0.0km/0.0mi, Banyuls-sur-Mer (France)

Saturday August 19

I had a small surprise after I got settled into my campsite yesterday. A hiker I had met on day one, Lea, just happened to be finishing the same day and needed a place to camp, so I offered a spot on my campsite. We had a good time catching up on everything we had seen and done, since parting ways way back on day #3. I got a fun photo of her packing up her tent, shaking it out.

After Lea left, three other HRP hikers arrived and I got to hang out with them. Jan, Harry, Sandy were a fun bunch!

We hung out and socialized at the campground’s little cafe, which had surprisingly good food.

In the afternoon I went to the aquarium in town, it was pretty impressive for a small exhibit.

After the aquarium, I went back to the beach and had a longer swim. The Mediterranean Sea is a little saltier (higher density) so it’s actually easier to float. Afterwards I walked back to the campground and had dinner with my new group of friends.

Sunday August 20

I packed up and left the campground in the morning, and met up with a US hiker that I had met before. Dirtmonger and I had hiked the CDT in 2016, which is where we first met. The long distance hiking community is a small world, and it just happened that he was hiking the HRP about a week behind me. He is a speedy hiker and ended up finishing only two days after I did, and we split a hotel room in town to take advantage of the nice cold AC.

Of course we headed back to the beach and then we did some shopping in town before having dinner and then heading back to the hotel.

Monday August 21

I got up at 7:30 to get showered and packed up, so I could walk across town for a train that departed at 9am.

I rode the train all day, changing trains a couple of times before I finally arrived at my destination in Chamonix. Time for a mini-hike!