Book description
High in the Pyrenees, a full day's hike from any trappings of
civilisation, is no place for a human to be - unless you are searching
for the time of your life.
This is the roof of a mountain range that stretches from the
Atlantic to the Mediterranean coasts, and provides some of the most
breathtakingly beautiful landscape to be found in Europe. It is also
the place for hikers to get soaked, roasted or scared out of their
wits - not by the endangered brown bear, but by rights-of-way such as
the precipitous Chemin de la Mature, hacked out of a cliff by 18th
century convicts and is still used in the 21st century to punish
anyone fearful of heights, such as TV presenter Simon Calder. Luckily,
his friend and walking companion Mick Webb has a complementary range
of phobias, such as being confined with 54 fellow hikers, and their
socks, in a refuge two miles above sea level.
Together, they step out to conquer the roof of the Pyenees,
following the time honoured tradition of walking the GR10. the
preferred route of the, at times eccentric, French Ramblers'
Federation. Testing a hiker's emotional resilience as keenly as his
walking boots, the GR10 is not for the faint-hearted. Weaving an
occasionally treacherous, always exhilarating trajectory through a
landscape of strong traditions and strange animals, Calder and Webb
narrate an eventful and humerous travelogue. With their backpacks,
boots and baguettes, they explore the region: meeting the people,
savouring the views and the wines - and aguing about how best to cope
with the constant surprises and challenges of magnificent mountains.
They also very quickly learn that la loi de l'emmerdement maximum
means 'sod's law' in French.
Simon Calder and Mick Webb have been getting lost together in
difficult terrain such as Columbia, Peru, and Stanstead Airport since
1998. Simon is travel editor of the Independent and a TV presenter for
programmes including BBC1's Holiday. Mick Webb is an award-winning radio
producer for BBC Radio 4.
