[walkingnatureworld]

[walkingnatureworld]

This was our first day of GR de Pays Tour de Cerdagne trail in Pyrénées-Orientales, France that we decided to do as a tribute to this beautiful region where we have been living for the last 3 years now. It is a circular trail that can be done in either direction and we decided to go counter clockwise starting in Font-Romeu village and moving towards Dorres. Previously we have done the parts of this trail here and there but have never had a chance to hike it as a whole. So we thought it would be an amazing hike to do to be able to pass by many interesting attractions and overall show the different parts of the region. It is 70km easy to moderate difficulty trail with just few steep uphills and downhills. And it can be done in 4 or 5 days depending on your goals. Watch the full video here:

So for the first day we planned to hike 16kms from the town Font-Romeu to Dorres village. It was a sunny September morning and the day was expecting to be very warm and summer like. We started our trail on the forest paths that were going mostly on the flat terrain and had lots of shade. On the way we met quite a lot of bushes of red currant growing in the forest alongside the trail. It was a sour one but still nice to taste. After several kilometers we went out to the car route and entered the village of Egat. We passed by the old half ruined Torre dels Moros dates back to 1294, as well as the roman church and the trail walked us back to the forest. All day long we followed the red yellow sign of GR and it was nice and accurate. Soon we came out to the open fields with no shade and had to follow them for quite some time. But fortunately there was a fresh wind coming our way and the weather wasn’t too hot. The trail was going mostly flat and from there we started to enjoy the nice views over the Cerdagne valley in all its bright glory of the afternoon sun. High in the sky we were seeing lots of colorful parachutes flying and people paragliding. It always looked so tempting to us especially because there is a paragliding school here in the region. We had our lunch in the shade of the big tree and then descended down in the Targassonne village with its rocky buildings and farmlands. When we crossed the major car road we began to follow the nice shaded path following the horse pastures and fields. Under our feet there were quite a lot of dry yellow leaves and it reminded us of the proximity of the autumn. And it was a strange feeling because we clearly felt that the summer flew by very fast this year and we didn’t have time to enjoy it thoroughly. With the contrast of the last year when we spent 4 full months living in the tent this year it definitely felt like not enough hiking and outdoor adventures. After passing by the camping La Griole the trail started to climb uphill. And we were getting close to the Themis Solar Plant which was seen from a far as a huge tower. It was operating in the 1983-1986 years and then closed due to a lack of financial support. It looks very impressive from the side and covers quite a lot of area with the mirrors. It has become a research and development center nowadays and has an exposition open to public as well as the excursions. An interesting fact is that the region of Cerdanya considered to be one of the best for the solar installations because it has almost 2400 hours of sunshine a year. Thus there are a lot of experimental and real solar installations all over the region. This place is very special to us because this was the final destination of our very first hike in the region when we first moved here. And it was the one we actually filmed. It was very exciting time in our lives and thus it holds a special place in our hearts. So after we walked by the solar station we were back to the open fields again with no shade at all and there under the afternoon sun it was starting to get hot. We had to do the final major downhill of 600m to the village Angoustrine. It was quite tiring 4km long steep downhill so it took us some time to get through. Also in some places, the trail was very narrow and there were many spiky plants on the sides so it was making it harder. In the end we felt our legs trembling and the muscles were sore. We were feeling that we need to start looking for the camp spot as soon as possible. We still needed to cross the town Angoustrine and then had to do several hundred meters up to the village Dorres. There we hoped to be able to find a quiet and secluded place for the night. Dorres turned out to be a small pretty village with a beautiful church in the center and in the sunset light it looked even more magical. It felt very warm and nice. Close to the village were located the Dorres Roman Baths – quite a popular attraction dated back to the Middle Ages. So we collected the water from the source close to the church which was nice because it meant we don’t have to filter it and headed towards the fields. We had to wander for quite some time before we were able to find a spot to camp close to the tree line and deep in the fields. There we had already little time to spare before darkness and so we cooked our food, had our dinner and went to sleep. It was quite an easy and beautiful day and we got lucky with the weather so we hoped this hike would continue to go this way. What local hike was your favorite from last summer season?

[walkingnatureworld]

Week Long Hike Wilderness Backpack - Detailed Packing List Watch the full video here:

In this post we want to share what we take with us for a week long hike. As we figured that it is quite different from our usual long trip packing list because we take less stuff. And hopefully it will be helpful for some of you planning your week hikes. Our packing list is more suitable for wilderness trips and being autonomous but you can always make it work for you taking less food supplies. What do you take for a week long trips?

[walkingnatureworld]

Walking through historical roman villages and 13th Century Church - Tour de Cerdagne Dorres to Puigcerda in Pyrenees, France This was our second day of GR de Pays Tour de Cerdagne in Pyrenees-Orientales, France. We hiked 17kms from the old Roman village Dorres, Santa Maria de Bell-Lloc church, passed by La Tour de Carol-Enveigt and Spanish town Puigcerda and crossed back to Bourg-Madame, France. Watch the full video here:

The day before we had to spend quite a bit of time wandering around and had to get away from the official trail in order to find a camp spot. It was quite tiring and we got exhausted. In the end we climbed up right into the fields on quite a slope and were able to find a more or less flat spot there. We had very little time of daylight left and so we cooked our dinner and went to sleep right away without having an outdoor shower. At night it was quiet except for the animal sounds that we thought were the deer and maybe some kind of predator such as a fox. We packed up our tent, had breakfast, did a bit of warm up and were good to go. We started that day quite late at 11am but we still hoped to be able to arrive to our destination earlier than the day before so that we have time to rest. But that would depend on the difficulty of the trail. So first to get back to the official trail we had to get through the challenging steep uphill through the thorny bushes and plants following the deer path. Then we had a several kms more of an uphill to make in order to get to the Santa Maria de Bell-Lloc church standing on top of the mountain. This now half ruined church was built back in the 13th century by Romans and it used to be much bigger back then. Its name Bell-Lloc in catalan means “beautiful place”. On the info board close to the church we read that once it served as a shelter or refugee as well as the church for the many pilgrims that were coming and going back then. The Santa Maria de Bell-Lloc was our highest spot for the day and we could see from it all the trail we had to do in front of us for the day. There we could enjoy some wonderful views of Cerdanya valley on a beautiful sunny day with the small rocky villages lower down. There were many eagle like birds in the sky circling around and it was a very pretty picture as well. So we have spent some time contemplating this beauty and taking photos and then got back on the trail again. The weather was very nice and even hot in the middle of the day and it felt like summer the second day around. Even at night we didn’t feel cold at all and we think it was around 11 degrees Celsius which wasn’t bad at all for the start of September. The trail was going a bit uphill for several hundred meters and then started to go downhill. It was going in the forest so we enjoyed having the shade in the middle of the day. Before the major downhill we turned to wrong way and lost our track because we didn’t pay attention to the crossed sign on the rock. Fortunately we didn’t get too far away before we realized it only a km extra or so. But it was a reminder to be more careful and watch the signs better. Then the path got quite steep for several hundred meters and it was the most challenging part of the day. As the terrain was quite sandy and narrow we had to watch our step. It seemed to us more of a bike track than a hiker trail. But it didn’t last for too long. We had our nuts and chocolate for the snack in the shade of the tree and continued forward. Soon we came down to the village Brangoly and Feners that were very small and old looking ones but were pretty charming. The place was very serene and isolated and we have spotted some luxury place to stay there as well. So when we passed by these villages following the car road we decided to do a shortcut and not get through the village Bena but rather go straight to the town Enveitg. This way we would save up some time and powers and have more chances to get to the camp spot earlier. So we did, followed the secondary car road where there weren’t much traffic at all. It was going along the yellow open fields without much shade at all and we got quite hot there. In 2.6 kms we were almost at the village Enveitg and when we were about to enter it we stopped to have our lunch break right at the side of the road. After our nice break and a bit of rest and stretch we continued to stretch further along the trail. We passed through the village Enveitg quite fast and were out in the open fields again but this time on the dirt car road that we had to follow for several kms until Puigcerda. On the way we met many rich fruit gardens in the people’s backyards with lots of apple and pear trees in them. Then we crossed the railway of the Little Yellow Train which is one of the tourist attractions of the region and then the path went along the bigger railway connecting the Spanish Puigcerda and French La Tour de Carol. Overall it was very easy and flat part of the trail. And we didn’t notice how we stepped into the town Puigcerda. There we had to do our shopping and bought some fruit and veggies to get us through the weekend when no shop is open. And of course on such hot day we couldn’t skip our portion of ice-cream that we had sitting on the bench in the park Shierbeck at the estany de Puigcerda. It was a nice green park full of big trees, squirrels running around and birds singing. On the lake itself there were many birds as well such as ducks, goose and swans. The town is quite small but colorful in the centre with the buildings painted in different colors. And this town is one of the major and important commercial spots in the region of Cerdanya. So after spending an hour or so there we had to rush and crossing back to France we quickly got through the French town Bourg-Madame and were in search for the camp spot in the fields. It wasn’t very hard to find a flat spot but there were no secluded ones as there wasn’t enough forest. So we had to stay in the open field close to the tree line and just hoped that we weren’t seen from the dirt farmer route that was going quite close. In the end we did 17 kms with several uphills and downhills that day and could say that it was a moderate difficulty day with some easy parts as well. We were tired enough but still managed to take a quick shower just to wash away some dust and sweat. Then set up a tent, cooked our food with salad and cheese that we bought that day and had little time to chill out before the night came. But the weather was still very nice and warm even in the evening and so we hoped to have a good night sleep. Do you have any favorite historical old town?

[Doug_B]

Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic is fantastic. It's pretty crowded so not exactly a wilderness experience.

[walkingnatureworld]

[walkingnatureworld]

MSR ELIXIR 2 Backpacking Tent Honest Complete Review - Pros and Cons and All the Tips Watch the full video here:

This video is the full updated MSR Elixir 2 tent review. A couple of months ago we already made a first impressions and technical specs review of this tent, but today we will be sharing our honest opinion about it, its pros and cons and some tips and discoveries we made after using it the whole season of hiking. So if you’ve wanted to learn all the truth about this tent, this video may be useful for you. Disclaimer: we don't have any affiliation with the brands and all items mentioned in the video were purchased by our own money. What your experience with this tent is and what pros and cons you have found in it?

[walkingnatureworld]

Camping at the field with hot air balloons - Tour de Cerdagne Train Jaune, Bains de LLO, Centrale solaire Ello in Pyrenees, France This was our third day of GR de Pays Tour de Cerdagne in Pyrenees-Orientales, France. We hiked 17 kms from the town Bourg-Madame, passing through villages Err, Vedrinyans, Llo and getting to Eyne. Watch the full video here:

The night was pretty warm for the start of September there was no wind so we had a good sleep. We woke up that day quite early disturbed by the weird sounds that seemed to us like a gas burning so we thought it to be the work on the railway that was passing right above our camp spot. To our surprise when we looked out of the tent we could see no signs of it but the sounds were very close to us. Suddenly we looked up and saw the hot air balloon flying right above our heads and then we knew the source of the sound and the cause of our disturbed sleep. The air balloon was huge and was flying quite low to the ground probably searching for the place to land. It was the sight out of a dream to camp at such spot and wake up with it. We knew that on the Spanish side of Cerdanya there is a place “Camins de vent” that offers flights on hot air balloons all year round. But we couldn´t think it would be possible to see so close on the French side where we were. So after contemplating this exciting picture for several minutes we started to roll up our stuff. The flysheet of the tent was quite wet on the inner side of it because there was a lot of humidity around. But the tent body was still dry. We hoped it to dry up on the sun while we were wrapping up. So we had our breakfast leftover from the yesterday night, did a bit of stretching and warming up and continued to wrap up everything. That day we planned to make another 17kms following the other side of Cerdagne valley, hike through another 4 villages and get to the village Eyne. The start of the day promised to be very pleasant, warm and sunny and we enjoyed walking the shaded path between the fields breathing the fresh air and listening to the birds singing. Soon we came out on the car road and entered the village Osseja. We weren´t going to enter it and just passed it on side coming to the railway station of the Yellow Train. It is a popular tourist attraction of the region that was built in the beginning of the 20th century. It has some preserved old original wagons including the open ones which we think is a specialty of it. And the railway passes through all the Cerdagne valley with an elevation change of 1200m-500m, crossing several major bridges and offering amazing views. And we actually were so inspired by this railway that made a separate documentary movie “Wonderful Journey on the Yellow Train”. Then we took another shaded forest path that was marked by white and red sign of GR36 instead of yellow and red we followed before. The official mark of Tour de Cerdagne disappeared from now and we had to follow a different one. But the GR sign was quite accurate and we knew the direction where we are going so it was easy to follow. After enjoying the peaceful idyllic forest path between the fields we came out to small Nahuja village and the dirt car road. From there we had quite a bit of uphill to conquer that was quite challenging in the hot sun. That day it felt like the hottest day out of 3 we were on this trail. This part of the trail was definitely better to do in the early morning. From the trail we could see the panoramic views over the other side of the sunny valley. A bit lower down we saw the roof of the historical and ethnic Museum of Cerdagne where you can learn many details of the daily life of local people. It is possible to pass it taking a different route. After having a bit of a break to have a snack in the shade, we continued following the sunny dirt road all the way to Err village. We passed by several cow pastures and entered the village. It was a relatively big one compared to the others we went through this day. It had a lot of old rocky houses and a big old 12th Century church in it. The trail continued to go slightly uphill and then gentle downhill to the tiny settlement Vedrinyans. This is where was pasturing old good friend of ours – the Big Donkey. We have been friends with him for over a year now and spent quite a bit of time with him, feeding him with apples every now and then and just enjoying the company. We even made a hike with him a year before and it was an unforgettable experience, when he managed to escape from us. So it was epic and intense at the same time. But that is one of the reasons we love him so much because of his strong and rebel character. So we did spent there on the field an hour or so, had our lunch there and got back on the trail again. We had another 7 kms to do that day. At one moment we noticed that the air got cooler and the strong wind started blowing driving lots of clouds on the sky. But we were glad because it meant we could do this last stretch with no direct sunlight on us. In only 2kms or so we entered another small village Llo on our way. The first thing we saw were the Bains de LLO – hot springs sulfurous baths where the water is at 35 ° C all year round. It is one of the famous attractions of the region that has several open and closed swimming pools, saunas and spa treatments as well. After that we walked by the old Roman church and started to climb uphill following the scenic streets of Llo village. On the top of one hill we have spotted a half ruined tower that in the old times might have been a castle. And we were on the final stretch for that day following the secondary car road all the way to Eyne. Fortunately there wasn´t much traffic. The weather was changeable and windy and we could feel several drops of rain coming down but hoped that it won´t rain and we´ll have time to get to our destination. Somewhere in the middle way to Eyne we passed by the Llo central solaire station that is a new operational thermodynamic solar station. And as many other solar infrastructure in the area it benefits from many sun hours and dry climate of the region. From there we had to take up the pace because saw a huge dark cloud in front of us and could hear the thunder somewhere further away. So we hiked the last several kilometers quite fast and managed to get to our camp spot just in time for the rain to start. We haven´t entered Eyne village and stopped at the field nearby. It was the first time we got in the rain with our new tent - MSR Elixir 2 and so we had a chance to test it. We could see that the water behaves differently on the flysheet surface and it seemed thicker to us than on our previous tent. We got to the place quite early at 5pm and still had several hours of daylight left. The trail was quite easy overall and we didn’t feel too tired. We had to wait for an hour for the pouring rain to stop before we could collect some water from the river and start cooking our dinner. We had to filter up a lot of water because of the rain river waters got dirty with lots of soil particles in it and so even for cooking we had to filter it. And that day was actually the first time when we tried out our new BRS gas stove that we bought recently to replace our old Decathlon Camping stove. It was very heavy and not very efficient and so we decided to try out this new one. Just after several uses, we were already quite happy about its performance. So we cooked our mix of rice with spices, dehydrated mushrooms and tomatoes and had a very tasty dinner. We hoped that the rain would cease till darkness and we’d be able to go to sleep earlier and have a nice undisturbed sleep. Have you ever flown on hot air balloon? How was it?

[timberghost]

Way cool

[walkingnatureworld]

Lixada Wood Stove Comparison Large Vs Small - Performance and Characteristics Test Watch the full video here:

In the video of today we are going to make a comparison of two different Lixada wood stoves we have – one of a small size and one of a bigger size. They may seem very similar but we actually found that they have quite a lot of striking differences between them and we think this video may help some of you to make a right choice. We are going to compare all of their characteristics and have a closer look at their performance. What is your experience with the alcohol fuel stoves?

[rolsen]

My longest is only 4 nights, 5 days so just shy of a week but the only difference is more food. I still pack a ‘clean’ separate shirt and underwear to sleep in, wear shorts, pack wind pants and shirt, fleece and puffy. More water treatment tabs. Really no different than 2 night trips.

[the1mitch]

My packing list doesn't include nearly the electronic load yours does. Cell phone and spare battery does it for me. No dedicated camera, tripod, solar cell, etc. I like your intermixing of gear from pack to pack to get the best load weight. I don't carry a razor, but my wife doesn't come along.... Also the titanium stove seems like an extra piece to me. For two people, I pack a one liter pot and a kettle of the same size. I eat from a bowl and bring an insulated cup since I really like my coffee hot. On the other hand, I carry more in the way of first aid and emergency stuff. I pack a designated spare meal which is dehydrated potatoes gravy mix, and bacon bits. My rain gear is more robust due to living in Washington and I include a sleeping scullcap as well as a suncap. I save some weight by using an Equinox 8x10 tarp with a bug net sewn in that uses my trekking poles. I have enjoyed viewing your videos! Keep up the good work!

[walkingnatureworld]

[walkingnatureworld]

Tour de Cerdagne- Beautiful 4 Day Trail to do in Pyrenees - Odeillo Solar Furnace, Bolquere, Font-Romeu On this 4th and final day of Tour de Cerdagne we completed the hiking tour and did 15kms starting from Eyne village, then walking through Bolquere, Via, Solar Furnace Odeillo and coming to the town Font-Romeu. Watch the full video here:

We had a quite disturbing night with a lot of rain and thunderstorm in the evening and then cold in the morning. We thought in the early morning the temperature was descending down to several degrees Celsius and we had to wear all of our warm clothes on us. But because our sleeping bags comfort temperature was +11 degrees we still got pretty cold. So we didn’t have a good sleep. But in the morning there was a sun shining above the mountain peaks and it was a good sign. So we had our breakfast and tried to heat ourselves up sitting inside the tent and eating a hot meal. The tent was drenched with water and even on the tent body there were drops of water. So we had to warp the tent up in the wet condition because there wasn’t any time to dry it up on the sun. We did pack the flysheet, tend body and groundsheet all in the separate bags as we normally do. When we were all packed and got out on the trail we entered the Eyne village that was another old rocky settlement and then started to follow the car road leaving the village. It was a secondary car road where there wasn’t much traffic and fortunately it didn’t last for too long before we came to the field. Throughout all of this hike we were meeting lots of bee hives in the fields and knew that honey is one of the most delicious local products together with cheese and dairy products. There are many different varieties like high mountain honey, flower honey, forest, oak etc. It is definitely one of the delicacies to bring from the region. The trail started to go along the fields and through the pine forest and it was very calm and peaceful. It wasn’t challenging at all and was going mostly gentle uphill. There we got some beautiful panoramic views on the peak Carlit range in the clouds and on the other side of the valley. The air was still fresh and cool and it took us time to warm up. We were pretty sure that there was some snow on the tops of the mountains after yesterday’s rain and cold temperatures. It ended up being the coldest day out of 4 we’ve been on this trail and the maximum temperature was only 12 degrees Celsius that day. It was funny how we called the day before the hottest day of all and the next day got such contrasting weather. But this type of weather changes is all in the mountain’s moody character and we have to deal with it. There on the trail between the fields we even met the Camino sign which was pretty unexpected and we wondered where it will be heading next and what Camino it actually is. We as always followed our GPS maps on the phone to be sure in the direction of the path but the GR marking accompanied us all the way through. At one moment we crossed the major car road and getting through La Cabanasse we were getting closer to the Bolquere village. We were at the middle point of our hike at that point and had 8 more kms to go. The path was following the gentle uphill along the hill and between the fields giving us some great views on the opposite side of the valley as we turned back to the side where we started. Soon we entered Bolquere village which was one of the many other ancient villages nowadays forming part of the ski resort network of the region. So was the Eyne village we just passed and Font-Romeu where we were heading today. There are more than 10 ski stations spreaded around the Cerdanya valley. It is quite popular among all the winter sports lovers as well as sportsmen and it is especially nice for beginners because there are many nice gentle slopes. On the way we met several horse, cow pastures on the fields, and the trail continued to go up. We were lucky to meet the Train Jaune or Little Yellow Train passing by several times which was one of the famous attractions of the region. On one of the fields we decided to take a lunch break. It still wasn’t very warm and quite windy too so even sitting in the sun we couldn’t enjoy it that much. Soon following this peaceful countryside route we came to the Via village which was the lowest part of Font-Romeu Odeillo Via. And from there the trail started to follow the old stone route in pretty good condition probably left from Romans and it was always very nice to walk such ancient parts of the trail. There we saw from the side another interesting site of the region – Solar Furnace Odeillo. It was one of the many other solar infrastructures of the region which we passed almost every day and was built because this area benefits from many sunny days in the year. This Solar Furnace was built in early 1980s and we believe that at that time and even till now it remains to be one of the most powerful solar furnaces in Europe and maybe even the world. It is able to melt even the most solid of metals and materials like concrete for example at several thousand degrees Celsius. Nowadays it serves as an experimental base and a research center that you can actually visit for a small fee. There you can have a guided tour, watch a movie about this Solar furnace and also see different rocks and metals that it can melt as well as making some small experiments with the guide. In such way we arrived in Font-Romeu town that was more modern looking than the villages below and thus was probably founded later in time. It was the final destination of our hike Tour de Cerdagne and there we completed this whole 4 day tour. What was the most impressive solar infrastructure you have ever visited?

[daisie678]

Hello dude! That was a great review, please made a complete guide video of hiking shoes.