A TENTATIVE ITINERARY (introduction to a long walk across Europe)

Hendaye - Corfu: that's the plan!

Two years or more that the idea is in the air. The projects took shape on the background of several years spent living in Africa, Nigeria in particular, which has been a very rich experience through encounters of extra-ordinary people. Nigeria is not an ordinary country, it is not touristic, it is rough, it is secretive. Despite people's general empathy, life is hard, simple things turn out to be complicated often to accommodate personal interests. But overall, it is a fascinating country to discover once you have access to the key-owners who will unlock the place for you. This is what I have documented in the blog nigeriathelandofplenty and it is nowhere near as bleak as what one reads in the news.
In contrast, we thought that it could be a wonderful experience to take a long break and walk across an infrastructure-rich area, where walking is easy. It would also mean to come-back to our roots, most of them buried in the memory of our school years. We have therefore decided, my wife and I, to start a long walk across Europe starting with France, at the Spanish border in a town called Hendaye.
Europe has a very ancient tradition of religious pilgrimage. Compostella has been, for centuries, the destination of Christian pilgrims walking humbly with a minimum of luggage from all corners of Europe with a stick and, in the past, most of them have returned the same way. Before that, crusades were another form or religious pilgrimage.
Everyone has its own reason(s) to start a pilgrimage of a religious nature. In our case, religion was not the driver. However the appeal of this famous route was great for a start.
We would therefore walk from Hendayes to Le Puy en Velay to start this adventure along the GR 10 (joining the Via Podiensis in Saint Jean Pied de Port on the GR 65) and, as one puts it, get our feet wet (hopefully not too wet!).
From Le Puy en Velay, we would continue our way by following another famous route, le chemin de Stevenson (GR 70), that would lead us to Saint Jean du Gard and then pursue towards Avignon on the chemin Urbain V (GR 670) to cross the Rhône river. We would then go north towards Orange and Pont Saint-Esprit before looking east and crossing the Lubéron (GR 4), the Verdon gorges the French Alps with the Mercantour and then cross-over to Italy with the ambition to reach Torino sometimes in August using the GTA (Grande Traversata delle Alpi) Piemont between the Col de Tende and Susa going though Limonetto. From there we would do an exception to our walking vow and hop on the train to Venice and then on another train to Lake Ossiach near Klagenfurt in the south of Austria to join the Alpe Adria Trail leading to Mugia in Italy and passing through Trieste and Slovenia. We would certainly not miss having some Prosecco in the name sake village. From there we would start descending south-east along the Via Dinarica to Koper in Croatia and then along the coast of the Adriatic sea towards Dubrovnic. The later part of the journey in the fall would lead us through the Balkans with the idea that we should reach Corfu early December, if all goes according to plan.
This is as far as we have imagined our long walk across Europe.
Those interested in joining us are welcome, provided they find us where we are, so watch out this blog for updates!

In a nutshell, here are tentative timelines for the walk:
- April/May: Hendaye- Le Puy en Velay
- June: Le Puy - Avignon 

- July: Lubéron - Verdon - Mercantour
- August: Trans Alpine in Piemont (Col de Tende - Torino)
- September: Alpe Adria Trail  (Ossiach - Triest - Mugia) and Croatia

- October: Croatia
- November/December: Balkans to Corfu