Month: July 2024 (Page 1 of 3)

Today’s stage was introduced to shorten tomorrow’s stage as it was very long.  Effectively we would be going up to Base Camp.  We set the alarm for 8am, and had a leisurely breakfast.  One of the best so far.  Lots of homemade and local products.  We then packed and walked into town.  Bagneres has a beautiful main street with all the buildings having iron balconies, probably all dating from the late 1800s when the town had a spa and casino and was encouraging people to visit the mountains.  We found the launderette and did some washing as we are not sure where or when we will find another.  Washing finished, we finally started walking at 11:30.  It was hot, but not too bad, as we followed the river out of town.  Lots of families were enjoying the shade and the cold water as we walked.  The climb up to the village of Artigue gave us the choice of following the GR10, cutting the road hairpins, or following the road.  To add to our strategy dilemma, there was the fact that the GR10 was in the trees and shaded, whereas the road was in the sun with some shade from trees.  Over the first section we therefore alternated between the two until we got to the village of Sode.  Here we chose the road as it gradually worked up to Artigue while the final section of the GR10 showed it going straight up the hillside in a series of small zigzags.  A cool wind blew occasionally and there was shade from trees approximately every 100m.  We walked up with only a few stops and had our first encounter with a patou.  The patou are large dogs that live with the sheep and guard against wolves.  This one came out of a shed about 100m from the road barking continually.  He came all the way to the road as we crossed to the other side and seemed content with that.  We reached the village which has a large carpark for visitors, of whom there were quite a few wandering about.  We are booked into the restaurant in the village, everyone else drives up from Bagneres.  We are now halfway through our trip so will be celebrating!  A great meal with an incredible view looking south to the mountains in Spain.  A few glaciers can still be seen, but they are all very small.

Today was going to be another long day and we had an early breakfast (see yesterday for description) to climb as much as we could before the sun hit us.  The path took us along and up the hillside until we were above the waterfall at the far end of the lake.  It then took us all the way back along the hillside, gradually climbing, then zig-zagging to the top.  Apparently not a “col”, but just a “viewpoint” as we crossed the high point and descended into the next valley.  The path worked its way round the valley before starting to climb again.  As we climbed, I saw a mobile phone lying on the path.  I took it as we guessed it must belong to a Swiss woman who was walking about 30 minutes ahead of us.  We were nearing the top of the climb when she appeared, coming back down the trail without her rucksack.  We were able to reunite her with her phone and she turned round to go back up to the col.  Five minutes later I again picked up her phone!  A bit of shouting and she returned, realising that her trouser pocket had a large hole in it.  The descent from the col had a short, steep section, and then decreased in dip, with a few steep sections.  At the valley floor, we started up again on a gradual climb, finally reaching the ski station of Luchon-Superbagneres.  This had been developed as the second French ski destination after Chamonix, and had a huge hotel reminiscent of those that you see in the Canadian Rockies.  The descent from here to Bagneres-de-Luchon is over 700m and we had already decided to take the cable car down.  This was a very new bubble (built a couple of years ago), was a surprisingly long trip, and we didn’t need to pay as we were only descending.  Bagneres is quite a big town, with crowds of tourists.  Our hotel was on the outskirts and we ate in a family-run restaurant that had only opened a couple of days previously.  Great food! 

Germ was a small village and we had a lovely room (up two flights of stairs again!) in the auberge and an excellent evening meal and breakfast.  (The gin and tonic with lemon and peppercorns was excellent, very refreshing).  The day’s walk started with a very steep track, before levelling off as it wound round the mountainside.  The gradient started to increase as we went up the valley, finally reaching a small area of pasture where three tents were surrounded by cows.  Then it was on to one of the usual zig-zagging tracks as we climbed up towards the col, with several rests on the way as we were now in full sunshine.  The descent down the valley was pleasant, until we reached another steep descent through the trees.  This time the path was wide, and had plenty of decaying leaves under foot so was not too bad.  I’ve included a photo of my legs to show the amount of dust that gets kicked up.  The temperature climbed as we descended, finally reaching the car park at the start of the walk up to Lac d’Oo.  We went to the café and had a litre of water between us, a fizzy drink, and an icecream each, and a rest, before starting on the climb up.  This was on a broad track, and there were dozens of people returning from their day trip up to the lake.  About three quarters of the way up there was a police car (mountain unit) parked, but we never saw any sign of anyone.  The track deteriorated after this point, but we made it to the hut after about 1.25 hours of walking.  The refuge was in a stunning location on the edge of the lake, looking across to the massive waterfall (275m drop).  The good news was that we had a room to ourselves.  The evening meal was very tasty, but breakfast comprised stale bread, butter, marmalade, and instant coffee.  The bathroom facilities comprised one toilet (no seat), one wash basin, and one shower for twenty people, and were also used by the guardian, his wife, and little daughter, and an assistant.  At least there were only ten of us staying.  Definitely the worst refuge of the trip so far.

The hotel room was lovely and breakfast was great, but our room had poor mobile phone signal and the hotel wifi was incredibly slow so that delayed posting to the blog for another day… 

We had a good breakfast and walked about 2km from the hotel to join the GR10.  It was extremely humid in the valley and we were soon soaked as we climbed out of the valley.  The path was good and not too steep, partly farm tracks and part footpaths.  We stopped and ate some chocolate cookies before continuing to the col where we watched parapenteurs taking off.  The path down was through bracken and although steep was not too bad underfoot.  At one point we missed a turning and carried on along a path.  We realised our mistake, turned back, and were trying to work out where the GR10 path was when another walker arrived, having gone down the wrong path a lot further than us.  We realised that we could see the path across a large muddy area, and after searching around found a dry route to it through the nettles.  The path then steepened considerably as we made our way down to the village of Loudenvielle.   This looked like another upmarket ski village and even the villages higher up all seemed to have been restored as holiday homes.  We stopped there and bought cakes and drinks at the supermarket.  After a decent rest we started the final hour of walking.  Having descended 600m, we now had to ascend 400m to the village of Germ.  This was up a very steep slope and as  we left the village the temperature and humidity were a lot worse than on our earlier climb.  We stopped for a rest on every fourth hairpin and by the time we reached the top I had consumed almost a litre of Orangina.  We checked in, had showers, and then had another cold drink and ice-cream.

We left the refuge and started along the east side of the lake to rejoin the GR10.  Looking at the map, we realised we could walk up one of the ski roads and cut a large corner, so that’s what we did.  We had a fairly short climb and then a walk along a path that took us through the ski area before rising up to join the GR10 at the col.  This probably saved us about an hour of walking.  Rather than taking the GR10 along the hillside, we walked down the road, allowing us to walk without having to watch where we put our feet.  A couple of kms further on we joined up with the GR10.  This took us along the hillside before starting to descend across moorland.  We could see the gondola operating from the village far below us to the ski centre on the other side of the valley.  We finally reached the treeline, and then one of those apparently never-ending descents started as we zig-zagged down through the trees.  At any road crossing we now compare the length of road that could be walked (usually along to a hairpin bend and back) versus the GR10 route through the trees on a steeply descending track.  We can easily walk at double the speed on the road versus the track, so the maths is simple.  At the second road crossing we turned onto it and followed it (no hairpins) down to our hotel.  The hotel is on the outskirts of Saint-Lary-Soulan, and we walked into the village to visit the launderette.  The village was mobbed and looks very up-market.  We ate a strawberry tart each while doing the washing and then visited a tapas bar for our evening meal.

The GR10 led us out of Bareges and onto a farm track on the west side of the river.  It was fairly cloudy so nice and cool for walking.  We reached the carpark at the foot of the Col de Tourmalet and turned right up the valley, leaving all the vehicles and bicycles behind.  The path was fairly good as we made our way up the valley, though every so often there was a moraine that we had to climb up and through, with meadows in between each.  We reached a newly built refuge and that was when the real climb began.  We had to make our way up and over several areas of very large boulders.  This meant stepping from top to top, while trying to spot the next cairn or paint mark, while at the same time not falling and breaking a leg.  We passed a few lakes on the way up, finally reaching the col at a height of 2509m (8231ft).  The track then descended through more boulders, before working its way round a lake, again across a massive boulder field.  There was another descent, and we were finally on fairly flat ground.  The path took us alongside a reservoir, before another climb started.  It had already been a long day (we were averaging just over 2kph because of the terrain) but at least the end was starting to be in sight.  We reached the col and a steep descent started.  The path had lots of steps in it, and dropped over 200m.  At the bottom of the descent was a reservoir and we had a nice, flat walk along it to the night’s refuge.  We had walked over 22km, climbed 1405m, descended 850m and taken just over 8 hours (over 9 hours including rests).  A very long, tough day, though not apparently for all the runners who passed us during the day.  We don’t know whether it was a race or whether they were out training.  We had our own room in the refuge and enjoyed (?) a cold shower to recover from the walk.

We had breakfast at 8am, packed leisurely, and wandered out of the hotel as today was going to be a short day.  Tomorrow is going to be a very long day, so today’s walk was to get us as high up the valley to accommodation as possible.  (Unfortunately, that was less than 10km.)  It proved to be very hot and humid as we walked through Luz-Saint-Sauveur and then shortly went onto a track leading up to a small village.  We stopped there for a coffee as the sweat was streaming off us.  The route then crossed the road and the day’s main climb started, working upwards on small paths or farm tracks.  After about 2 hours of walking we reached the top and a cafe overlooking the valley.  We had a lunch of crepe and ice-cream washed down with a fizzy drink.  The path then led almost horizontally to Bareges and we arrived there 40 minutes later, stopping occasionally to watch the cyclists whizzing down the road.  The road leads up to the Col de Tourmalet, one of the most famous Tour de France climbs, and there are dozens of cars, bicycles, and motorbikes going in both directions.  We only have a couple of Kms up the road before we head into the mountains tomorrow, but we’ll definitely be using the GR10 rather than walking along the road.

We had a great dinner last night (preceded by a lovely cocktail each) and the best breakfast so far on our walk.  Everything fresh, lots of choice, and many things homemade.  

The GR10 heads south from Cauterets for a day, then east for a day, then back north for a day, finishing at Luz-Saint-Sauveur.  The two overnight stops on this section are in unmanned bothies, so you need to carry food and camping equipment.  As we are doing neither, our route therefore followed the old GR10 route, which is now classed as a “variant” but would take us directly to Luz-Saint-Sauveur.  

The day started with a climb, and would continue like that until the col at 1955m.  (We started at 920m).  The uphill was generally at a very gradual gradient, at which we seem to walk well, and we made good progress through the trees, onto the open hillside, and finally to the col, actually getting to the top faster than the quoted time in the guide book, and over an hour faster than on the sign posts (though we always seem to beat them).  We had a rest at the top and had a chocolate tourte (cake) each to celebrate.  The drop down into the valley first took us down the ski slopes, then down old farm tracks that cut the hairpin bends on the new road.  Again, the gradients were shallow which meant we kept up a good speed (though it means the zigzags are a lot longer).  We walked the final section down the road as the GR10 was heading back uphill, to keep you off what was a very quiet road.  Our accommodation is in a hotel in another(!) old spa village, with several hotels and a few houses.  Napoleon III and Eugenie stayed here for two months to take the waters in the 1850s.  After checking in we walked up the road to the Napoleon Bridge (designed by one of the Napoleons); it’s a bungee jumping site, but nobody jumped while we were there.  If I was trusting my life to someone, I’d like them to look professional, unlike the bunch of hippies that were running it! 

There was not much noise overnight so we had a good sleep.  Breakfast was basic: cereal with powdered milk, toast that comes in a packet, jam, and coffee.

Today was a downhill day to Cauterets.  We followed the GR10 most of the way, which cut across the graded track that led up to the refuge.  On the final crossing I made the mistake of choosing the GR10 path rather than the graded track, and we then saw people passing us as they walked at about double the speed we could achieve as we worked our way down through boulders.    We reached the tarred road and decided to walk the last few kilometres of descent into town on it as the path was very steep.  We found a bakery and treated ourselves to a large cake each.  It was only about midday, so we found a park opposite the hotel and ate our cakes and did the crossword.  Chris and Severine and their dog came past and we had a chat.  We checked in about 2pm and then visited the launderette just metres from the hotel.  While the washing was on we wandered around the town and stocked up on supplies.  We then visited another cake shop, then back to the hotel for a pre-dinner cocktail.  An excellent meal, washed down with a 50cl (half bottle??) of red.  I’ve include a photo of tonight’s bedroom to compare with last night……

Our accommodation last night was in a place called a “holiday camp”.  There were a few big buildings and a few tents in the field.  Our bedroom had a couple of bunk beds, but no one else.  There was a shared kitchen and an enormous common room.  We had our dinner in another building, seven of us, but probably tables for fifty.  The evening meal was very good: beetroot and feta cheese salad, followed by macaroni cheese, shepherd’s pie, and stuffed leeks, and chocolate and banana cake to finish.  There was fresh bread for breakfast with ham and coffee, so not as good as the previous evening meal.  It looks like a couple have bought the place and are gradually doing it up.  The walk took us through the village and then climbed up through the forest.  On the next section we lost all the height as we dropped down into the next valley.  There was then a long road walk up to the Lac d’Estaing.  There were lots of people who had driven up to the lake and were now walking around it on the flat path.  We didn’t get that pleasure as the GR10 headed upwards through the trees.  This was a steep section as we climbed up to the hanging valley.  Once there, and out of the trees, we could see the col that we had to reach at the far end of the valley.  This was a big, long climb, and it was warm.  We had several breaks on the way up, but finally made it to the top.  As we started the descent we were amazed at the number of people coming towards us and wondered how many would make it to the top.  We later discovered many had taken the ski bubble lift from Cauterets and therefore only had a short distance to climb.  (Another walker told us later that she had heard someone with a megaphone shouting out the number of minutes to the last bubble back down.)  We reached the hut in its fantastic setting on the lake with mountains all around.  Dinner was vegetable soup, followed by sausage stew with pasta, and brownies to finish.  The dormitory had twenty beds in it; our lower bunk was a double, screened off from the next occupant.