A tough day rescued by the kindness of strangers

Day 5 Saturday 1st May

Bidarrai to St Etienne de Baigorry 11miles

We always knew it was going to be tough, especially after the previous day. Little did we know how tough. It should have broken up into three parts, first a hard steep climb of about 900m over a distance of 3 to 4 miles; next a spell of around 3 miles along the crest up and down between altitudes of 800 and 1050m whi h should have been easier; then a descent of over 1050m over the final 3 to 4 miles. The climb didn't disappoint - it took hours, in parts involving careful picking of footholds up rocky mountain sides. Frequently I wished for longer legs. The middle section was no easier. We should have had a spectacular view from the Crete d'Iparla but we had fog on both sides, masking the steep drops in either direction and had to concentrate again on picking our way over rocky ground. So much for a quicker easier stretch. This photo shows one of the easiest parts!

After about 7 hours of walking what should have taken 4 hrs we reached our last chance to take an alternative path down. Worried by the map showing a similarly challenging descent and the risk of being caught by the fading light we took this chance and were repaidby a couple of hours of easier descent but it still left us totally finished and several miles from our accomodation. We were rescued by a truly kind lady who's very battered "voiture de vacances" was the height of luxury just then. She saw how tired we were and took us to our destination. We were booked into a delightful chambre d'hotes run byPantxo, a real Basque character, but his story will have to wait. I have more walking to do tomorrow, my first day walking alone, so I need some sleep.

I'm slowly catching up with the blogs though. I'll add some retrospective photos when I get the chance. Meanwhile thanks for all the messages - much appreciated. I'll try to respond to them in due course.