Rotsblog walking GR5 (1): Preface

In the summer of 1995, my father and I embarked on a long-term project. We started walking the Pieterpad, the long-distance walking trail that goes from one of the northernmost to one of the southernmost places in the Netherlands. We did not have time to walk the whole trail at once; in stead, once every year we walked for about five or six days in a row. We always brought our own camping gear, which we carried in our backpacks, and usually stayed at campsites. In 1998, we arrived in Maastricht, and finished the trail. I was fourteen years old.

But that was just the beginning. There was no reason not to continue our walk, and go further south. We decided to follow the GR5, the long-distance walking trail that goes all the way from the Netherlands to Nice. However, the further we got, the more time-consuming and expensive it became to travel to and from the trail. Therefore, in stead of one week a year, we now went walking for about ten to twelve days every second year. In 2000, we crossed the Belgian Ardennes. In 2002, we walked through Luxembourg and Lorraine, to the city of Nancy. In 2004, we crossed the Vosges, and experienced the Alsace region. And in 2006, we walked through most of the French Jura. We were halfway Nice.

In the following years, however, for various reasons we did not have the opportunity to continue walking. For several years, I travelled, lived and worked in another part of the world, and did not have the time or money to go to France for a walking trip. But this spring, I decided I wanted to go for a long walking trip again. And even though my current country of residence has some of the best hiking landscapes in the world, I wanted to continue with that old project of ours. I asked my father, and he happily agreed to join me. We decided to go for about twelve days: five days to walk through the remaining part of the Jura, from Pontarlier to Nyon (Lac Léman); and five or six days for the first of the French Alps, in the Haute-Savoie region, from Thonon-les-Bains to Samoëns. Nhung, my wife, kept us company during the first half of the trip.

We had a great trip. In the course of the following weeks, I will write about our walking experiences. For each of our walking days, I will write one blogpost. Every post will consist of four parts: a brief description of the route, including impressions as well as some practical information; a review of our accommodation; a short note with contemplations of a more abstract and philosophical nature, somehow related to the walking experience; and some pictures. That way, I hope that my posts will be of interest both to people looking for practical information regarding walking the GR5, and to people who just like reading travel blogs. 

More coming soon.