Hiking 23rd - 31st October

Holidays! Finally :).
After school on the Friday, I went out with Hélène, Matthieu and Emilie. We went to a local pub which was really fun. Got home around midnight and was up again at 6.30am to travel to the Ardéche region, in the south of France. It was a massive 10 hour drive to the middle of nowhere where I would spend the next week hiking. I was surrounded by water trees and rocks. Sort of cool, with amazing scenery!
The next day I got to sleep in as we didnt start walking until 3pm. We met the other 11 people who would be hiking with us, the were all much older than me. We hiked for 3 hours that day and I thought that was hard, I had no idea what I was about to be doing.
The 26th, I was up at 7am for breakfast and then packed up my stuff and left at 8am. We hiked for hours up a mountain, the view was incredible you could see so far away! We had lunch at the top and I discovered I already had big blisters (ouchies!). After a rest we continued hiking to the place where we would be staying, arriving just after 5pm.
The 27th, Up again at 7am for breakfast and left at 8am. I didn't have to pack up my stuff because we were staying at the same place. It was a pretty good hike we did a loop track, still difficult though. Sometimes I just wanted to sit down and refuse to walk any further but I never did I just kept walking
. I would get quite tired when walking up hill and towards the end of the day - other than that its pretty good. I tended to stay at the front of the group with about 3 others because I didn't like being at the back, at the front you get breaks when you are waiting for the people at the back to catch up. While walking we pasted so many fruit trees/vines and today I had the sweetest grapes ever, they tasted sort of like blueberries :)
The 28th, Up at 7am left at 8am. I felt like I was going to die hiking today. We climbed up and up and up and up non stop today. It was so crazy! On the plus side the weather has been perfect no rain or cloud! Its sunny and hot. Arrived at 5pm. Four days down and three to go!
The 29th, left at 8.30am hiked hiked hiked hiked hiked arrived at 4.30pm.
The 30th, I was starting to get used to the whole hiking all day thing. But thankfully I only had one day left. Either today was easy or I was just getting fitter. Im looking foward to finishing and having my bed to sleep in, a good shower and clothes I dont have to smell to know if they're clean or not!! My French friends rang me and left the nicest voicemail :)
The 31st, The last day! Left at 8am and walked until 3pm. I was so glad it was over, I really had had enough of trees, rocks and water! It was a really good feeling finishing and looking back at what I had done. Also Mum and Dad and my host parents told me they were proud of me :). For our final night in the middle of nowhere we stayed at the same place we did the first night.
We left just after 8am the next morning and the GPS gave us the most horrible road to follow, I started feeling carsick. At about 6pm we arrived at the town where Jean-Luc works during the week and we went to his flat for a drink. Another hour and a half driving and we were back in Fougères! I was so happy to be home :D

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