Devouring local honey and homemade jam at breakfast, second coffees at a geranium/begonia filled restaurant terrace, climbing through dark quiet pine forests and into the hot sun, up, up, up surrounded by epic views and purple flowers, powered by mars bars, past waterfalls and more marmots (hooray!) to the col d'Ilhéou (2242m) where rows of ragged peaks appeared on the horizon, continuing down to the blue blue lac d'Ilhéou where the refuge people cooked us some damn tasty omelettes and proved once again that it is possible to procure wine in very remote places, finding baby lizards, descending more stony paths in the hot sun past wild raspberry bushes, ugly ski lifts and crazy big waterfalls into Cauterets, finding a pretty campsite to rest in, devouring pizza and marvelling at the madness of ultra runners who are halfway thru a 160km route...
The vital statistics:
Totak time hiking: 9h21
Peak: 2243m
Total ascent: 1245m
Total descent: 1368m
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
