Boy was I out of shape when I started this one. But first some facts.

The GR5 runs north-south through central Europe from Nice in France to Rotterdam in The Netherlands.

The very southern part runs through the French Alps. Especially the Maritime Alps are a sight to behold. That’s where I started, all the way down in Nice and hiking up north for 9 days and 300km to Modane near the Italian border. Hiking north means going up the steep southern slopes which are heated up by the sun, and the little creeks will be dried out. So water can be scarce.