GR10 Day19

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.