The scale of the problem

Welcome to Calenzana!

This is where it all starts - in a sleepy village in the North West Corsica, home to a smallish olive farm, an overpriced bar selling 7 euro pints of local beer, and a small dusty campsite, today home to around 20 hikers all finding it hard to stop staring to the South East.

This is the official start of the GR20, the hardest hike in all of Europe. There are longer, there are higher, but nothing is as relentless, as rugged, as demanding, or as varied as the 180km route from this village to Conca near the South East coast.

In addition to the standard route, Ben and I decided to throw in three day hikes up the highest three peaks on the island - Paglia Orba, Monte Retondu, and at 2706m (8878 feet) - Monte Cinto...

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We spent most of this morning crashed out on Calvi beach with our full packs and walking boots - a little out of place next to the scantily clad Europeans who were ALL at least 21.... *ahem*

This evening, the skies over the mountains in the South cleared and for the first time, we saw what was waiting for us tomorrow. From our vantage point, it looked like a kilometre high cliff!

Ben and I looked at the mountains.

Look at each other.

And swore.

Day 1 ends somewhere beyond that lump of rock!

With 3 litres of water in our bags, we will be carrying around 25kg each - 10kg more than the recommended load for the trek. (and 5kg more than the safe lifting load in the workplace...) Neither of us know what we can take out to lose weight, so we're both more than a little concerned and the prospect of carting these around...

Knocking around the village, we met Tim and Paddy - a very friendly pair who are the first English speakers we've found since we landed on the island 24 hours ago - my GCSE French is good for shops and taxis, but bugger all use when it comes to holding a conversation!

Tim's French is significantly better than mine, and he'd been told during the day that thunder storms were expected in the afternoon, so we needed to have left town by 6am and have finished walking by lunchtime or we risked getting struck by lightning - the largest cause of death on the route.......