GR10 Day11

I nipped out of the refuge when we got up to take a photo of the sunrise with the clouds filling the valleys below.  Breakfast was the worst so far; slices of bread, butter, jam, and coffee.  The woman opposite added quick porridge to her hot chocolate.  Breakfast was at seven and we had to be out of the refuge by eight, so we were soon on our way.  The first part of the walk took us round and above various ski lifts, walking upwards and across the limestone plateau.  We then had a section through a narrow valley, slow going as there was lots of up and down over the limestone.  This finished at another ski run.  We finally left the ski area gradually working our way upwards while admiring all the wild flowers.  Again, it was slow going because of the terrain, but we could see the gap in the cliffs ahead that was our target.  We reached the climb (about 10m vertical) which had a couple of wires fixed for assistance.  I went up first, then came back down to take Christine’s rucksack.  We both scrambled to the top and had a rest while we watched other people making the climb.  The track on the other side led down below the cliffs to the valley below, then back up to the next col.  The view from the top showed mountains and cliffs stretching ahead, with a few patches of snow still lying.  The descent down into the valley was surprisingly good (the track was much better than those in the Alps).  The walk along the valley took us into beech woods, and we were accompanied by the sound of cow and sheep bells for the whole stretch.  We thought we would be heading gradually downwards, but there was quite a bit of uphill in the forest.  Another couple of kms and we reached the tarred road.  We followed it down the hill and then had a final section of stony path before reaching the fields and roads leading us into Lescun.  The village is very pretty and there are mountains circling the entire valley.  We treated ourselves to a late lunch and then did some washing.

We’ve met quite a few people travelling west-east on the GR10.  Some are going the whole route and others just part.  Quite a few are carrying tents which means they can go further on the short legs, or do sections where there is no accommodation available and we will instead do the “variant”.  We see the same faces during the day, or at the refuges in the evening.  We saw Keilan from Ireland for several days, but he is now a day or two ahead of us.  Tracey from Australia is having a rest day in Lescun so we will be ahead of her from tomorrow.  We’ve seen Andrew (Australia) and Kevin (Scotland) off and on.  All of them are walking the full route like us.  There’s a couple of groups of French people that we also see regularly, but they are stopping somewhere.  There’s also lots of day walkers that we see out, including many grandparents with grandchildren (usually towards the end of our day’s walk).