I'm back home now, the TGV train from Perpingnan was fantastic. My first time on one, 300km an hour, really enjoyed it.
The GR10, glad I did it but today I really do feel 70! I have no physical problems (other than a hernia and one small blister that developed on the last hiking day) but what I did underestimate is how damp/wet I would be from continious daily perspiration. Adding the rain, mist and peasouper fogs to the experience kept me feeling wet almost everyday.
I bought a pair of Alpkit carbon fibre walking poles for the journey, one shattered after 3 weeks, I then just carried on with one. Although I kept ahead of keeping my clothes washed I felt there came a point where every bit of fabric seemed to be deeply impregnated with sweat.
At the ski resort above Bagneres I had an incident with a cow, with real horns!. Her calf was feeding from her so I decided the give her a wide bearth but made an error. I hesitated as I reach them both and the calf panicked and ran off. At that the mother went into rage mode and charged straight at me! She head butted me straight in the chest and knocked me completely off my feet into the grass at the side of the track. I was so lucky that she did not persue me. I managed to roll over 3 times in the grasss, stand up and then legged it away quickly! I can tell you that honestly, for a few seconds I was scared! As I was wearing my hiking waistcoat with pockets full of cards, papers, passport and so on, plus my tablet around my neck this absorbed the main impact. I then had a really bruised thumb for a few days and I think one of her horns got me in the right thigh, I was in real pain from that for a while but thankfully nothing else other than my heart fluttered for a while.
I almost decided to wear hiking shoes but at the last minute played safe and wore my almost new Brasher lightweight leather boots. I'm glad I did, there are an awful lots of rocky mountains to get over and numerous boulder chaos to walk accoss and the safety of ankle protection was for me, comforting. The soles are now worn out, well worn down badly on one side of the soles so they will be thrown away later today. Very good boots, no trouble and for me totally waterproof, except for damp feet caused by perspiratioin. I kept ahead of that by changing my socks every day and fitting dry liners everyday as well.
What I did find really helpful was my rain skirt, it did rain and drizzle a lot and it proved to be so easy to just put on and take off in an instant. I did get a lot off attention when wearing it, a few sniggers but mainly people who were interested in this 'innovation'.
I drank tons of water! I took my water filter with me and used it so many times, a great invention, a life saver and worth every penny!
As have written about weight loss before. I have lost nearly a stone in weight even though I ate and drank a lot every day.
I decided to keep to my normal walking routine, I do not cook so decided as always to go from bar to bar, restaurant to restaurant and so on. I stayed in a hotel once, a few Refuges and campsites but I also wild camped as well. The cost? Well I'm afraid I do not have much change from £1500.