GR11: STAGE 1 (day 37 in Europe)

Hondarribia to Bera

22.1 miles (per my technology)

I’m doing an awful job of blogging, daily I’m blogging in my mind things I want to share, but my days are filled with little opportunity to catch up in the evenings. A good thing I guess…

Most know that we are spending three months in Europe.  Thirty something days have spent in a rental car going from:

• Brugge
• Amsterdam
• Berlin
• Prague 
• Budapest
• Croatia ( a week, never been)
• Bosnia

• Venice

• Florence
• Rome
• Puy du Fou ( amazing park)
• Paris 
• ...and back to Brussels for Tristan to fly home and for the girls to fly to Bilboa, Spain to start our next chapter of this trip.

Our city hopping was better than I ever could have imagined.  I researched our accommodations and every place exceeded our needs with no exception!!!!  Walking through the cities is tiring and possibly a good prep for our hike, but sitting in a car possibly counters any of that gain. I hope to come back and share some of our city experiences and photos, but my blog is mostly followed due to my hiking so with my precious time that is where I am going to dedicate my time until caught up. 

Days before starting our GR11, we received bad news from home....totally unexpected news. 

While hiking the GR10 for five days prior to starting the GR11 (*our “ real” Pyrenees adventure), I got a text from Steve forewarning  me not to read it out loud. I assumed Barnacle (our oldest dog) had passed, we think he is at least 17... and Blackbeard (our newest little critter) is probably his age as well... so I assumed the news had to do with one of them. It ended up to be our dear Hook, our two year old, three legged cat. Captain Hook appeared to have passed away asleep under a chair in our living room. I think this was the single hardest mommy moment of my life informing the girls, especially Aynsleigh of this. This whole trip she talks about her “ Hooky” and how much she misses him. He sleeps with her, curls up to her, pitty-pats her face with his paws... It was gut wrenching to break the news. I was fortunate to be arriving at a friend’s campsite in France on the GR10 that evening, where we had a bungalow for three days. Thank goodness we got to cry in such a peaceful place.

So the GR10 is a hike across the full length of the Pyrenees Mountains on the French side. The GR11 is a hike across the Pyrenees Moutnains on the Spanish side. Three years ago, the kids and I connected two “ thirty day “ hikes ( Caminos) by hiking five days on the GR10. A most amazing five days, where I truly fell in love with the Basque region and its people.

This was a hard decision, GR10 or GR 11... I went back and forth and decided GR11.  But the decision was never done with complete confidence. The GR10, I suspect will be attempted by us at another time. There are some slight bragging rights in that if you know the map of these parts a hike across the Pyrenees is a hike across the continent of Europe. One can start with a dip of their toe in the Atlantic and end with a dip of their toe in the Mediterranean. We hope to come down to the Mediterranean to the hugs of daddy who, depending how our hike goes, plans to be there with open arms...

Yesterday, we hiked on the GR10 from Michel’s amazing campsite to Hondarribia, Specifically, it's a lighthouse where the GR11 officially starts. The weather is beautiful, the walk was hot... but we did this hike three years ago finishing before Hondarribia and staying at Michel's beautiful home in Hendeye. I’ve hiked twice before to Hondarribia, but never made it down to the beaches and beautiful town. The Camino Norte breaks off into the woods right before the town. My future advice to all Norte hikers will be not to miss Hondarribia.

Many people stopped us last night to cheer us on, point us to the right direction or even offer their advice.  Our tent is in VIP space over looking the Atlantic Ocean wher the lighthouse is to our right and the opportunity (though difficult) to climb down the rocks to dip our toes into the Atlantic.

If all goes as planned in 47 days (minus any rest days) we will be on the Mediterranean.

Today’s hike was very long. In fact the first two days are very long. We made the decision to hike from our camp site, from the lighthouse back to Irun (about two hours). We had done this hike yesterday to get here so we could have justified catching transportation to Irun and starting from there.  We stopped in Hondarribia for coffee and our favorite breakfast “tomatoe tostada” (maybe that’s why I chose the Spanish side)... and then we were off. 

A very hot day!!!! In fact, at one point while in the woods, in privacy, I removed my shirt to drench it in a fountain and put it back on. Our break was going up the hill where two young Basque boys in their twenties stopped for a few minutes to chat with us. They seemed super sweet and shared they too are tent camping.  We had small talk as to where we might camp, the church possibly, but not much more. A few minutes later another guy passed us, no words were really spoken but an ”Hola!”, but he did say he too was attempting the “full Pyrenees”, while the previous two boys were hiking only a week. We got to town late, grocery stores were closed, and from the hills I could see there was a porch over the church patio! We went straight there!!!!

Several steps up and there were the “ Basque Boys,” Sabi and Diego. They gave us the instructions of where water was etc... and when the sun went down the girls and I bathed in the fountain (the best we could discreetly). No local seemed to mind and we were greeted with very welcoming conversations by the few locals that were still out late. The girls set up our awesome cooking stove and made an impressive dinner.  We welcomed our beds on the porch of the church!