Most people who lose weight tend to snore less; not my wife. I know that I am as quiet as a mouse now that I’ve lost 40#. Pam now snores in just about every position. The only configuration where I can get relief is the one where she sleeps on her back and I hold a pillow over her face. Once she wakes up, she’s too paranoid to go back to sleep for a bit but, then, I run a very good chance of discovering a spork in my throat. Granted, she’s still not as bad as the woman on the Camino that snored on both the inhale and exhale, but if she loses much more weight, she could progress to that level.
Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much. I did manage to advance a few more levels in Candy Crush so the night wasn’t a total waste. When the alarm went off at 8, I was able to get 9 minutes of sleep while she lay awake contemplating the snooze going off. When we went down to breakfast, the waitress said the words that scare the hell out of me concerning Pam–“Self serve buffet.” This guarantees that when we leave, my wife’s pockets will be bulging like a chipmonk’s mouth full of nuts. She found drawers full of teas, sugar in cubes and granulated, jellies, and butter. I drew the line when she was sizing up the espresso machine, after all, where can we get electric when we’re tent camping in the mountains?
Today was supposed to be an easy day according to the guidebook–only 600′ total climbing. I’m glad the guy is dead. It’s only personal self preservation that makes me say that because if he wasn’t, I’d track him down and bitch him out. This would only lead to him kicking my ass and causing me a lot of pain or possibly leading to Pam becoming a widow. See, my wife’s best interests always come first in my thought processes.
The trail wasn’t bad, I just hate being deceived. Don’t tell me it’s only 600′ and then have it be 2000′ of climbing. Go the other way. Tell me 2000′ and then have it be just 600′–I’ll love you for that. I’ll still think you shouldn’t be writing a guidebook if you can’t do any better than that, but at least I won’t hate you. I’m very easy to please.
The other big thing that torqued me off today was food shopping. The book said we were going through 2 towns with shops today. What I liked about the Ariege was that it was very straight forward in it’s presentation. Straight up, it was presented that they don’t want hikers in the area and there will be no shops available to aide in hikers traversing the district. Very straight forward. You are on your own and don’t expect help from any shop owners. I know what to expect without question–I like that.
Now that we are in the Pyrennes Orientale, we have been duped into believing there will be shops along the route where we can get food. Now we are pretty much screwed because neither shop was open and one was even permanently closed. Food uncertainty is the number one reason I would never recommend the GR10 to anyone. Fortunately, I know I cannot trust shops in the mountain villages so I was carrying an extra 2 days of food on this leg (which we now have to stretch to 3 days). The guidebook gives a great description of what we can expect at the next shop: (Py) “There is a gite here and a bar/restaurant with a tiny shop beneath. Ask at the bar for the shop to be opened.” Oh boy, just imagine all the good, fresh food we’ll be able to get there.
I have had it with the GR10 and the food situation. When I complained about it in Fos, I got a bag of Ramen Noodles thrown at me because the gite owner thought I preferred tasteless food to good cooked meals. We are not rich hikers; we are on a budget. Bottom line, the GR10 is not a backpacking trail just like the Camino is not a hiking trail. The French want the GR10 to be a money generating vehicle for gite and refuge owners. They have taken what in the USA is a universal, affordable, outside activity available for all and turned it into a rich man’s leisure activity. I have met many young Europeans hiking the GR10 that won’t go anywhere near a gite. Unfortunately, they are only hiking for a week at a time because that’s all the food they can carry.
Now that I’ve got the rant semi out of me, I have to admit that we are staying in a gite tonight. Not because of bad weather, not because we have been out camping for a lot of nights, but because we are being held hostage for food. I could save 8 Euros if we camped, but that’s a drop in the bucket when you have to pay 46 Euros for supper and breakfast. This is really leaving a bad taste in my mouth and I am beginning to regret having hiked the GR10. I’m tired of carrying glass containers and tin cans on the trail. The only advantage to the gite is they have beer and it is slowly calming me down.
Jessica from Tasmania finished the trail on August 13–right around 45 days. She had two big advantages over us: 1) she speaks French, and 2) she had a cell phone. These are both musts for anyone wishing to hike this trail. We have met some amazing people on this trail and the problems we are having are, primarily, our own undoing. We will think long and hard before we go backpacking in a country where we do not speak the language.
So many people have commented on the amount of weight we are carrying. They all offer us suggestions as to how to lighten our loads by shipping equipment forward or carrying less food and getting picnic lunches from the gites. They do not understand the way Americans hike, nor do they understand the wilderness experience we are seeking. In one gite we stayed at, we got in a very emotional with another guest about “the bear problem in the Pyrennes.” I said “What bear problem? There’s only 39 bears in the whole mountain range. Is the problem that there aren’t enough bears?” This didn’t get the laugh that I was hoping for.
The Ariege was our favorite area for hiking. There was a wide variety of terrain which we enjoyed. We were out for 8 days and nights with everything we needed (too bad it stretched to 10 and we had to stay at refuges to make it). We met a French hiker today that was hiking the “entire” GR10 in 30 days. His only comment was there was too much forest in the Ariege and you couldn’t see the mountains. I don’t believe that he actually walked through the Ariege, but is using the same old line that everyone in France uses to justify skipping this section of the GR10. To me, this section is what would be the most appealing to the average American hiker–but be sure to bring all the food you need to make it.
I’ve finished 2 beers and am about to start in on my 3rd. I’ve got most of the bitching (pardon my French, but I am tri-lingual these days) out of my system. I would like to point out, in case I haven’t made myself clear, I have absolutely no problems with the French people. They have been outstanding and friendly beyond belief. We hiked with Fred for a week, Suzy took us into her home after talking to us for less than three minutes, Patrick and Anne acted as interpreters for us, Stefan invited us to visit him when we are in Paris, and dozens of other positive encounters. I don’t know where this myth that the French don’t like Americans came from, because it’s not true. My complaint is only with the lack of food availability suitable for backpacking and I’m pissed (in the English sense of the word–3 beers). Say good night Gracie.
