Day 60: Las Illas to Col de l'Ouillat.

Waking up in Colin the tent for probably the last time this trip, eating a huge chocolate marble cake for brekkie, getting immediately bamboozled by the GR10 which had apparently been rerouted since the guide was published (and definitely since the map got printed- we somehow got sold a version printed in 1993 so it is pretty obselete. good thing its only for a small section!), heading up forest tracks where sheep roamed in a confused lost sort of way, past allotments where pumpkins of all shapes and sizes were piled high, blue skies and sandy paths, scents of lavender, thyme and and unknown herb that smelt like men's aftershave filling the air, passing ruins and a huge fortress, arriving at Col de Perthus, a weird Spanish bordertown full of discount outlet shops, duty free emporiums and vast supermarkets selling ginormous bottles of cheap booze and finding a cute café that made omelette sandwiches, heading out under a huge autoroute into the afternoon sun where the air had turned heavy and sticky and butterflies whirled about in frantic pairs, trudging up dry trails and rocky paths as the mountains behind bathed in a haze of cloudy mist, a bull blocking the way, cows ushering a teeny tiny new calf who was all legs off the path, turning into a slightly cooler woods and finding first a single four leaf clover that had been nibbled into lace by a hungry insect and then a patch of at least 11 more and many five leaf clovers too, the path careering madly uphill through scrubby bushes and yellow flowers, turning around to discover a magical cloud sea had been busy rolling in behind and below us, filling the valleys back west with thick white waves and turning mountain peaks into impossible hazy islands in the sky, a last jaunt through a beech wood, then a sweet chestnut wood where the floor was crunchy with leaves and arriving at the col where we are staying at a gîte d'étape and have roasted all the chestnuts we've been busy gathering the last couple of days...

Day 39: Artigue valley to Rouze (Tom Bombardil's farm)

Waking up to rain and cloud covering the views of last night, spending the day in a cloud getting slowly but thoroughly drenched by mizzle (up up through a forest, over moor, lunch in a berger's hut then down past a lake, down a track with no views but who knows we could have been anywhere), a pond full of tadpoles, emerging out of the cloud and the first person we saw in 24 hours was a lorry driver with an 80s mullet who saw us but carried on taking off his trousers anyway (?), 2 vultures perched on a heathery mound, flowery villages, a mean growling patou dog who led us to his sheep rather than away, a field of mules and donkeys, gobliny passages, and then arriving at THE MOST AMAZING place ever - a gîte d'étape farm run by the friendliest man ever where we found everything we could ever need like a pick your own veg farm, freshly laid eggs, goat cheese galore, a kitchen for cooking, a cosy room with a fireplace, freshly picked flowers, booze and so much homely comfort joy we didn't know what to do:)

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On our way to Rouze we found the floweriest section of the GR10 :)

The gîte d'étape in Rouze was honestly one of the most amazing places that we stayed in for the whole hike.

We had had a long and tiring few days and the actual day that we hiked here was incredibly wet and tough-going. Our boots were saturated, there were absolutely no views, just cloud and mist. The path was fairly steep all day long and at some point I think we just sort of gave up on the idea that we would ever find somewhere to pitch the tent. So when we found the gîte and stepped inside and realised that we could stay in the warmth instead, it was such a relief. We weren't keen at all on sleeping in dorms but nobody else was there so it was just like staying in a house of our own! The gîte is part of a farm – there is a fromagerie selling homemade cheeses and a huge vegetable patch that you can pick your own veg from. The whole thing is run by one of the friendliest men we have ever met - his whole face was a smile and he exuded a calm, zen energy as he welcomed us. Inside there is a big shelf that is a serve-yourself shop selling food supplies and a fridge full of beer and wine that you can buy. It is run on an honesty system – so you note down what you have taken and leave the money in a box by the door. There were so many useful supplies (all very reasonably priced) so we bought rather a lot of stuff! You can cook in the cosy little kitchen and there was a big table with freshly picked flowers where you could eat. We bought cheese, freshly baked bread and eggs from the farm, picked our own courgettes and cooked up a feast. We had the whole beautiful place to ourselves so after glorious hot showers, we put on some music, lit a giant fire and basically had ourselves a happy little party of joy. The whole place reminded us of the part in The Lord of the Rings where the hobbits end up at Tom Bombadil’s farm – a happy little haven of goodness, where we totally over-indulged in booze and never wanted to leave! 

The beautiful fresh flowers on the table in the Gite d'étape

The vital statistics:
Total hiking time: 7h28
Peak: 1998m
Total ascent: 1211m
Total descent: 1293m

Day 18: Gourette to La Vallée d’Estaing

Breakfast feasting and pointless post office faffing at Gourette, buying the only shorts that fit in the shop - mens swimming trunk shorts (surprisingly comfy and snazzy), up and over a col out of ski station trauma, stupid paths thru farmland and unscenic lanes, walking along roads (boo!) but going through awesome cavelike tunnels (yay!), realising the cheese we bought was well past its sell by date and rather stinky, the pretty town of Arrens-Marsous, late afternoon sunshine making the mountains glow, camping by a gîte on a farm where bunnies hop about, the cows moo like banshees, a friendly cat snuggles up to me and an owl hoots as the stars come out to light up the valley...


The gîte d’étape, Les Viellettes http://www.gitelesviellettes.com/location-gite-etape-viellettes.php was very friendly and a great place to bivouac.

The Vital Statistics:
Total time hiking: 8h35
Peak: 1830m
Total ascent: 1203m
Total descent: 1538m

Day 15: Borce (vallée d'aspe) to Lac Roumassot

Restocking our supplies at the gîte shop, climbing up along the dramatic Chemin de la Mâture, steep forest paths and waterfalls, a cloudy valley, brebis sarnies, marmots leaping about everywhere, a stoat bounding over the rocks, wheatears fluttering around, birds of prey appearing elusively in the mist, sunshine breaking thru the cloud to light up the valley below, a close encounter with an over-friendly pony that tried to eat my pants at the Col d'Ayous, the Pic de Midi d'Ossau looking unreal as it floated in the clouds above us as we descended to the lac d'ayous, a grazed knee, restorative wine at the refuge then wild camping in the clouds by the lac Roumassot with a jolly good fire to keep us warm...

Oh tell me why, do we build castles in the sky...

The Vital Statistics:

Total hiking time: 8h55

Peak: 2164m

Total ascent: 1675m

Total descent: 504m

Day 13: Saint Engrâce to a valley after the Pas d'Azuns.

Gaining 1km of altitude before lunch through steep green forests and bleak farm trails, flocks of friendly wheatears and black redstarts fluttering about, 2 pigs atop the mountain, the grey grey stones of La Pierre Saint Martin in the clouds, tasty omelettes and wine at the refuge Jeandel, remembering there's nowhere bleaker than ski resorts in summer, climbing up into the wilderness where the marmots roam and spying them aplenty (I've been grinning from ear to ear ever since!), blue thistles and yellow and purple flowers sprouting in all the rock cracks, reaching a high of 1922m and scrambling over the pas de l'Osque (scariest bit so far), spying a majestic isard who rewarded us for our bravery, coming down over the pas d'Azuns and setting up camp in the glorious valley below right before the rain came in.

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I had only ever seen one marmot before this, scampering along a mountain path in a valley near the Lac bleu. It was a pretty special moment, as we had seen so many of them on postcards and tacky souvenirs and were starting to wonder if they were avoiding us! After that, I became a teeny tiny bit obsessed with these intriguing creatures and was very much hoping to see them again as we hiked our way across the Pyrénées. I needn’t have worried – we saw hundreds and hundreds of them by the time we were finished (and heard plenty more yipping their alarm signals around deserted valleys).

The Vital Statistics:
Time hiking: 10h
Peak: 1909m
Total ascent: 1730m
Total descent: 810m

Day 12: Larrau to Saint Engrâce via the passerelle d'Holzarté.

Sleepy starts, coffee at Logibar with chaffinches fluttering by, climbing up into the gorge, 6 perfect miniature snails, crossing the epic bridge suspended 150m above the ground (swaying above the vide), watching a hardy old Basque man chainsaw a fallen tree, waterfalls galore, climbing out of the gorge into the clouds, getting 2 free croissants from another old Basque man, vultures swooping low, a kestrel spied from above, climbing literal mounds of sheep shit, accidentally getting the hokeycokey stuck in my head, lots of downhills on slippery pointless paths, blackberries galore, huge spiders lurking in the brambles, long road sections (boo), goldfinches and a field to ourselves to camp in at a gîte d'étape :)

The vital statistics:
Total time hiking: 9h30
Peak: 1381m
Total ascent 1233m
Total descent: 1219m

Day 9: Our little forest glade before the Col d'Irau to the Col Bagargiak.

Accidently oversleeping as the river lulled us back to sleep, juicy brambles for second breakfast, a tiny frog, a lizard with a forked tail, climbing golden hills with a lovely breeze, a baby donkey, climbing another mountain in the baking sun past stone circles, a ssssnake slithering past, descending into the forest d'Iraty wirh purple heather carpeting the floor, the most necessary salade de chèvre chaud ever, more climbing in forests to a ski lodge with such a badly signposted campsite that we're staying in a crappy gîte d'etape instead...

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Despite spending the day walking through the famous Ossau Iraty region and passing several farmhouses with signs advertising cheese for sale, we failed to acquire any brebis. Just because a fromagerie/shop/restaurant proudly displays a sign that clearly says it is open, that does not mean it is actually open. Such is the logic of France.

There were awesome ancient cromlechs atop one of the golden grass mountains. Worth diverting 20m off the path to inspect and admire up close.

Ancient cromlechy goodness

This is the restaurant that fed us large amounts of goats cheese and a huge pichet of wine. It helped with the hunger but made us super sleepy for the afternoon climb. Oops. Anyway, well worth a visit if you can resist the lure of a cheap pichet ;)

It was our first night sleeping inside again after a glorious unbroken stretch of sleeping in Colin the tent. We were not very pleased about it at all, but there really didn’t wasn't anywhere to bivouac around the Col de Bagargiak, as it has been entirely colonised by the Chalets d’Iraty ski resort/chalet holiday village. We didn’t realise until too late that the campsite mentioned in the guide and on the map is not actually on the GR10, but on a parallel route (on a road) and its situated way before you reach the main part of the resort. So we would have had to go back on ourselves a fair few kilometres to get there and we were not at all interested in doing that after a long day involving lots of steep hills. I asked about bivouacing next to the gîte d’étape and the man who ran it told me in no uncertain terms that this was not allowed. We realised when we were cooking that we were far too obedient and should have just ignored him like the people in three other tents had done. Instead we spent an uncomfortable night in bunk beds in an overpriced room with a radiator blasting out heat – despite it being the middle of August no amount of turning dials or pressing switches could convince it to turn off. Added to this I was terrified about bed bugs after hearing nasty rumours about them devouring unsuspecting hikers whilst they were sleeping. There was no sign of them whatsoever in this place after all but I certainly did not get a good night’s sleep…

Despite not enjoying our stay in the gîte, and finding the whole ski resort area of Chalets d’Iraty massively over-populated, it is worth mentioning that the people who ran the shop opened it up especially for us and another couple of hikers, allowing us to buy precious resupplies. It was expensive, sure, but a feast is a feast.

The vital statistics:
Time hiking: 8h35
Peak: 1433m
Total Ascent: 1214m
Total Descent: 607m

Day 8: St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to a woodland glade near the col d'Irau

Escape from pilgrim central, red kites and buzzards soaring overhead, amazing views of where we've been and where we're going, unreasonable gradients up and down, etorki sandwiches, more climbing, cold beers at a gîte, winding tracks, a close encounter with a herd of huge basque cows, so many butterflies including peacock and painted ladies and a whirlwind of little blues, brambles by the handfuĺ for snacking and the perfect woodland glade to camp in with a little river running through it, eating a dinner cooked on the fire… 

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I found my first five leaved clover! In fact I found two on the same day in totally different patches of grass.

Nature is weird and wonderful

The gîte d’étape Kaskoleta was a very tempting place to bivouac at – there was a friendly welcome, cold beer and beautiful 360 degree views all around. But we still had energy left in our legs so we carried on to find a spot to wild camp. The spot we found was in a lovely secluded woodland glade. It was peaceful, right by running water and perfectly situated by huge banks of blackberry bushes for feasting on the next morning.


The Vital Statistics:
Total hiking time: 9h30ish
Peak: 867m
Total ascent: 1177m
Total descent: 650m

Day 1: Hendaye to Olhette

First proper day of hiking: Hendaye to Olhette. Highlights include spying a tiny trembling shrew, tunnels of trees full of butterflies, views of the atlantic stretching for miles, rainshowers to cool off from the heat and a tent pitch at a gîte at the perfect time. Our feet are sore but we're happy in the basque hills...

The vital statistics:
Time spent hiking: 11.5 hours
Peak: 521m
Ascent: 1114m
Descent: 1032m