Day 9 - Montblanc

Well... actually I intented to write about the past few days, but first of all YEAH I managed to get a 2nd Class Honour at Uni :) Sure could be better, but with only making a real effort in the final semester... puh. Next time from the beginning haha

So, what has happened during the last 8 days. I´d say quite a lot and it is impossible to write about it all, but I can give you a picture of the whole. Burkhard and me left Escaldes (AND) the first day and almost made it to the border of Andorra. As you may know Andorra is in the middle of the Pyrenees. Somehow we have managed to choose a location to start from that has the biggest climb we have had so far and probably will have for the whole trip. Hiking up, say 800m with a 12kg can be fun, but only to a certain point. The view on the top, however, compensated for much (see Picasa). After that we made our way in a few days to La Seu d´Urgell, Tuixen, Sant Llorenç de Morunys, Solsona and Pinós. That far we were partly camping wild in nature, taking a youth hostel once and twice camping on a camp site. It was fun to share mornings, evening and breaks in between hiking. Unfortunately shortly after Pinós Burkhard had to give up, because he was... let's say "in pain". Sunburn, knee, ankle, sour feet and solely having a distant aim made him give up. I totally understand his decision and consider this being the best for his mental and physical well being. Good luck for you and enjoy to relax :)
After leaving Burkhard behind at a petrol station close to Calaf, I felt a little overwhelmed and sad, because I knew that Í'll be on my own for more than a month facing 1300km. Although I am faster with walking time may feel longer. Let's see how it works out. So far I have to admit I do pretty fine. After hiking very fast for 10-15km I felt that I had gotten over it. On the same day (Day 7) I reached Igualada, making approximately 40km's. I intented to book into a cheap hostel, which unfortunately wasn't available, thus I had to hike out of town and put up my hammock closebye. Luckily I was able to get some food and drinks, as I ran out of it. I resupplied for the next day, slept more or less well and hiked from Igualada to Montblanc. So far this distance has been the longest, as I have covered around 53km's. As you can imagine I was more than happy to have arrived and find a place to sleep for 25€, where I could wash and relax. My feet did not feel all too well, but recovered pretty good for today. In order not to overdo it I'll leave it with 30 to 35 km. I suppose that I will have to camp in the wild tonight, as there is no town nearbye. Let's see what happens, you're often taken by surprise on these kind of trips. I'll finish here, even though I have solely writte about the what has happened and not much about my thoughts. I may do this on a later date, but for now I have to go. Getting new maps to locate the hiking paths and starting to hike again.

Ahoi!

Phil