Friday 20th May Carcassonne to Mazemet

It might seem mad to walk all the way to Mazemet and then have a rest day when I could have stayed in Carcassonne and had a rest day's there, but there was a tiny bit of method in my madness. My main concern was that I couldn't find anywhere to stay in between so splitting the journey would have meant a taxi back to Carcassone, or forward to Mazemet, and not taking a day's rest. To add slightly to the complexity, I was going to be walking with a friend from today and the Carcassone to Mazemet start would have been a bit tough. As it is my friend has injured his foot and has had to cancel his trip.

Although Carcassone is an incredibly pretty place it's also an intense tourist honey pot. Inside the walls every available space is given over to cafes and restaurants, and on Thursday night it was full. Have been there before, have now seen it again, that's enough for me.

According to my schedule Carcassone to Mazemet is 51 kilometres with a climb up the 1200 metre Pic Noire in between. Having decided I wanted to try and do it there was no getting out of it. I have now worked out that I'm not very good at finding my reverse gear which may be a bit of a personal weakness!

One thing I have worked out is that you can walk a long way if you start early enough. I was out of my very nice, expensive Hotel at six o'clock. Given how late I was when I arrived and how soon I left they should have given me a discount.

Not thinking things through a six in the morning I decided the straight line approach to navigation was best and instead of heading back into town to pick up the GR 36 headed directly north. After spending time finding my way across the high speed railway line I was then confronted the barrier of the River Aude. Ended up having to follow this all the way back into town. Found the GR 36 at the SNCF station where there are of course lots of hotels and places to eat, and which would have been the perfect place for me to have stayed the night before.

So it was seven o'clock by the time I was marching along the bank of the Canal du Midi and by seven fifteen I had stopped swearing at myself. It is really pretty, linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, it's wider than your standard canal. Have often been tempted by the idea of a cruise along it, Rick Stein style, but I really wouldn't fancy falling in the water. Did see a couple of things which I took to be otters, although the given the water they could just have been supersized water rats.

Canal du Midi

Fat Otter?

The worst thing about the walk along the Canal du Midi was that it didn't seem to be contributing much in terms of getting closer to Mazemet. The last three of four kilometres were heading south east and by the time I was heading north again, and high enough to see Carcassonne, it still looked painfully close.

Carcassone

Shortly after leaving the town of Conquers sur Orbiel there was a conflict between the route way marks on the ground and the route on my GPS. After the experience of a couple of days ago, when the I had followed a variant, I decided to retrace my steps. Following the GPS route I did indeed find some GR signs but they were very faded and after a whole reconnected with a better marked trail. Can only conclude that the route had been changed, changes which are unlikely to show up on a paper map, but which definitely cost me some time.

Was at last climbing up into Montaignes Noire. The weather was very hot and sticky but for once had plenty of water. Had bought a local cake, chocolate, bread and cheese but cake power alone was getting me up the hill. By mid-afternoon I thought I had worked out where the top was. There was a wind farm and behind that a communications tower. Was at the wind farm at about 3.45, walked around it and then, merde, starting going again. From 1,000 metres dropped all the way down to under 800 and to the village of Pardelles-Cabardes at the base of Pic Noire.

Still had a long way to go and was tempted to either get a taxi or stay at the Gite d'Etape, (hadn't realised there was one) in Pardelles-Cabardes. Spent 10 minutes like the rat in Skinner's famous (and very cruel) rat experiment trying to work out what to do and then decided to reject the cheese and head of up the mountain. Got to the top, a 400 metre climb, by 5.30. The views would have been amazing on a clear day, comparable with the views I would have got on Canigou if it had been clear then. The view was just good enough however to give me an idea of a good view would have looked like (if you know what I mean).




The communications tower was shaped like a rocket, very fifties. Despite the fact that the French are supposed to hate the Americans it also reminded me that they do, after all, play host to Eurodisney

Is it a rocket?

The weather at this point was starting to look stormy, near but not quite. Given the time I wasn't hanging about. After another 10 minutes saw my first sign to Mazemet, "Mazemet, 13 kilometres, 3 hours 15 minutes". Despite the distance I was actually encouraged and set of off determined to beat the clock.

It was downhill all the way, and through lovely forest, and given the time and the that day off next day, I wasn't trying to save my feet. By 8.15, and after a 20 minutes of seemingly endless zig-zags down a really steep bit of mountain side I was on the road leading into Mazemet. Fortunately the roadside sign which said Mazemet was another 4 kilometres proved to be wrong when the GR 36 took me on a more direct route.

In the forest heading down to Mazamet

The final sting in the tail involved trying to find the Cheval Blanc. This had been booked by my friend and I had assumed it was a hotel. Looked around the centre and couldn't find it. Was then sent up the road to a hotel, a Logis, which was in the process of closing (permanently) and they didn't know where it was. Asked in a bar and got directions from a man who was drunk and which proved to be useless. Happened to see him a few minutes later and he kindly took me straight to the door (although his walking was not very straight). It was a bed and breakfast with no obvious sign so good on him for knowing where it was.

Anyway I made it. My feet were truly wacked and painful, really bruised and I needed to dose up on painkillers to sleep. Insanely long day, 15 hours on my feet, 56 kilometres and 1700 metres of up and nearly as much down.

Wednesday 18th May Duilhac Peyrepertuse to Lagrasse

Today was a bad choice day, I made the bad choices. In fairness to me I haven't made a self inflicted mistake for some time so I guess I had it coming. Well I got it today.

It was building up yesterday. I noticed that the route I had was not necessarily the quickest and that some of the GR 36 variants were quicker than the one on my GPS. I checked the maps last night (a PDF file on my iPad) and sure enough there was a GR 36b that seemed to cut some corners. This seemed helpful today because I had over 40 kilometres to do and I couldn't get away until gone 8.30.

Duilhac Peyrepertuse by the way is a really nice village. Basically a tourist village, but this morning I found the Auberge and the restaurant I missed last night and they looked great. Got some bread and cheese from the boulangerie but I also had a huge piece of orange cake from the lovely landlady at the chambre d'hotes.

Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse

Set of and more views of the amazing Chateau Peyrepertuse which despite getting so close, I have failed to visit. The walk was nice but not as nice as the last few days and I got locked into my IPod. After listening to the Archer's omnibus (sad but true) I really got into this lecture series from Yale on the history of modern France. Was making amazing progress along forest trails and at about 1 o'clock had walked 20 kilometres.

Chateau Peyrepertuse

All of a sudden the signs gave me an option, the GR 36 or the GR36b. Without getting my iPad out and checking the map I followed the GR36b still listening to the history of modern France, I think I was onto the Popular Front by now. After about 45 minutes I started to worry about how far east I seemed to be going but turning around meant confirming that I had wasted 90 minutes so I just kept assuming, despite the evidence, that any minute the path would take me in the right direction and head north. It didn't. Finally at about 2.30 realised that I would have to abandon the GR 36b and figure out how I was going to get to Lagrasse. I had walked by now about 10 kilometres in the wrong direction so decided to follow the roads until I found the main route to Lagrasse. This took me to 4.15 by which time I had walked 35 kilometres, the total journey was supposed to be just under 40 but the sign said I still had 21 kilometres to go.

I decided that for the first time in about 35 years I was going to try and hitch a ride. Initially I tried the sitting and waiting technique but that didn't seem to work so I tried the walking and hitching technique and that didn't work either. After walking for about 4 kilometres my luck suddenly changed and this woman picked me up and took me to within 9 kilometres of Lagrasse. She was lovely and she seemed very pleased that she was the first person to give me a lift in 35 years, she said she hadn't hitched for 40 years!

On the last stretch I saw one car, it stopped and took me all the way to Lagrasse.

Lagrasse is supposed to be the prettiest village in France, it is very pretty although to be honest it's more like a movie set than a village. It's a bit expensive, even now off season. Am staying in a Chambre d'Hotes and I must admit that, after my hitch hiking successes, I was quite pleased that the landlady felt she had to point out that the room was for one person only and that I shouldn't think about sneaking someone else in later on.

Lagrasse

Tuesday May 17th Caudies de Fenouilledes to Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse

As well as huge numbers of bars, Spain also has huge numbers of local banks with ATM machines. France doesn't and French people seem to like cash rather than cards. So yesterday I was running out of food today I was running out of cash. When you walking everywhere, to a timetable, a deviation to a cash machine is a bit of a pain but no choice as Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse is a really small place (no ATMs) and I'm staying in a bed and breakfast (cash).

The extra destination was St Paul de Fenouilledes and going there meant dropping down into the valley again right in the heat of the day, probably walking an extra 6 kilometres, and this broke the magic of the walk.

Like yesterday the weather was perfect but today I was perhaps slightly higher, the countryside a bit more remote and the scenery was even better.

Roc de Chalabre

Apart from the visit to St Paul, I didn't go into any villages and today I was walking east from rather west so getting closer to Budapest rather than further away.

Again it was up from the bottom of valley and then high up along the ridge. Sometimes you were working through tunnels formed by the trees and sometimes you were walking across open meadows. Everything, apart from the flowers, was wonderfully green. Lots of wild thyme in full flower. For the fourth and what must be the last day Canigou, the mountain I climbed just before the storm five days ago, dominated the southern skyline.

Old Green Lane

Heather

The number of walkers is increasing, including some people carrying packs, and I was able to share the top of the Roc Paradet with four French walkers. They were walkers but I suspect a car was nearby.

View from Roc Paradet

The walk into St Paul slightly knocked me off my stride and what had been a really great walk started to become hard work. There are two options I think for the GR 36 around here and as a consequence I didn't really know how much further I had to go. Was also getting a bit short of water. As it was it was 5.30 before I saw the famous Cathar castle, the Chateau Peyrepertuse which sits on top of cliff above Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse. By the time I got there I had walked 32 kilometres and climbed 1400 metres.

It's half a hour down a road to the village, I hadn't booked anything but knew there was a bed and breakfast which I found immediately. Couldn't find the promised restaurant, the villages have very little of anything (just like the UK), but saw a van selling Pizzas. Had to wait an hour for mine to be cooked so they are clearly doing OK but it was a big one and it was very good.

Have a big walk tomorrow, can't get away very early and I know it's a crime but I think I'm going to have to miss out on a visit to the Chateau Peyrepertuse. I feel bad because it is a Cathar highlight. Based on the last few days though I'm sure I'll be back.

Chateau Peyrepertuse

Wednesday May 11th Alp to Planes

In France!!!

For the last couple of weeks or so it felt like I was never going to get here but here I am. Crossed the border at Puigcerda at 11 which is about 7 kilometres from Alp and then walked onto Planes. I'm now following the GR 36 which, for the next three days, follows the route of the GR 10, the trans Pyrenean walk, a really famous route.

Slight embarrassment with the bottom half of my trousers before leaving Alp. Had left them in the sun on the window sill to dry while I had a kip and of course they blew away. One leg was easy to retrieve but the other had gone down into basement in a space which was enclosed. Had to persuade a reluctant landlady to let me climb out of the restaurant window. It was easy getting out but getting back was a problem. Still don't suppose I will be coming back to Alp in the near future.

Very easy walk to Puigcerda, held off from crossing the border and walked up into town and bought some new walking poles. Bit heavy compared to others but will do the job. Also bought a look alike Swiss army knife which is also a lot heavier than the real thing but I'm now fully equipped again.

Then across the border although to be honest you would be hard pushed to notice. Some redundant buildings all that remains, good riddance to borders I say. Stopped in Bourg Madame, the first town immediately on the French side, and ordered a cafe au lait. My French is already as good as my Spanish.

Remnants of the Spanish/French border crossing

Then I started my walk across France. Markings were great but in any event I'm very confident about my GPS trail. Unlike in Spain however I don't have maps on my GPS (got PDFs of the maps on my IPad) so I can tell from the trail if I going the right way but don't know if I arrived - sounds almost philosophical.

Anyway the walk was excellent. An off-road trail along the south side of a very broad valley gradually climbing all the way. Good views although it became quite stormy as the afternoon wore on. Walked through some lovely little villages, Err, Lo and Eyne and some not so nice ski resorts. Very sad photo memorial on the side of a building to two children who had been taken to Auschwitz in 1942.

Err

Village memorial to the Holocaust

Christine and I have walked around here before although it must be more than 10 years ago. We started at the Llavia, the Spanish enclave in France, did a big loop north before coming back to Mont Louis the huge French fort on the north side of the valley I was walking along today. I remember we had a big argument at the Eyne 2600 ski resort, which in the summer is a very ugly place and must set of lots of rows.

Got to Planes at about 6 after a walkof 30 kilometres and 1300 metres of climb. I'm staying in a Gite d'Etape and I'm not really sure what the designation stands for although it is definitely doesn't mean five star hotel. Had dinner at 7 o'clock which is a bit early for us Spanish types but I guess I'll get used to these north European ways in a while.

Peter Williams, a friend from London who also lives out here, is joining me in the morning and having some walking company will be a nice change. Stop me going mad. Hope the weather holds up because the next few days hold out the prospect of some wonderful walking.

Stage 11 - Through the Vercors

Stage 11 looks like the toughest stage yet.  It is 217 km and involves 9,000 metres of climb over 9 days.  After what is essentially a linking day from Chateauneuf-du-Rhone to Dieulefet along the GR 429 the E4 heads north along the GR9 all the way to the Swiss border.

The toughness of the walk is a reflection, in part at least, of the change in geology.  The younger mountains on the eastern side of the Rhone valley are different to the ancients on the west and the foothills of Alps and Jura come with deeper valleys, tougher ascents and descents than the Massif Central.

From Leoncel onwards the walk takes you through the Vercors Natural Park .  The landscape has been described as a limestone "citadel" which dramatic cliffs and long gorges.  It actually was a citadel against the Germans in the 2nd World War with the Resistance provoking a bloody response from paratroopers landing on mass in the area in gliders.

Day  1, probably after a rest day at Chateauneuf-du-Rhone, is a really long one, 39 kms.  Can't find any accommodation on the route and it will be nice to get onto the GR9.  Highlight of the walk, which is through fairly gentle, wooded countryside, is probably the 10th century abbey at Aiguebelle.  Dieulefet, an ancient pottery centre, looks like a nice town and has plenty of accommodation.

Dieulefit

It might be possible to walk all the way to Saillans on day 2 (33 kms, 1500 metres) but after such a tough day 1 that looks like a stretch.  The alternative is a short walk to the small village of  village of Bourdeaux,  (13 kms) leaving Saillans for day 3.

Day 3 looks like a dramatic walk, 20 kms, 1200 metres of climb and 1300 of descent before arriving at Saillons.  The climb involves ascending the Massif de Saou and the potential views from the top could be amazing with huge cliffs dropping north and east into what looks like a gorge below.  It looks like a very steep descent into the small town/village of Saillons.

Massif de Saou

Day 4 is a 20 km walk to Plan-de-Baix, 1068 metres of climb and 551 metres of descent.  Most of the climbing is at the end of the day and after you have gone through the village of Beaufort sur Gevanne.  Plan-de-Baix is a small village but it looks it has a family activity centre (as well as a Gite D'Etape) so there should be some accommodation. 

Most of the climbing has been done on day 4, so day 5 is 28 kms of fairly high level walking, a climb near the end near the Col de Tournoile, and then a steep descent to Bouvantes-le-Bas where there is accommodation.  On the way you go through  Leoncel, a small village with a Cistercine Abbey.  

The walk is now tracking along the western side of the Vercors Natural Park and the last four days of the walk look particularly dramatic.  The day of the four (day 6) starts with a hard climb out of Saint-Martin de Colonel up to 1300 metres, over the Col-de-la-Machine, along a ridge walk with potentially great views to both the east and west, before a really steep drop down to Pont en Royan.  This is a 25 km walk with 1200 metres of climb - something around an 11 hour day.

Pont en Royan is a famous beauty spot, a medieval village where houses are built into a cliff and suspended over a river - would be a good place to stop but I should in Grenoble in two days time so will probably press.  Pont en Royan is also the gateway to what looks like the most dramatic part of this stage, the Massif des Coulmes. 

Pont en Royan

Day 7 is a 22 km walk but mainly uphill.  Walking firstly up along the Bourne Gorge and up its side along what must be a steep path you get to the top at around 1300 metres.  The scenery should be dramatic.  Having won the height the hard way you then loose 500 metres dropping down to the small village of Rencurel which has accommodation and is the target for the day.

Day 8 is another day with a lot of climb.  An initial 500 metre climb and a small descent takes you past the small ski resort of Autrans.  After 25 kms in total and some 1,500 metres of climb you arrive at the Refuge at La Sure

After three tough days the last day involves a march, mainly down hill, into Grenoble.  16 kms, 500 metres of climb, 1700 descent, so should be there for lunch.  Grenoble will be a good place to stop and recuperate.

Stage 8 - Carcassonne to Lodeve

Please see latest version published in October 2010 

How many days will it take to walk the E4?

Probably turning into some sort of mapping/internet nerd but I have found researching the walk really interesting. The key thing is that there is no one source of information that takes you from one end of the walk to the other. At the European level the walk is described on the European Ramblers Association website, and even on Wikipedia, but not at the level of detail you need to determine the daily length of each walk. Wikipedia (when it does do detail)is sometimes wrong. Plotting the route, from end to end, has therefore involved piecing it together from a whole series of sources (translating the sites into English using the Google translate tool)and then estimating what the daily walks will involve.

I have plotted the route in Google Earth. Google Earth is incredibly powerful and I'm still learning how to use it. I now have a file, which plots my version of the walk, which I can "play" in Google Earth. This means I can fly virtually, place to place, from one end of the walk to the other. Nerd or what!

What I haven't worked out is how to publish my file, i.e. share it on the internet. I'm sure this is possible so hopefully I can do it soon.

Some of sources of information actually provide walking times and I have used these to plan the days. Where this is not available I've used Google Earth. Previous planning experience suggests that I can overstate my daily walking capacity (12 hour walking days in the Dolomites bear witness) so the current plan will definitely need some more work.

What the plan is telling me is that I need to walk for 172 days (I have walked 16 before!). If I walk six days, and have every 7th day of, this makes for a total elapsed time rounded up to 200 days.

If I have got this right it could work. What it means is that I could start at Tarifa at the beginning of March and spend the spring crossing the Sierra Nevadas and eastern Spain. By mid-May I will be in France and the Cevennes, going up the Rhone Valley to Grenoble in June/July. The Swiss part of the walk looks really nice and easy and I should be able to get to the tough Austrian part mid-way through August. The Der nordalpine Weitwanderweg 01 looks brilliant but is the highest and most exposed part of the walk, involves 40 days walking, so I need to start this as early in August as possible.

The best long distance footpath in the world?

Is the the E4 Euro Path the best long distance footpath in the world? Well it could be.

Starting on the Atlantic Coast and at the southern most tip of Spain (at Tarifa) you begin a journey that takes you through some of Europe's most stunning scenery.

You cross Andulucia through a series of national parks with a northern and southern option in the middle (the northern option takes you higher into the Sierra Nevadas while the southern one is closer to Granada).

The next section, Murcia, is about 300 Km long and takes you through the spine of the province, from west to east, and includes the landscapes of the Spanish high plateau and the fertile plain of river Segura.

The next section takes you north through Pais Valencia along 550 km trek inland but on a track which parallels the coast.

The final Spanish part of the E4 takes you through Catalonia, from Fredes in the south to La Seu D'Urgell in the Pyrenees. One guide suggests that the 367 km can be covered in 92 hours and 15 mins!

The French section is 1,100 km long and crosses three national parks (Haut Languedoc, Cevennes and Vercours), and southern park of the Massif Central, the Rhone Valley and then on into the French Alps, crossing into Switzerland.

The Swiss part of the walk takes you 300 km through the Jura Park, through limestone classic limestone and along 180km ridge walk known as the the Chemin des Crêtes du Jura, or Jura High Route. At From Dielsdorf, the E4 continues along S shores of Lake Constance via following settlements to village Rheineck at German borders. (150 km)

Through Austria the route follows the Alpine Route 1, high level for most of the way with glacier and other bits of challenging walking. As well as stunning scenery you get the chance to stay in Austrian Hutte, a fairly unique experience. The Austrian part of the walk is 1100 kilometres.

Still working out the extent of my ambition in Hungary. Could stop just north of Budapest or walk on the Hungarian border and complete E4 as far as it goes in western Europe. Either way you travel along the Blue Way which, for a Hungarian, is the No 1 walking experience.

So is this the best walk in the world and is walking it in one feasible or just a mad idea. Still got a lot of work to do on the route but at the moment its looking like 190 days walking.