GR5: Days 64–70 from past Saint Antoine to Nice! | Hiking from Holland to Nice
Updated: 2 hours ago
It’s the final week of my 2,200km GR5 adventure from Holland to Nice! There are still big climbs, rocky descents and long days ahead, but the finish is finally within reach. Follow along for the last push through the mountains, the final wild camp, and the moment I reach Nice and the Mediterranean.
Day 64 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats: Weather: sunny ☀️ 23 degrees / felt a lot hotter
From: past Saint Antoine
Start time: 7.44am
To: Lac du Lauzanier
End time: 7.20pm
Accommodation: wild camped 🏕️
Terrain: slate, rocks, gravel, concrete
Cicerone guidebook stages: 21 & half of 22
🥾Km: 27.99
🥾Miles: 17.5
🦶Steps: 37,481
Ascent: 1,841m
Descent: 1,166m
Total Distance 2,043/2,200 km
92.8% Done ✅
💰Costs: €12.50 pineapple juice, biscuits, yogurt, apple sauce, jelly sweets.
€8 pinnacle juice & strawberry juice
€23 omelette, potato thing, 3 slices of bread & 2 apple juice
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 10/10
Fatigue: 3/10
Ease of terrain: 6/10
⭐️Highlights: reaching the lake to camp, watching the sunset and seeing the moon.
🏔️Challenges: descent down to Larche was horrendous - worst part of the trail so far. Ridiculous switchbacks, almost doing figures of 8, you couldn’t work out which route to take. It was a massive dangerous mess of a descent.
💭Thoughts: I’ll have a few days to chill in Nice at the end - any tips, recommendations of things to do, see, eat etc
Day 65 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats: Weather: sunny ☀️ 22 degrees - felt a lot hotter
From: Lac du Lauzanier
Start time: 7.55am
To: before St-Étienne de Tinée
End time: 6.25pm
Accommodation: wild camped 🏕️
Terrain: slate, rocks, gravel, slate, mountain roads & trails
Cicerone guidebook stages: 22 & most of 23
🥾Km: 23.88
🥾Miles: 15
🦶Steps: 31,927
Ascent: 1,275m
Descent: 1,931m
Total Distance 2,067/2,200 km
93.9% Done ✅
💰Costs: €0 no shops - no bars - no opportunities to spend money!
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 9/10
Fatigue: 4/10
Ease of terrain: 4/10
⭐️Highlights: charging electronics at the office de tourism. reaching 3 cols, finally finding a flat place to camp before town.
🏔️Challenges: I’ve not eaten enough food. I went through 2 towns expecting to get food - everything was shut! lol! But the next town has food. So it’s just 20hrs without food.
💭Thoughts: really big day tomorrow- cicerone has it estimated to take 11hrs 15 mins, 27k, ascent 1775m & decent 1500. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish it all.
Day 66 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats:Weather: sunny ☀️ 22 degrees
From: before St-Étienne de Tinée
Start time: 8.18am
To: MM 1,304.5
End time: 6.40pm
Accommodation: wild camped 🏕️
Terrain: slate, gravel, mountain trails, tracks & roads
Cicerone guidebook stages: end of 23, & less than half of 24
🥾Km: 19.66
🥾Miles: 12
🦶Steps: 24,429
Ascent: 1,471m
Descent: 1,160m
Total Distance 2,087/2,200 km
94.8% Done ✅
💰Costs: €12.15 - crisps, biscuits, gummy sweets, mars bar, water, kinder thing
€19.20 - baguettes sandwich, 2x chocolate croissant, 3x croissant, sweets, iced donut, Nutella muffin!
€7 2x pineapple 🍍 drinks
€1.50 coke
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 9/10
Fatigue: 6/10 - super tough day - long day
Ease of terrain: 6/10
⭐️Highlights: the iced doughnut was incredible- so good getting good food to eat. (Especially as I suffer from pallet fatigue so I’m actually really excited about eating the food I’m carrying)
🏔️Challenges: too little food yesterday- too much food today - need to get the balance right. The climbs were hard today - really felt it in my legs - they were not moving well.
💭Thoughts: I didn’t get to the plateau I wanted to camp at. But I think this one is better - lower elevation at 1,942m - will probably sleep better. I have a massive climb tomorrow- need to reach 2,587m.
Day 67 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats: Weather: cloudy ⛅️
From: MM 1,304.5
Start time: 8.38am
To: La Barre 1373m
End time: 6.01pm
Accommodation: wild camped 🏕️
Terrain: slate, gravel, grass, mountain trails & roads
Cicerone guidebook stages: end of 24, start of 25
🥾Km: 22.80
🥾Miles: 14.25
🦶Steps: 28,157
Ascent: 942m
Descent: 1,504m
Total Distance 2,110/2,200 km
95.89% Done ✅
💰Costs: €18 omelette & meat
€12 blueberry drinks - delicious 😋
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 10/10
Fatigue: 7/10 - it’s coming in waves - I feel good & strong and then I’m struggling to push on.
Ease of terrain: 6/10
⭐️Highlights: getting an omelette at the refuge and having the most delicious blueberry drink. Incredible 360 degree views of mountains, just stunning! 🤩
🏔️Challenges: some tough climbs, none stop descending on shale & rocks
💭Thoughts: one of my longest hikes was 100 days on the Appalachian trail. reaching 70 days is making me think would I want to do another 30 days? could I do another 30 days? I honestly don’t know! It’s such a long time to be out.
Day 68 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats: Weather: sunny ☀️ 22 degrees
From: La Barre
Start time: 7.41am
To: just past Col de la Trous
End time: 7.23pm
Accommodation: wild camped 🏕️
Terrain: slate, winding mountain tracks, gravel, grass, forest, mountain roads
Cicerone guidebook stages: end of 25, half of 26
🥾Km: 28.12
🥾Miles: 17.5
🦶Steps: 37,262
Ascent: 1,968m
Descent: 1,401m
Total Distance 2,136/2,200 km
97% Done ✅
💰Costs:
€4.30 2x drinks
€30.20 - cheese sandwich, crisps, chocolate bars, 2x croissant, 2x chocolate croissant, pizza slice, jelly sweets,
€2 water
€4 apple juice
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 10/10
Fatigue: 4/10
Ease of terrain: 5/10
⭐️Highlights: views on views, mountains on mountains, walking above the clouds, really pleased with the amount of climbing I did today.
🏔️Challenges: detour up a mountain (another 100m of climbing!) but the views were epic (there had been a rock slide hence the detour up)
💭Thoughts: honestly can’t believe I’ve got 2 days left. 32 miles to go - 51.2km - 26k to hit tomorrow! Will try and push on further to make the final day shorter. But it is what it is - there are still big climbs to do!
Day 69 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats: Weather: sunny ☀️ 23 degrees
From: just past Col de la Trous
Start time: 8.44am
To: Colla Partida
End time: 7.49pm
Accommodation: last wild camp of the trip!
Terrain: the rocks were back with a vengeance - especially on the descents
Cicerone guidebook stages: 2nd half of 26 & 1st half of 27
🥾Km: 34.35
🥾Miles: 21.5
🦶Steps: 46,076
Ascent: 963m
Descent: 2,334m
Total Distance 2,171/2,200 km
98.7% Done ✅ - can’t believe how close I am!
💰Costs: €13.20 resupply at Spar
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 10/10
Fatigue: 5/10 - I’m ready to stop now!
Ease of terrain: 5/10
⭐️Highlights: part of the day crossed with the UTMB Nice 100 mile & 100km challenge. It’s always impressive watching people do hard things. So inspiring - it inspired me - I did more miles than I expected.
Seeing the Mediterranean for the first time was epic and the sunset 🌅
🏔️Challenges: woke up full of snot, started my period (not expected for a few more days) felt like shit - had a cry eating crisps in the tent for no reason(hormones)😂 also didn’t sleep well - even though my watch is saying I got 9+hrs (lies) I did try to keep my HR low / so that’s probably why.
💭Thoughts: final push tomorrow- will I be able to wake up early and crack on?! I hope I sleep well tonight!
Day 70 🥾GR5 - 2,200km from Holland 🇳🇱 to Nice 🇫🇷
ℹ️Stats: final day! Weather: sunny ☀️
From: Colla Partida
Start time: 7.24am
To: Nice!
End time: 1.09pm
Accommodation: Hostel - bed 🛌
Terrain: rocks! lol! Concrete!
Cicerone guidebook stages: end of 27 and 28
🥾Km: 18.38
🥾Miles: 11.5
🦶Steps: 23,167
Ascent: 435m
Descent: 991m
Total Distance 2,200 /2,200 km
100% Done ✅ 🥳🥳🥳
💰Costs: €30 accommodation hostel
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
Enjoyment: 10/10
Fatigue: 3/10
Ease of terrain: 1/10
⭐️Highlights: the end, the finish, the completion of the adventure - challenge!! Making it to Nice - touching the statue & the Mediterranean!
🏔️Challenges: the city is busy! Lots going on - very hectic compared to being alone in the mountains. I think my body needs some time to adjust to the hustle and bustle!!
💭Thoughts: what a journey! Can’t believe it’s over - but also glad it’s over! I’m ready for some R&R and not moving much over the next couple of days! Let’s play things by ear and see what happens. Thanks for following along and joining me 🙌 I’m super grateful for all your support! More posts will follow - A total stats update, vlogs will also be coming! Plus future adventure updates! 🙏😊
Thanks for following along on this adventure from Holland to Nice! 🙌 I’m so grateful for all your support along the way.
Want to see how the whole challenge turned out? Head over to my Total GR5 Stats post for a full breakdown of the distance, elevation, costs and more from this 2,200km adventure!
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