The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Saturday 11 July 2015

GR10 Day 0 - to Hendaye

Both Martin (www. Phreerunner.blogspot.com) and Conrad (conradwalks.blogspot.com) will be pleased to know that, contrary to their experiences in journeying to this location, we had a throughly uneventful journey to Hendaye. Leaving Birmingham airport a few minutes late, the time was made up during the flight such that we arrived in Biarritz as good as on time. With relief both bags appeared promptly on the carousel and after a few minutes spent unpacking our holdalls into our backpacks, we were ready to go ...and for our first navigational challenge.

The big supermarket between the airport and the station was found with only one minor backtrack and there we found gas and lunchables. Next stop the train station where I wished that I'd faffed two minutes less over sauccison choice, or that the woman in the ticket office had spent a few minutes less chatting to her colleagues before serving, as we arrived on the platform just as the Hendaye train pulled away. Never mind, it was less than an hour till the next one giving us time for a picnic on the platform.

Had I realised that there was a train station much nearer to our night - stop than Hendaye station then we would have alighted there but I realised just a moment too late. So, a good leg stretch was had as we walked out to Hendaye Plage, thence to our campsite.

Tomorrow we will retrace our steps (as we have done this evening for tea) as we set off into the lumpy bits lying to the east of here.

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