Why the Pyrenees?
With cheap flights to Barcelona, the promise of beautiful scenery, sunshine, good food, excellent wine and of course excellent walking, why go anywhere else.

James Adams & Tim Burnett

We choose the Pyrenees as it seemed somewhat undiscovered, we found books covering the route and a couple of websites, but it still seemed as though we were the first. Of course we weren't as the route is popular, but that doesn't mean that you can't go a whole day without seeing anyone, so its an ideal place to get away from it all.

Beautiful
The scenery is amazing, really stunning. We took an SLR camera along and took as many photos as we could, but they just serve as a small reminder of what we left behind. You really have to experience the beauty.

Me and My Mate
James and I were both experienced walkers, and this is by no means a route for someone who's only walked 10 minutes from the car. Navigation isn't difficult as the route is reasonably well signposted, marked and walked, paths are few and far between so you can't miss them (except we did occassionally). When you do find yourself of peest, so to speak, its only because you've notice things getting increasingly interesting and 'steep'.

Compared to the Lakes
We've both done alot of walking in the Lakes and Wales, and the main difference is distance, height, wilderness and navigation. You can littery walk days without passing through a village or town, which is great if you want to get away from it all, difficult if you fancy a beer. The mountains just seem so much bigger than that of the Lakes, just looking at them you notice the change in vegitation as they grow before you, something not that common in the Lakes.

Navigation was the key thing I noticed, no irritating stiles to find and climb, no need to worry about annoying a farmer or worrying his sheep.

A flower, purple in colour (Called Aqualigea, thanks Anne)

Time of Year
We walked in Late June time, so there was still some snow on the tops, but nothing to warrant ice axes and crampons. As snow was still defrosting, there was plenty of water, and it really did taste good. Earlier than June and you will need to have more experience with snow and ice, later and you may need to stock up on suntan lotion.

Weather
We may have been lucky, but we had excellent weather generally. One day of rain, mostly sunnshine otherwise, and some amazing if not scary thunder storms at night. Kit wise you should be prepaired for the extreme, a couple of the books we read mentioned snow and hail in summer, which I wouldn't at all be suprised. Sunglasses and Sunhat are a must.

Birds, Bees, Bears and Blooming Flowers
We both appreciate wildlife, although as you will see, we are not experts. The ground is covered in flowers of all shapes, sizes and colours. Bears are appraently to be found in the Pyrenees, however, they are very rare and not to be located on the GR11.

The most common animals to be seen were Marmots, Mountain Dear and Eagles. Marmots look like fat beavers and generally leg it when you get close, sometimes they look very appertising when you have only eaten rice for the whole day, but we're sure the Spanish wouldn't appreciate you eating them as they have only recently been re-introduced.

Eagles are still pretty amazing to see, even if you've been there done that. They are particularly common around Torla and like to be heard.