Hi Folks,

Think this is only the 2nd time we’ve managed to get to the internet so I’m sorry if posts have been a little sparce. We have made it to a the small village of Seix, about midway through the Ariage. We were a bit worried about this section (days 24-38) as the ariage is a bit less populated an the guide books paint it in a similar light to Mordor! There is a small population of European Brown bear wandering around this area but we have yet to meet any. We managed to get our hands on the route guide for this bit too which is handy, people are quite surprised when they learn we don’t have a ‘proper’ map but to be honest the waymarking is really very good and we rarely go off path. There was a hurricane here in Feb and some of the route might be closed (or so we hear) due to felled trees, oh getting over these is a right laugh, especially carrying a 16kg sack, in the rain! So we thought a guide book might be prudent if we have to find a different route.

The weather has improved by some margin so it’s pretty sunny all day, which is nice as putting on the wet socks, trousers and boots everyday was starting to get us down. We are over one of the hardest days (Lucheon to Fos) which was a bit of an epic, at the end we had a km of steep, wet and slippery cobbled path to descend, with the odd downed tree for good measure, not what you need after 11 hours on the trail. Terms like “Another day on the Dix” (pronounced dees, french for 10, GR Dix) have been used quite excessively, my own favorite would be “There are no easy days on the Dix” which is now a well known fact. Our spirits are quite high now, especially after our 2nd rest day, the final 10 days to the coast look a little easier but we’ve said that before! There are lots to see and do providing you have the time and energy after the days walk, which we rarely do! I’m looking forward to getting back and posting some recent photos, I have taken to doing quite a few ‘quick’ panoramics when we sit down for 5 minutes at a pass (or col as we have come to call them).

Thanks for taking the time to read this and a big thanks to anyone who has donated to our just giving page. Hopefully we will get to post again soon, until then take care folks!