---
title: "Across the Pyrenees – an interview about the GR11 crossing"
description: "The GR11 is one of three long-distance treks across the Pyrenees – 820 kilometers with 45 km of elevation gain await you on it. We interviewed two enthusiasts who finished the trek."
canonical_url: "https://gramino.com/blog/across-the-pyrenees-gr11-interview"
last_updated: "2020-11-12"
---

# Across the Pyrenees – an interview about the GR11 crossing

Authors: David Czempka

Date: 2020-11-12

The GR11 is one of three long-distance treks across the Pyrenees – 820 kilometers with 45 km of elevation gain await you on it. We interviewed two enthusiasts who finished the trek.

The GR11 is one of three long-distance treks across the Pyrenees – 820 kilometers with 45 000 meters of elevation gain await you on it. Sylva and Matěj set out on this trek in 2017. They make no secret of the fact that this particular adventure is what got them hooked on long-distance treks, and it's clear they mean it. Over the last three years they've also managed to fit in almost the whole of Te Araroa (3 000 km across New Zealand), part of the GR5 (620 km through the French Alps), the GR221 (120 km across Mallorca) and a good chunk of a loop around the Czech Republic. In this interview we'll focus on their first and most intense long-trek experience and on practical information about the GR11. We'll talk about what they enjoy so much on long crossings and what they're planning next.

#### You picked the GR11, one of the hardest long-distance routes in Europe, as your first thru-hike. What previous experience did you have with mountain crossings? How did you prepare?

Our previous experience? Well, that was more than modest. We'd both set out with a heavier pack a few times, whether on casual camping trips or on some sort of travel. But we'd never actually gone out on a trek. The GR 11 was our big debut.

The preparation for it wasn't especially careful either. Part of our gear was borrowed from friends, we were still students back then and there wasn't much money. And physical training? I was sitting the first part of my state exams just a few days before we left, so I hadn't moved from my books for almost three months. But in the end we somehow walked it all off.

#### How many days did the whole GR11 crossing take you, and when is the best time to set out?

The whole crossing took us about 47 days, but of course that's very individual. The ideal window is somewhere between mid-June and the end of July, so that the spring snow is no longer sitting at the higher altitudes. And so that you finish the trek before autumn sets in. (the highest point of the GR 11 lies at 2 840 m, Collada Eriste)

#### The first days and first kilometers on a long trek tend to be tough. A loaded backpack, worse fitness and a lot of kilometers ahead of you. How was it for you?

I sank into gloom on day one, as soon as we reached the first little hill. I had my backpack adjusted wrong, my back hurt and I was hot. It was worst in the evening when I looked into the guidebook and saw the elevation gain and the passes that were waiting for us just a few days later.

I kept thinking: "What was I thinking, there's no way I can do this.."

Matěj is more of a natural athlete – he grits his teeth and goes. He handled the mental side of trekking better, especially at the start. Gradually we both learned it, though: the beginnings are harder and you need to count on that. Not just fitness, but above all the head. The important thing is to prepare yourself inwardly before a trek for the fact that the first days are slower and more painful, not to have overblown plans and not to start with big portions of kilometers. It always gets better over time.

But that applied to us and to people like us. We were basically "beginner trekkers", with heavy gear, not much fitness and minimal experience. That's why the GR 11 was harder for us.

#### How did you get to the start of the route and back home again?

We started the GR 11 from the Atlantic Ocean, so we chose to fly to Bilbao, and from there we took a bus all the way to Hondarribia, where Capo de Higuer – the start of the GR 11 – is located.

At the other end of the Pyrenees the trek ends at Cap de Creus by the Mediterranean. Because no public transport runs to Cap de Creus, we walked to Cadaqués, where we joined the GR 92 route that runs along the coast, and carried on to Roses (just under 30 km). There we got on a bus and rode via Girona all the way to Barcelona, where our flight home left from.*(A more detailed description of how to get to the start and the finish of the route, including maps, can be found* [*on the blog*](https://www.cestujsemnou.cz/l/gr-11-doprava/) *of Sylva and Matěj.)*

#### **You walked from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, so west to east – is this the standard direction? Do people hike it** **the other way too?**

That's a good question! "Our direction" from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean is the more common one for several reasons. The first reason is that heading east lets the route acclimatize you more gradually to the heat of the coming days than the opposite direction does (the closer you are to the Mediterranean, the hotter it gets). The next thing is the sun, which in this case shines on your back most of the day and so "bakes" the hiker less as they walk. And the last thing is supposedly less steep climbs than in the opposite direction. That one we can't judge, though! 😀 In any case, the GR 11 can of course also be walked in the opposite direction to the one we chose.

#### What are the sleeping options on the GR 11?

The route runs through nature and mountains most of the time, yet every now and then it drops into a valley and hits a town. That makes the choice of places to sleep fairly wide – wild camping, a campsite, a hostel in town or a mountain hut. It's great to make use of the fact that "free camping" is allowed in the Spanish Pyrenees and to savor that feeling of freedom.

The "GR 11 Trail" guidebook from Cicerone helped us enormously with planning and with finding places to pitch the tent – the author even lists tips on the best camping spots, often including notes on the nearest water source and a lot of other information.

#### **How often can you resupply food on the GR11?**

The route passes shops, bigger or smaller, on average about once every four to five days of walking.. So food can be restocked fairly often. The downside is the higher food prices in the smaller villages. That's also why we sorted out sending packages. Having arranged it in advance, we had one package sent to a campsite on the route, one to a tourist information center and one to a post office branch – it all worked flawlessly and every time we looked forward to our homemade jerky! 🙂

#### **Where did you send the resupply packages from** and how much did it cost you?

We asked our family to send the packages. We gave them instructions on when, where and which package to send, and then we just looked forward to the contents. Each package weighed about 10 kg (supplies for two for roughly 10–14 days, and not exactly the lightest options, since we counted on buying something along the way) and the postage (Czech Republic to Spain) came to about 50 euros.

#### **Does the route pass through well-known tourist spots, or more through remote areas?**

The route doesn't run through outright remote areas, but because the Pyrenees aren't all that "hyped", you don't meet many tourists on the GR 11. The biggest exception is the Ordesa y Monte Perdido national park, which is among the popular destinations for visitors and is one of the oldest national parks in Spain. For "mountain people", though, the more interesting fact is that the GR 11 also passes close to the three highest peaks of this range, the so-called Crown of the Pyrenees.

Past the highest one, Pico de Aneto (3 404 m), then past the summit of Posets (3 371 m), and finally past the third-highest peak, Monte Perdido (3 355 m), which sits in that very national park. Bagging the Crown of the Pyrenees during the GR 11 as well could be a nice cherry on top! A shame we only mustered the strength for Posets – the other two peaks are still waiting for us. 🙂

#### **Which part of the route captivated you the most?**

Every part of the route has something to it. But if we had to pick one part, it was the central Pyrenees, where the GR 11 runs through outright mountain terrain. That said, the GR 11 made sense to both of us as a whole. Every part of it has its own magic.

The first part of the Pyrenees welcomes everyone nicely and gently with hilly terrain and gives you time to get used to the backpack, the middle mountain part teaches everyone that it's not so much about distances as about the terrain and the elevation gain (which was about 1 500 m up and down every day), and the closing part is calmer again and lets you cover longer sections and so close in on the finish faster.

#### **Is there anything you'd do differently next time when it comes to preparation and packing?**

When it comes to preparation, probably not (although it would be great to set out on a trek in better physical shape one day :D), but when it comes to packing we'd do a whole lot differently!

The GR 11 was our very first experience with long-distance treks. We still didn't know what we'd absolutely need and what we could leave at home, we didn't have our gear dialed in, we didn't really even have a suitable tent. We had no money for better gear, so we took what we had or what friends lent us and set off. Almost blind, really. But that made the experience all the better and the adventure all the bigger. Still, with a less stuffed backpack and more experience the walking would definitely have been a lot easier! 🙂

#### **What's the water situation like on the trek?**

The Pyrenees aren't an outright dry range, there's always water to be found in the valleys, and throughout the whole trek we had no problem finding it. But using a filter or treating the water some other way was definitely necessary. Along the route we kept meeting large numbers of cattle and horses that have their pastures in the mountains, often right by the water sources.

#### **Did you have any low points on your crossing?**

Looking back on it, luckily only one big low point came along, and that was plenty for us.

In La Jonquera (a very unlovely border town) we found accommodation, thanks to friends who were also walking the GR 11, in a pilgrims' shelter just above the town. We were all thrilled to be meeting a bathroom, taps with water and a shower after such a long time. It was the beginning of August and terribly hot, so we all went straight for the water and drank deeply. Only after a few minutes did it occur to us that we might filter the water, despite it coming from the tap… But by then it was too late. Matěj spent the whole night running and throwing up, and I spent the whole following day the same way.

We were only a few days from our goal, completely exhausted, and this stomach episode really finished us off..

It took us two or three days before we felt completely fine again, but we still got off lightly. The friends we were walking with unfortunately ended up in hospital in Girona and to this day haven't come back to the GR 11 to finish it. After that powerful experience we filter water consistently almost everywhere! 😀

#### How is the GR11 waymarked? What maps did you use?

The GR 11 is very well waymarked on most of the route. Even so, we often used offline maps downloaded in the Mapy.cz app on the phone – the whole route is recorded in them precisely and it's nice to make sure you're still following the right path. The "GR 11 Trail" guidebook, which describes the route of the whole trek, helped us a lot again.

#### On your blog you write that after the GR11 you completely fell for long-distance treks. Can you put your finger on what caught you?

That combination of freedom, independence and pushing past yourself. That feeling that you covered such a distance alone, under your own power, so that when you look at a globe back home, it can warm your heart that you pulled this off.

The other thing is the effect long-distance treks have on your head. Matěj always says that on a trek only three things weigh on him: sleeping, eating and.. going to the toilet. Otherwise you just walk. It's a wonderful cleanse from our fast lives, just slow down and walk.

#### **Is the GR11 special in any way when you compare it with the other treks you've done?**

The GR 11 has one advantage. Because it starts in gentler terrain, it lets anyone get used to walking with a heavier backpack more gradually and enjoy the mountain part more. When we think back to the French part of the GR 5, which drove us up to a mountain pass from the very first step, or to Te Araroa, where the trek runs along the beach for the first 4 days with a headwind pushing against you, sand stinging your face and 100 km of walking straight and only straight over wet hard sand, in terrain that doesn't change at all… that was more a test of will than of physical strength. The GR 11, by contrast, welcomes the trekker and prepares them for the harder days ahead.

#### I'll digress a little – how do you choose your crossings? What draws you in?

We try to pick routes that aren't so busy and that run mostly through mountains and nature. The GR 11 delivered on that completely. A big contrast to it, though, was our last one, Te Araroa – there it wasn't "only" about nature, but also about getting to know New Zealand as a whole, its culture and history. We met nature more on the South Island – but as soon as we started climbing into the mountains, we both knew that this is what we enjoy most about long-distance treks.

#### What do you do for a living? Finding time every year for a trek hundreds of kilometers long isn't easy, and yet you manage it.

I'm a lawyer and Matěj is a mechanical engineer. We were lucky that we started with long-distance treks when we were both at university, so back then heading into the mountains for a few weeks in the summer wasn't a problem.  After school we both found jobs, but we already knew we'd like to go to New Zealand and walk Te Araroa. So we saved up and as soon as it was possible, we both quit our jobs and set off. And counted on finding different positions once we came back.

We'll see how we and long-distance treks get on from here, but it's a bit of an addiction now, so we believe we'll somehow find time for them even during our working lives. 🙂 After all, even a week-long trek like the GR 221 across Mallorca was beautiful and we'd happily set out on it again!

#### **Will you tell us what you have planned for the coming years?**

First of all we'd both love to finish Te Araroa, which the coronavirus pandemic interrupted for us. We had 2 400 km behind us and only 600 km left to the finish when the whole country closed into quarantine, and less than 3 weeks later we were sitting on a repatriation flight home.

In the near future, though, we want to finish walking around the Czech Republic's borders, and we're thinking about carrying on with the Via Alpina, which runs across the entire Alpine massif. We've got the French part behind us, so it would be great to add the Swiss one. We'll see where our steps take us. 🙂

#### You'll find the complete report from the GR11 crossing and Sylva and Matěj's other treks on their blog – [Cestujsemnou.cz](https://www.cestujsemnou.cz/) and we thank them for the interview.

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