GR10 Day42

A good dinner last night night, featuring a venison stew.  The deer had been shot by the gite owner with his bow and arrow.  Excellent bread at breakfast, with three different kinds, all made locally, and pots of homemade jams and marmalades.

It was a quick climb on an old track, up through the terraces, to the col.  The whole hillside around the village was covered in terraced, all now abandoned.  On the other side we followed the old track down the hillside, occasionally walking bits of the new road, before more of the old track room is into the village of Py.  We had a cold drink at a small shop in the village.  We dropped down to the river and then started climbing again.  The scenery and vegetation now looked very Mediterranean, and even some villages in the distance had red tiled roofs, as opposed to the black slate that we have seen for so long.  We climbed up through the pine forest, past rocky outcrops, finally emerging at a busy carpark.  We stopped for our snack lunch and then started climbing again.  There was a fairly steep section, before we reached a “leat”.  This is a channel that takes the water from a stream along the hillside.  There was a good path alongside it, and we made rapid progress as there was only a slight incline.  We were amazed at the number of people that we met on the track coming towards us; all would be returning from their ascent of Pic Canigou.  We reached the refuge quickly and checked in.  During the evening meal the rain started very heavily and there was a dash by people to bring in the drying clothes.