Blogs from the Wilderness

Four days up, one down – although the one down is a very long day

Day one was mostly driving from Nairobi to the park, when we got there after lunch we had around 3hrs to walk to ‘Old Moses’ camp at a measley 3300m. The camp itself was a collection of tin huts that became very cold when the sun went down. We took a number of porters with us who had to carry our food and any extra equipment.

The next day was a long hike up to the Shipton camp at 4200m where we spent the second and third nights. On the third day we had an aclimitisation day where we took a short walk to 4500m before coming back down to rest before the final ascent begining at about 3am.

The morning of the final ascent was clear and a full moon guided the early part of the path. We went up the second highest peak ‘Lenana’ which gave us great views of the highest peak and dawn creeping slowly over africa. After more than 12hrs being up and walking, we reached the bottom lodge at around 5pm, where we could finally have a beer.

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The final day consisted of a two hour walk to somewhere near the park gate where we were picked up by the most ancient Land Rover imaginable who proceeded to drive us down the worst road I had ever seen finally making it to the park gate where we almost lost one of our porters to the park police for not having his ID on him; we paid off the police and made it out into town without any more incidents.

Up to Edinburgh on New year’s eve to see in 2012 with fun and dancing and a little bit of drink. Did you now that the Scots celebrate Hogmanay because celebrating Christmas was banned by the calvinist church.

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On new years day I did the traditional walk up to Arthurs Seat and then spent some more time exploring Edinburgh.

Then on the 2nd it was the train back down with all the hordes of people, luckily we managed to snatch a couple of first class seats for only an extra £20; not bad for free tea and sandwiches.

Rosko recommends: The castle is great, if a little expensive

Food of the stay: Haggis, what else.

After 550 km, I decided I had cycled enough. The weather had changed and it was raining hard now so cycling wasn’t much fun any more.

The train to Santander took 3hrs, and as we were getting on, we met two more cyclists doing the same thing. Only problem was the train guard was a jobsworth and refused to let more than 5 bikes on the train. Gavin and Emma let us on and waited 6hrs for the next train.

Santander isn’t as nice a city as Bilbao or San Sebastian but I got to see Jorge and Marta and their baby Leo before we caught the boat to Portsmouth the next afternoon.

The next morning we went back down to the seafront for breakfast before heading out towards Bilbao.

It rained pretty much all the way, so we just pushed on and made it to Bilbao around 3 o’clock. Then we got lost; there are three routes into Bilbao from Zamudio, the motorway; the pilgrims path, which was a tiny dirt track over the hill; or a small road that started in a business park. Alex and I spent an hour looking for the road before I asked a Spanish guy who kindly drove us to the begining of it.

We started up it and for two kilometers we climbed the steepest road I had been for the entire trip. After that it was down hill all the way into Bilbao. The only problem with that being part of the road down was an incredibly steep cobbled street that we couldn’t cycle down either.

Once the others arrived on the train Alex and I found a hotel and we made the most of Bilbao

Jack woke up with a swollen ankle so decided that he couldn’t cycle any more, Kev and Rich opted to stay with him.

Alex and I carried on to Lekeitio; after having dumped done of our more heavy equipment, while the others stayed in San Sebastian and had a night on the town.

The climb out of San Sebastian was very difficult heading straight up for 2km. This afforded us great views back over the town and out to sea.

We stopped for lunch at Getaria where I had a fantastic bbq mackerel. Then the weather turned and it rained most of the rest of the way to Lekeitio.

Wandering around town, I was surprised to bump into an old work colleague, Breac, who was starting a similar trip, with his wife, heading the other way. He laughed when I told him we had cycled around the Pyrenees and not over them.

I tried to go to the baths in Cambo, but they are only for rich old people and have to be booked in advance.

We took the back roads down to the coast at St-Jean-De-Luz and then crossed the border at Hendaye where we stopped for a quick surf before heading on to San Sebastian.

The road to San Sebastian from Irun was pretty horrible, I couldn’t find the turning for the coast road so we all ended up cycling along the main road with lorries bombing past us; we made it without incident though.

The night we arrived in Oloron we had agreed to head up the valley and cut across to Cambo-les-Bains, where we would meet Kev’s brother and Alex.

Oloron is a beautiful little place, so we spent a few hours wandering around in the morning before heading up the valley and cutting across the hills to Cambo.

After the arguments of the night before we headed out late again and this time took the N21 (against my better judgement) all the way to Vic-en-Bigorre. It wasn’t wasn’t much fun with all the lorries whistling past my ear, but we made good time.

From Vic it was flat all the way to Pau, which is beautiful city with amazing views of the pyrenees.

As we hadn’t left till almost 10 we arrived at Pau around 3 o’clock and spent a few hours recovering. It was almost 6pm when we left Pau for Oloron so we had to push hard to make it in time for the 20.30 check in time.

We left Lavalette at 9, and quickly made it through Toulouse.

The roads out of Toulouse were pretty flat and straight so we made good time to begin with. About 2hrs out it got hilly and really slowed us down.

Lunch was taken in the village of Sauromon, which, apart from it’s Lord if the Rings linked name had nothing going for it at all.

Sometime before lunch my phone died so the time taken lost about 2hrs. We had around 30km after lunch and that last bit was really up and down and that took us more than 2hrs.

Mirande, where we stayed the first night was small and very quiet, but the hotel was nice. That night Jack and I argued vehemently about the route we should take the next day and went to bed without agreement.

We got to Paris without incident, but cycling the 5km. from the Gare du Nord to the Gare Montparnasse proved too complicated for us, and we missed the train.

As a result, we had a relaxing  5hrs in Paris while we waited for the overnight train. Paris is a beautiful city and we wandered along the Seine before eating in a delicious little restaurant.

The train down to Toulouse was really uncomfortable, the reclining seats were awkward and the carriage was too light, so we didn’t really sleep very much.

We arrived at 6.30am, had breakfast and then headed out to Lavelette and spent a pleasant day with Herbert and Brigitte. The house is a beautiful old farmhouse and our houses were generous and accommodating.

The next day we would be cycling 110 km to Mirande.