GR10 Day48

It was a traditional start of going out the door and starting to climb.  We went up through the woods and reached the ridge line, which we were to walk along all the way to Banyuls.  Initially we were just on the north side of the ridge, as we walked along the border, mainly in woodland.  The few streams that we crossed were completely dry.  We had passed the highest point for the day, but there was still plenty of ups as we passed each summit.  There was a good amount of fast walking on grassland as we worked our way along the border.  We finally saw Banyuls in the distance; according to a signpost only 7.5km, but 3hrs of walking to go.  We realised why as we then reached a steep descent, meaning slow going as we worked our way down through rocky outcrops.  We finally reached the end of this section and discovered that rather than going up and down the narrow path over the next hill, we could walk around, along a graded track, with a very gradual descent.  This took us to a road, where we walked one hairpin bend, and took the GR10 shortcut at the next.  By now we were walking next to vineyards (the harvest started last week).  The GR10 left the road, and continued on farm tracks, with the occasional path linking them together.  There was a final short descent, and we were finally on the streets of Banyuls-sur-Mer.  The well-marked route took us to the Mairie, looking out on the Mediterranean, where the end of the GR10 was marked by a large mosaic.  A fellow walker took our photo and we took her’s.

We had made it without breaking any bits of equipment or ourselves. 

The statistics:

Walked 48 days

819.6kms

38571m climbed (4.4 times Everest or 28.7 times Ben Nevis)

One cable car down a mountain

Two buses in one day (that day’s walk was too far for one day; those that did do this section walked part, then camped)

We walked a couple of variants as the GR10 route required camping.

Postscript

Banyuls is a small seaside town, but full of mainly French and Spanish families on holiday.  A band plays afternoon and evening on the seafront, and the space in front is used by people dancing the Sardana, a traditional Catalonian dance.  We missed the fireworks the night we arrived as 10pm was way past our bedtime!  The next day we visited the laundromat, two washing machines and a tumble dryer, bizarrely situated in the carpark of the local Carrefour.