The ride across Europe for refugees

I bought Sasha, my Arabian horse, on 12th March 2022 and we left Siena, Italy, twelve days later. I knew where I was going (Spain) and took courage in the fact that I had a four-legged companion to help me uncover our night-by-night stops.

The first week of the ride took us up Tuscany. The weather was warm and, following the ancient Via Francigena, the routes were simple.

Everything changed once we reached the Ligurian mountains. Unknown to me, these mountains had never been crossed in their entirety on horseback and, more to the point, there was no existing route. After a bit of research, I contacted two Italian long-distance riders who were keen to help me create the first ‘Ippo via’ across the range.

We were a team of strangers, united by the challenge, the power of the horse and the will to make something special happen. We pored over maps and used a combination of local and first-hand knowledge to try and create a safe crossing with Outdooractive.

After four days we said goodbye and I rode off alone from the safehold of the town of Ceparana and up into the shadows of the mountains. It was on that day that the first snows of the year began to fall. There is a reason Napoleon crossed the Alps in May and Hannibal in June. This was 2nd April.

It took me 20 long days to reach France and, with the courage of my horse and the reliability of my routes, we didn’t get lost once.

As our route descended the conditions became warmer and the track more visible, finally we could begin to ride! Riding over the Maritime Alps the air felt fresh and our horizons broadened. Rich grass, sweet pine forests and verdant plains.

We weren’t out of the woods yet, though. Both me and Sasha very nearly fell 1500 metres from the top of Le Grand Margès, near Lac de Sainte-Croix. We were lucky to escape with superficial wounds. We carefully continued on down across Provence-Alpes-Cote dAzur and into the Occitanie region.

After the canals into Arles, we rode up the steps of Emperor Augustus’ Amphithéâtre d'Arles, over the haunted bridge of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, along the Camargue grasslands, the silver-green groves, the mystical waters through Lourdes and, after a month in France, we could see the Pyrenees.

Basque Country is said to be the horseman’s paradise and it became very clear to see why. In folklore they worship a goddess, the lady of Mura, who represents the flowing water, the pulsing trees, the rain, the touching sun and the very breath of the earth that we ride upon. The land here is alive, the grass like blades of emeralds and the people are children of the land. We kept the Pyrenees to our south before crossing into Spain by ascending the famous La Rhune mountain and, after a tall beer at lunchtime, we found ourselves riding down into the hills of Navarre and a new country.

Europe is full of pilgrimage and hiking routes and this makes it the most accessible place in the world I have ever ridden and walked. After the ‘Arles way,’ that leads you all the way to Spain, I then joined the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (‘Camino del Norte’) that takes you from the Bay of Biscay along the coast of the Cantabrian sea.

It was hard to believe how far we had come as we rode through the thriving valleys of Asturias and over the cider drenched hills of Galicia, less than three months before I had been standing in a plastic bowl of hot water trying to avoid frostbite while Sasha huddled up to a donkey to avoid the piercing cold of a snowstorm.

We rode south from Oviedo along the ‘Camino Primitivo’ down to Santiago de Compostela and, after riding to the magical Cathedral, we carried on our pilgrimage to the ‘end of the world,’ Cape Finisterre. 2789km in 110 days: we had made it.

Nothing would have been possible without the adaptability of Sasha and the kindness of strangers. Never be afraid to ask for help. Strangers are friends waiting to happen. When I want to remember, or connect a memory that I have almost forgotten, I look at my Outdooractive maps.

About Louis:

Louis Hall is a writer, actor, and long rider from Scotland. He recently finished a 2789km ride from Siena, Italy to Cape Finisterre, Spain on his Arabian horse Sasha, in order to raise money for his charity that promotes adventure and mental well being through long distance rides: The Big Hoof.