Day 1-5: 🥾Trekking the GR10 - Through the French 🇫🇷 Pyrenees: Le Sentier des Pyrenees | Hendaye to before Estérençuby

From August to September, I spent 37 days trekking the GR10 🥾 across the French Pyrenees 🇫🇷. It was a tough but rewarding trek, filled with long climbs ⛰️, quiet valleys 🌿, and the steady rhythm of trail life.

In this blog, I’ll be sharing the daily stats from my journey 📊 — the distances, the climbs, and the places I passed through 🏞️. Whether you’re curious about the GR10 or planning your own trek, I hope these details give you a real sense of the pace and challenges of life in the Pyrenees.

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Day 1 🥾Trekking the GR10 - Through the French 🇫🇷 Pyrenees: Le Sentier des Pyrenees.

ℹ️Stats:

Weather: hot & sunny 30 degrees 🥵

From: Hendaye

Start time: 10am

To: past Col d’lbardin

End time: 5pm

Accommodation: wild camped 🏕️

Terrain: road, rocky, gravel, grassy.

Cicerone guidebook stages: 1

🥾Km: 16

🥾Miles: 10

🦶Steps: 20,272

Ascent: 900m

Descent: 556m

Total Distance 16/955km 1.67% Done ✅

💰Costs: €1.30 bus to the start

€4.55 1l pineapple juice, 1.5l water, gummy sweets

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 6/10 amazing to be out here

Fatigue: 6/10 - period.

Ease of terrain: 5/10 - I found it tough - but it wasn’t horrendous

⭐️Highlights: the weather, the sunshine, blue skies, amazing views.

🏔️Challenges: far too much sugar - my stomach is rotting from the inside. Waiting for my hormones to balance so mentally I feel in a better place.

💭Thoughts: it’s sooo hot! 🥵 I’m done in! It’s been a slow day. But I think that’s due to starting at 10am. You can achieve so much more when you start earlier and it makes the day better. As you’ve achieved the miles earlier on, so you don’t feel like you are playing catch up all day.

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Day 2 🥾Trekking the GR10 - Through the French 🇫🇷 Pyrenees: Le Sentier des Pyrenees.

ℹ️Stats:

Weather: dry - cooler than yesterday 25 degrees

From: past Col d’lbardin

Start time: 8.44am

To: Chapelle Notre Dame de l’Aubépine

End time: 9.10pm

Accommodation: wild camped

Terrain: rocky & rooty, forests 🌳 roads - more than I was expecting

Cicerone guidebook stages: end of stage 1, stage 2

🥾Km: 29.35

🥾Miles: 18.3

🦶Steps: 36,265

Ascent: 1200m

Descent: 1271m

Total Distance 45.35/955km 4.7% Done ✅

💰Costs: €6.60 magnum ice cream & pineapple juice - also used the WiFi

€13.33 supermarkets - crisps, salad, avocado, tomato’s, cheese.

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 6/10

Fatigue: 6/10 - final hill was a killer. But my HR was much more balanced today.

Ease of terrain: 5/10

⭐️Highlights: reaching the church and finding lots of other hikers camping. Such a relief.

🏔️Challenges: will I ever find somewhere to camp!!! I wanted to stop about 5pm ish. I was still walking at 9pm. It was such a long day & I didn’t want to do a massive day today. The energy isn’t back to full strength so I don’t want to wipe myself out at the start.

💭Thoughts: Appetite is starting to come back, but so many food I can’t stomach. (Omelette - no thanks, meat, chocolate, gummy sweets, penauts - nope - all make me fell sick. Pallet fatigue is so difficult on these long trips. Avocado, tomatoes and crisps are ok! 👍

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Day 3 🥾Trekking the GR10 - Through the French 🇫🇷 Pyrenees: Le Sentier des Pyrenees.

ℹ️Stats:

Weather: dry & sunny ☀️

From: Chapelle Notre Dame de l’Aubépine

Start time: 8.30am

To: Bidarray

End time: 4.10pm

Accommodation: gite campsite 🏕️

Terrain: mountain paths, rocky, roads

Cicerone guidebook stages: stage 3

🥾Km: 18.79

🥾Miles: 11.7

🦶Steps: 22,891

Ascent: 736m

Descent: 960m

Total Distance 64/955km 6.7% Done ✅

💰Costs: €5 pineapple juice

€13.20 - supermarket shop - rice cakes, Nutella, banana, water, sweets, snickers

€6 camping 🏕️ (WiFi)

*budget is approx €30 per day - which is doable if you wild camp a lot, and buy food in supermarkets.

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 8/10 - made lots of great decisions today

Fatigue: 4/10 - starting to feel to much better

Ease of terrain: 4/10 - 1 gnarly descent with chains

⭐️Highlights: making the decision to stop for the day and just take the afternoon to chill! Sorted all my stuff out, washed my clothes, brushed my hair, got organised!

🏔️Challenges: tough descent down to Bidarray - apparently the hardest on the GR10 (if you’ve done the GR20 you’ll be fine with it). If not take your time and take it section by section. There are chains and steps to help you with some of the tougher bits.

💭Thoughts: have I bitten off more than I can chew?! I was thinking I could do this trail in 30 days… now I’m not even sure if I can do it in 40! This will be a very slow FKT!

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Day 4 🥾Trekking the GR10 - Through the French 🇫🇷 Pyrenees: Le Sentier des Pyrenees.

ℹ️Stats:

Weather: very hot & sunny ☀️ 36°

From: Bidarray

Start time: 8.10am

To: saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry

End time: 5pm

Accommodation: camped 🏕️

Terrain: rocky paths, narrow exposed pathways, forests, grassy, mountain tracks

Cicerone guidebook stages: 4

🥾Km: 16

🥾Miles: 10

🦶Steps: 22,974

Ascent: 1300m

Descent: 1300m

Highest point- Pic d’lparla 1044m

Total Distance 79/955km 8% Done ✅

💰Costs: €4 ice cream

€17.36 supermarket shop - chicken salad, tomato’s, crisps, jelly sweets, blueberries, raspberries, cheese, high protein yogurt.

€6.29 camping

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 9/10

Fatigue: 4/10 - slow in the morning, but much better in the afternoon

Ease of terrain: 6/10

⭐️Highlights: the ridge line (Crête d’lparla) walking was spectacular! Seeing eagles 🦅 flying around was amazing! A phenomenal day of walking. This would be a great day hike.

🏕️At the campsite I was right next to a river and I wouldn’t normally do this but I actually went in for a swim because even at 6:30pm it was still 36° out. It was amazing and so refreshing. I feel very relaxed.!!

🏔️Challenges: very exposed walking later on in the afternoon- very little shade - the sun was burning. I drank 3.5 litres and needed more. Pleased I was carrying that much (I learnt my lesson from the GR20!) even so I was desperate for water towards the end.

💭Thoughts: honestly just what a fantastic day I only knocked one point off the enjoyment because it was Tough walking and a long day.

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Day 5 🥾Trekking the GR10 - Through the French 🇫🇷 Pyrenees: Le Sentier des Pyrenees.

ℹ️Stats:

Weather: hot & sunny 29° at 9:30 am

From: saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry

Start time: 9.30am

To: before Estérençuby

End time: 8pm

Accommodation: wild camped

Terrain: roads, mountain tracks, gravel pathways

Cicerone guidebook stages: 5 & half of stage 6

🥾Km: 29.53

🥾Miles: 18.45 miles

🦶Steps: 37,768

Ascent: 1513m

Descent: 1080m

Total Distance 108.5/955km 11% Done ✅

💰Costs: €4 2 scoops of caramel ice cream 🍨

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 9/10 - so pleased I made the distance I did

Fatigue: 3/10

Ease of terrain: 5/10

⭐️Highlights: so nice to be back at st Jean pied du port (where you start the Camino Frances from). It felt good to be connecting trails in Europe!

🏔️Challenges: brutally hot again, but apart from 2 climbs - it was good going.

💭Thoughts: 🎒weighted my pack at the pilgrims office. ⚖️14kg - I’m carrying 3.5 litres and some food. Body weight is 71kg before I left. Just under 20% of body weight. Thank goodness I’m not having to carry loads of food as well!

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👉 Curious how the journey unfolds? Check out Part 2: GR10 Days 6–10 for more stats, stories, and mountain moments ⛰️📊✨

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