Fending off an attack from two marauding grey ponies before we had even made coffee, admiring the Goldeneye dam and mirrored mountains on the lake, climbing up through an enchanted forest past a fluttery coal tit, toadstools and purple pompom flowers and emerging to amazing views of cloud filled valleys below, descending through golden plains and raspberry woods to the lac d'Oule where even tinier frogs than yesterday hopped underfoot kamikaze-style, a 3 course lunch at the fanciest refuge yet, detouring off the GR10 to climb steep ski slopes where fat marmots sunbathed and lazed, the sounds of a rumpus rave turning out to be a huge herd of cows getting directed our way, veering off the path and getting followed by one lonely/angry cow to the mud bath of a rival herd the cloud closing in and offering only the briefest teasing glimpses of epic neighbouring mountains either side, a red kite swooping overhead, finding a tiny black and white magpie feather, descending hundreds of metres through a kneecap-eroding forest, wild thyme growing by the path, long tailed tits whizzing over very tired hikers, getting driven to the nearest pizzeria by an excellent taxi man and now the goodnight hoots of a tawny owl. Twoo-oooh-oooh!
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| That cloud river |
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| Teeny tiny frog! |
Despite the gardien’s initial horror at learning that two of us were vegetarian (he actually reacted with “Oooh la la la la !”) the Refuge de l’Oule served us an excellent meal of grilled vegetables , freshly cooked on the plancha.
The campsite we stayed in Vielle-Aure wins the award for least friendly welcome of the entire hike (so I won’t link to it)
We had an excellent feeding in Saint-Lary-Soulan at the Pizzeria La Main à la Pâte
The vital statistics:
Total hiking time: 10h22m
Peak: 2284m
Total ascent: 677m
Total descent: 813m
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