Dates: 08/23 - 8/27
Start: Hendaye
End: Lescun (Gite)
Distance: 100 miles
Vert: 35k+ / 32k-
I got up early to catch the bus to the train station and make my way to the French-Spanish border via train. Thanks to the TGV, I quickly arrived in Paris, where I had to change trains and take the metro to another train station first. The stations were crowded with tourists, as expected in the middle of the summer. It took me a while to get a metro ticket, but I had plenty of time. The rest of the journey to Hendaye went smooth and I managed to catch up on some sleep before arriving in the late afternoon.
From the train station in Hendaye, it was a 30 minute walk to the beach and start point of the High Route, sharing it with the GR10. The GR10 also traverses the Pyrenees but exclusively stays on the French side and visits more villages and refuges. The HRP stays higher throughout, assuming that hikers will wild camp (or bivouc in European jargon) rather than staying in refuges. I had never been to the Basque country and only was exposed to it through sports (e.g. Basque soccer teams such as Athletic Bilbao) and the struggle for independence from Spain. Watching news about the separatist terrorist group ETA as a child in the 90s is one of my first memories about international events (along with the Kosovo War), and while the ETA no longer exists, I knew the Basque identity remained strong. So it wasn’t a surprise to me that all official signs were also in Basque, and often trilingual - French, Spanish and Basque. I also regularly saw Basque flags and colors throughout the first week.
Because of the late start, I quickly made my way out of Hendaye and started climbing up small roads until I hit a plateau, where I could camp. Despite the heat wave of the previous weeks it started to rain and I got my first exposure to the Basque fog, which would stay with me for a long time. I had opted to bring a tarp instead of a full tent, but I wasn’t too worried as the Cirriform provided 360-degree protection and has kept me dry in a prior Alaska trip (see full gear list). The trail at the start was mostly on the GR-10, so there weren’t any issues with navigation and I could make quick progress on a well maintained trail.
The next day, I made my way over La Rhune which was incredibly crowded with day trippers. The sun was in full force today and I realized my stick of sunscreen was almost completely empty, which didn’t bode well for my exposed legs. I had crossed over to the Spanish side already and was again moving forward quickly on mostly fire roads following the GR11. Cattle was everywhere already. Despite the warm weather, it cooled down nicely at night but the high humidity led to some condensation in my tarp. Not a big deal, as I could dry everything during a break.
My first resupply was in Elizondo, a big super market meant I could get some bread and cheese and didn’t just have to rely on peanuts and bars. Unfortunately, no sunscreen either here or in Les Aldudes, but I managed to charge my phone at the information center, where the nice older gentleman gave me some advice for the upcoming section. He was the first person I met who knew what the HRP was. Les Aldudes seemed like a great place to stay, it had a small store at the gas station and you were allowed to camp for free in the middle of the town on a lawn next to the creek. As there was still time in the day, I decided to keep going and climbed back out away from civilization. As expected, going into towns meant a lot of descending into valleys and subsequent climbs out of the valley. I set up camp relatively early at around 6pm, as the weather looked like it was about to get worse again, and sure enough, it started raining again at around 7.
The Basque country was quite lush and green, much more than I expected. It wasn’t super high at altitude, but the rolling hills still meant a lot of up and downs. I felt surprisingly good after my leg injury and COVID infection, and managed to stay ahead of my schedule without pushing too hard. I ran into two older Norwegians who were also on the HRP, but following the guidebook version, and a French hiker around my age doing the GR10. To my surprise, he spoke basically zero English and I struggled to communicate with him, an experience which would repeat itself quite often with French hiker. I didn’t expect fluent English and am comfortable bumbling my way through a conversation in my basic French and some English, but it was still a bit of a surprise how many younger French people didn’t speak basic English at all. Obviously, I’m a visitor here and I’m definitely not complaining - my French is basically non existent.
Just after Aldudes the HRP follows the Camino Frances for about two miles, which was a hilarious experience compared to the solitude of the previous days. Groups of hikers walked past me every 5 minutes, with most of them looking at me like I was an idiot as I was walking the “wrong” way (east not west), with one of them stopping me and curiously asking where I was going. While the Camino is certainly not the type of hiking I am interested in, it was awesome to see all kinds of people out there and enjoying the community of people they had probably just met. I heard a variety of languages, from French, German, Spanish to a bunch of East European languages and even Japanese!
While the weather was nice during the day, it was still quite foggy and would turn bad at around 5pm every single day. After all the rain on the GDT, I really wasn’t in the mood to keep pushing in the rain, so I just set camp at around 6 pm which is quite early for me. The wind was also quite gnarly, so I was glad to be in my Cirriform, even if it didn’t exactly provide a ton of space.
The day before Lescun, the fog was so bad I could maybe see 30ft/10m and it made navigating quite hard. And unlike a lot of the previous sections, I wasn’t on well maintained trail but on a ridge right on the border. The rain, mud, sheep and cow poop all contributed to super slow going and I slipped twice. I am still not sure if I had mud or poop on my hands and poles afterwards, but let’s just go with mud. Studying the maps and pocket notes I realized there was a unstaffed refuge close by, so I stayed there for a night and managed to dry out my clothing mostly. I knew fog was common in the Basque country and it was out in full force. I was mostly disappointed I couldn’t see more of what seemed to be beautiful, grassy rolling hills.
The fog had mostly cleared in the morning once I climbed out of the valley, and all of a sudden, it was a beautiful, sunny and hot day. I left the rolling hills and it felt like I was truly in the mountains for the first time. The granite reminded me a bit of the Sierra, although it was probably a bit of wishful thinking. I arrived at Lescun just before 5pm and resupplied at the tiny store. It was more a fancy deli than a shop aimed at hikers, but I managed to find enough food for the next few days. I decided to stay at the campground just outside town as it was too late to really make headway on the next section. Realizing a bed in a dorm was only 3$ more than to camp, so I splurged and even got a shower! After a week of cold-soaking, I also treated myself to a hot dinner but unfortunately it was quite disappointed, just a plate of lentil stew with some salad. Nevertheless, I was very happy with my first week on the HRP and thoroughly enjoyed it despite the mixed weather.
