Spain - Day 1: Irun to Bera

'Don't walk into the light...'

The phrase

  'Bitten off more than we can chew'

is constantly echoing through my head, for some reason. Especially, as we have no luggage and the weather is shit. Low cloud - can't see the tops of the hills that we are supposed to climb. No map. no compass. No boots. No water-proofs. No nothing #Eurowingsluggagecockup.

Luckily, well I mean after about twenty minutes of mutual confusion at the tourist information office (very nice people), we discovered that there was an old railway track from Irun to Bera and that it shouldn't rain.

So off we set, excited, in our travelling gear on our first, real, section of our Coast to Coast epic (our GR 11 ish epic).

No back packs, no maps, no waterproofs - no not very much really.

But we have a will.

Luckily there was only light at the end of the tunnel

We have lots of will.

     We will get our luggage.          (hopefully)

        We will have trained.                 (we haven't)

            We will be prepared.                   (we didn't)

                 We will not get too lost.               (we will)

                     We  will  learn to use the GPS      (we haven't)

                         We will (may, might, could) finish.    (we will)

See, lots of will. Just not much else at the moment.

A little background information

The route is 820km, plus or minus, and will take between 40 and 50 days, plus or minus. All depending upon who you listen too (and how fast you go). There is a wealth of information, often contradictory, upon which we have based our 'loose' plans. 

A wolf

The route cleverly combines climbs totalling about 46,000m and descents, also, totalling about 46,000m. An amazing coincidence. It will run parallel(ish) to, and occasionally cross, the French-Spanish border (if the nationalists have not amended the route) and will test our language skills well past breaking point and into mime land. 

It could be hot, cold, wet, dry, snow covered and probably some other stuff too. There are promises of wildlife. But we have heard that before (see Walking Across Slovakia).

We will walk through Navarre, the High Pyrenees, Andorra and Catalonia and reach a maximum altitude of 2,820m and two minimums of 0m (less if the tide is out).

It was an easy day

This one won’t be easy but it will be pretty. That is one thing everyone agrees on.

The idea of walking from the Atlantic Coast of Spain to the Mediterranean Coast of Spain was adopted, by us, a long time ago. But now seems like not such a good idea.

We had decided to be more German (and plan) (I did a spread sheet).

So - let's see what Irun to Bera has to offer.

One step at a time. One step at a time.

A bridge made famous in some war

A flat route - Yippee!
No hills - Yippee!! 
No need for boots - Yippee!!!

and fingers crossed about the rain. An old railway track shorter - flatter - safer - and suitable for what we are wearing.

By and above the river (we don't have a map so don't know its name).

It was pretty, we found a bridge and a launderette and a grave yard. The walk, luckily, was easy. A nice way to get us warmed up before that start of the main event.

A small graveyard

The First Launderette

Bus back to Irun - Day 1: done.

Our translators, the kids were saying something that no-one spoke Spanish. But we dismissed this. They are just thinking that they were being shy.