are being kind to you today!
Team V.
Happy Birthday Jonny :) Just read blog from end to end, sounds awesome and hard and amazing all at the same time!
Happy Birthday Sauce. Have a large one...or do I mean XTreme?!?
BV - Please apologise to Jnr #1. Klaas has agreed that if we see anymore snow we can make a snowman. It's been great to have company, but even more important was a second opinion when we were doing really tough parts on snow. Pink toilet roll seems to work, so no worries!
Tickles - Thanks! I was in a refuge drinking beer!
Koen - No need to worry - your Dad's stuff was fine! He now sleeps with his food in case the bear tries his tent next time.
S&S - Thanks!
H - Thanks! Didn't get wet on my birthday but the next couple of days were interesting - see post from 23rd for details...
Ferg - Cheers! That's a pretty good summary, but it's also occasionally terrifying! See recent posts on bears and storms for details.
Royceton - Thanks! I think extreme covers it...