Author: alasdair.geo (Page 3 of 13)

Over the next couple of days we again have to walk on the GR10 variant as there is no staffed accommodation on the GR10.  The book recommended walking from the refuge to Eylie-d’en-Haut and then to Bonac.  Then the next day from Bonac to Esbintz.  The first day would take nearly nine hours and the problem was there was no accommodation available at Bonac because of a festival.  The village just to the west of Bonac had nothing either, but there was accommodation at the next village east.  Rather than doing nine hours we decided to follow the GR10 to Eylie-d’en-Haut, then walk along the road to our stop for the night, about 15kms along the road and much faster than following the “approved” route.  This was all planned, and accommodation booked, before we left England.  

In the refuge I was looking at my map and realised there was an alternative route down to the road which would save about an hour of walking so we took that path; it was a well-maintained path on a gentle descent.   On the way down, we saw two runners intently studying the opposite hillside and pointing.  We reached them and asked what they were looking at.  “A bear crossed that open bit of hillside and then went into the woods”.   We kept watching but the beat never reappeared.   We reached a village and stopped at the shop for a coffee and cake.  I now checked on the location of our accommodation for the night and realised I had booked somewhere far away from our planned destination, I think because it had the same area address.  Rapid searching on Google identified a suitable gite, which we were able to book, and there was another call to our original accommodation to apologise and say that we wouldn’t be turning up.  Our new accommodation was further on our route, but was still on a road.  Having sorted everything out we started walking again.  We kept on the quiet road rather than following the GR10 variant and had a pleasant walk as the road descended slowly downhill.  At the bottom of the valley we turned to head up the next valley and had about 5kms to walk to our beds for the night.  In total we walked 24kms, but averaged about 4kph, so a not bad day.  The gite is owned by a Dutchman who moved to the village, is a keen photographer and walker, and has a huge collection of books about the Pyrenees, including some of his own.  So everything finally worked out well, and our walk tomorrow is going to be relatively short.  (Time was also spent rechecking all our stops for the week ahead!)

We had a good dinner in the gite.  Courgette tart, empanada, tortilla, salad, gazpacho, chicken nuggets and wings, hummus, and homemade savoury biscuits, followed by tiramisu.  We slept well and had an early breakfast before today’s big climb.  The cloud was over the valley and we assumed we would eventually climb out of it, but it was not to be.  The day’s walk started up a very quiet, dead end road for about 7kms.  We slowly climbed towards the cloud and when we reached it we put the covers on our rucksacks.  It was extremely humid and as we were already wet, we continued without putting our waterproofs on.  At the end of the road the path continued along an old track which was well built.  At the end of it the really steep ascent started.  We cleared the trees and worked our way up through a cliff section, finally clearing all the trees and getting onto moorland.  The visibility was poor and we could hear a shepherd shouting to his dogs.  Finally, we reached the col, and then had another 1km before reaching the second and final col.  There was still nothing to see because of the cloud.  We worked our way down the path towards the refuge, which we knew was about 45 minutes walk.  While I was checking the map to see how far we had to go, the cloud cleared slightly, and there it was about 100m from us.  We arrived at 2:30pm.  The Andorrans were there and told us they were planning on heading on to the next refuge.  They left and shortly afterwards the rain started pouring down.  A short while later the Andorrans returned having decided it was too wet to walk.  A German family whom we had passed early on arrived two hours after us, and said they had been up on the tops when the thunder and lightning started.  Not very pleasant for them!  The cloud rolled in and out all afternoon, plus thunder and lightning, while everyone sat inside reading and playing games.

We set the alarm for 6am as today was going to be another long day.  The day was just brightening as we had our breakfast and then left the gite.  The first section was a series of huge zigzags up a farm track that crisscrossed the hillside, finally taking us high above Artigue.  We made good progress, passing a stone shepherd’s hut, and then onto a walking path.  The route took us upwards over several hill tops, each with a border stone at the top.  We had previously seen markers during our first few days and they were all cut from a single stone, with the details engraved.  These were much more utilitarian; made from concrete blocks and the number stencilled on them.  We then crossed a narrow ridge and started the descent.  This valley was full of cloud far below us.  We had been walking in sunshine and speculated on the conditions below:  colder, wetter?  We finally reached the tree line, and the cloud was about the same level.  A lot cooler, but no dampness.  We then had a big descent down through the trees on a good path.  Many of the zigs were 100m in length on a gentle gradient before there was a sharp turn and we were going in the opposite direction.  (This path has been put in as the previous route was deemed too dangerous for a descent). The guide book said 54 hairpins, but we didn’t bother counting.  At the bottom we had another 1.5km to walk to the village of Foss and our night’s accommodation.  A bit of a scare when we arrived and the owner said she wasn’t expecting us, despite the emails, but it was all sorted out.  A good meal (all home cooked) with the French speakers on one table, and the English, Dutch, and Andorran speakers on the other.

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.