Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: Walks

Finishing the GR10

It’s time for another walkie 🙂 This time it’s a 113mile stroll, completing the 538 mile GR10 trek from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean coast along the French/Spanish border.

Geoff Starting GR10 in HendayeI started the walk from Hendaye on the 4th September 2007 giving up at the halfway stage, in totally foul weather, at Bagneres de Luchon on 25th September 2007.

Last year I returned and set out from Bagneres on the 9th July hoping to reach Arles sur Tech, so that I could spend some time with Dave & Susie who had rented a gite there.

Yellow trainHowever, I ran out of time, so decided to stop at Merens Les Vals (Actually at Ax les Thermes) and save a few days by taking the train  to the Spanish border at Latour-de-Carol where I caught  the lovely open topped Yellow Train to Villefranche followed by a bus to Vernet . After spending the night. I then walked back up to the GR10 near Canigou and then down to Arles (a tough day’s hike!).

This year I’m taking Sally (previously I walked it on my own) to Ax les Thermes to sample the sulphurous waters and hot baths before starting the GR10 again at Merens. This time, walking all the way, so we should finish the GR10, arriving at the Mediterranean in Banyuls. 🙂 I’m not taking the tent this year so hopefully the gites/refuges/hotels are not to busy!

Not sure how much blogging etc will get done especially after reading this excellent article by Earl “Why Have Travelers Stopped Talking To Each Other?“also some of the refuges are quite remote with no regular phone line. But I’m taking the Air just in case…..

40 days of wear on Scarpa Hiking Boots

Final update! I returned the boots to Open Air who sent them onto Scarpa’s UK agent (Mountain Boot Company). on June 8th they refunded me the full purchase price with an admonishment from Open Air that they won’t supply me another pair of this boot model!

This an update to the disappointing saga of my  latest pair of Scarpa Terra GTX boots, purchased from Open Air in Cambridge, UK on the 7th April 2012 for over £120.

Scarpa Terra GTX Boots at 1.5 million steps 680 milesFrom my first post you can see the heels started to wear very badly after only 127 miles and started to leak water at 307 miles.  I’ve now completed the 676 miles of The South West Coast Path. This is a pic of the boots today after about 1.5 million steps or 680 miles (1000Km) or so. As you can see both heels are totally  worn down (making them lethal in wet conditions), the toes are also close to their limits. Most of the walking was over pretty soft terrain (you can see the rubber isn’t shredded at all).

Whilst away, I entered into some email correspondence with Scarpa which turned out very disappointing. Nathan Fullwood, Ast. General Manager of the UK distributors, The Mountain Boot Company, promised to call but none came 🙁  In an email to Open Air their response was:

“The wear rate of an outsole is linked to a number of factors including rubber shore. However Factors such as the midsole ( be it pu, Eva etc ) and the internal midsole ( texon, nylon internal board) will have a bearing even before one considers terrain, walking style and consumer abrasion.
The terra construction is overall designed to be light and cushioned, with an upper and sole that perform/ wear in tandem As the boot is close to impossible to resole effectivly. One could increase the durability of the sole by adding more rubber, but this would increase weight.
In our experience of the terra having sold over 50,000 pairs in the uk over the last 4 years, we are comfortable with its components and performance for its intended use. If we have seen a return on the product, it has almost always been linked to a more experienced and serious user expecting more from the product than it was really designed to do.
As such as per our initial feedback we would propose to trade your customer up into a product such as the ranger gtx or perhaps even a delta gtx. ” (my emphasis)

So they expect £120 to only buy you a pair of boots not designed for serious walking? Their website clearly says something different:

THE SCARPA® TERRA GTX WALKING BOOTS ARE IDEAL FOR HILL WALKERS LOOKING FOR COMPLETE WATERPROOF PROTECTION AND COMFORT

So it’s back to Open Air who say they will return them to Scarpa for me, maybe I should get the family Italian connection’s to give someone at Scarpa head office a call 🙂

It’s amazing to me that no one seems to make boots with easily replaceable heels, I would have thought they could be made to bolt on, rather like the bindings on my snow board. then I could carry spare heels on my trips 🙂

 


 

Postcard index for my South West Coast Path Walk

Last night the Jones design team did a great graphic design of my walk complete with interesting facts. The design is currently been made into a physical postcard by VistaPrint.

I intend sending a copy to every b&b I stayed at, as a lot of the owners expressed an interest in knowing whether I finished I not 🙂 and virtually none of them are web natives. (If you would like a FREE copy of the postcard please email me or fill in the form below).

Using ThingLink I made the postcard into a clickable index of the stages:-

Contact form removed due to spammers

My map of The South West Coast Path from my tracks.

South west coast path

Here is a map that Adze generated from all the data (about 70Mb) that my GPS collected each day as I walked the South West Coast Path, Adze displays each day walked as a different colour.

Adze gives the following data: Total distance 1102.98km, duration 307 hours, distance climbed 47.6 km, max gradient 48 degrees, maximum elevation 486.56 metres.

I would love to make the map zoomable, if any map techies are out there know how to do it or are willing to write a plugin, can you please get in touch with me 🙂 As it is, clicking the map should download a  kml file that hopefully will display in Google Earth.My route on the South West Coast Path