Costs

The total costs for the trip come out at £854, £257 was spent getting to the start of the walk - some of which could have been avoided, £327 was spent getting home. This leaves £270 spent during the walk, of which £110 was spent on the rest day (2nts hotel plus meals).

I decided that rather than tie myself down to dates I would book the outward journey and get myself back to the UK from wherever and whenever I decided to finish, pre-trip expenditure was therefore minimal. Also - having done the trip to Gavarnie in reverse last year I was happy not to book anything other than flights.

A lot of the cost for the journey outward could be avoided by buying food rather than meals, however I've included everything I spent - I also chose to spend the first night in Gavarnie in a hotel rather than the campsite, the reasons for this were wanting to revisit the excellent hotel used last year, and it would give me a good early start whatever the weather on the first day.

I had brought food for Section 3 (9 days) with me from the UK, but not 100% of what was needed, I used the refuges and other places on route to supplement what I carried.

I followed the guides recommendation to take the night train to Paris, paid for a berth - a great way to travel and not much more than a Hotel for the night. As I was travelling on a Sunday though there wasn't the opportunity to buy food or a meal until the following morning, in fact when I bought my Eurostar ticket a First Class ticket (which included a meal) was actually cheaper than a standard ticket.