Day 50 of a thru-hike of the Hexatrek — a long-distance walking route stitched together across central southern France — reads like a masterclass in heatwave logistics. The hiker behind the Hexishtrek journal is racing to position himself for a bus connection with roughly 65km still to go, so he's splitting the distance into three 20km-plus days, all walked before lunch while France roasts through a forecast high of 37°C.
The routine starts in the dark. Breakfast this particular morning was a cold-soaked jar of couscous, peanut butter and well over 1,000 calories' worth of foraged plums and blackberries, eaten at a brand-new church in open countryside. From there the route follows easy wide singletrack and old 4WD tracks, punctuated by stone wayside crosses and village water taps — villages that are, in the midday heat, completely deserted, since everyone sensible is in a river.
The route briefly joins the GR62a, a trail so obscure the writer reckons only the Hexatrek has put footsteps on it in recent memory. The day's unexpected highlight is a natural rock formation site — jagged shapes stretching on like a budget Cappadocia, except the French formations have an uncanny resemblance to gigantic rabbits, which the hiker finds equal parts delightful and unnerving.
After a steep, knee-grinding descent into a gorge, the remedy for the heat is what every French village seems built for: a river beach. He finds the entire town in the water, joins them, and eats lunch half-submerged. The afternoon brings the day's real challenge — hours of fenced farmland with warning signs about sheepdogs, no legal-looking camping anywhere. Leaving at 4pm instead of 6 proves the difference between a comfortable campsite by the trail at 8pm and a nervy fence-hop at dusk. Thunderstorms roll in as he beds down on razor grass.
Why does this matter to ordinary travellers? Because the Hexatrek is one of France's newer long-distance routes, and this diary shows what walking it actually looks like: quiet, little-known tracks, water-tap villages, wild-swim rivers and farm country where timing your day around the heat is non-negotiable. If you're drawn to routes without crowds — where a minor trail like the GR62a is your day's only company — southern France's backroads deliver exactly that. Just go in shoulder season rather than July, unless you enjoy hiking at dawn and spending noon in a river like the locals.
