GR20, France

The GR20 is one of Europe’s most popular treks and covers about 180 km across the French island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea. Because of its challenging terrain it is often considered one of the toughest long-distance hikes in Europe.

The GR20 is commonly divided into 16 stages, each ending at a refuge or bergerie. As wildcamping is not allowed, hikers must stay either in these accomodations or place their tent at designated camping areas around the accommodation. Although the terrain is one of the most difficult I have encountered on hikes (especially in the Northern part), the stages are not really long, ranging from 4 hours to a max of 8h30. Due to the Mediterrean heat in August, many hikers start their day before sunrise allowing for hiking in a bit cooler temperatures compared to the heat in the high sun in the afternoon.

As I was short on holidays, I decided to do double stages on most days. This of course resulted in longer hiking days and therefore also hiking during the hottest moments of the day. Furhtermore, because of the popularity of the route and the limited number of camping spots (I didn’t reserve anything beforehand to allow for more flexibility), it was often necessary to finish the double stage days not too late to secure a more or less flat camping spot. This made the hike a bit more rushed compared to other hikes with plenty of good camping spots at the end of a stage or hikes where wild camping is permitted an one chooses where and when to stop.

Although the hike is one of the most popular hikes in Europe, it isn’t the most social hike for a solo hiker. As 90% of the hikers are French with limited English proficieny (and my French is also not good enough to connect deeply with people), it was more difficult to bond with other hikers compared to e.g. The West-Highland Way or the Appalachian Trail. The latter also has the benefit that most thru-hikers start on this journey solo which makes them much more open to connecting with others compared to shorter hikes which are performed more often by groups of friends.