GR10 Day25

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.