Waking up in a frosty tent again (hooray for thermals) and embarking upon in a pretty thankless day of hiking up steep, stony paths into the clouds, and down diabolically steep slippery paths back through the clouds. Highlights/lowlights included negotiating our way past a huge beast of a bull, a frog, a huge dead snake, spotting a goldcrest, glorious autumnal foliage on the rare occasions the clouds parted, soaking wet grass that saturated our boots, dark viewless paths in murky forests, perfect red toadstools and glistening soggy spiderwebs, freezing winds on cols, golden grassy plateaus, cows blocking the slippery narrow path into the village which promised four places to stay (all open all year according to the guide. lies), getting turned away from three but finding a log fire, cold beer and cheap cosy lodgings in the fourth.
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| Autumn mornings |
Not for the first time, the French guidebook proved to be rather outdated and just plain wrong about the facilities available in the tiny village of Mantet. It was very much fermé for the season - perhaps if you turn up there in July or August, you might have a more welcoming experience and a choice of four places to stay and eat, but on a cold, wet evening in late September we had no such luck. It really is a very small (and steep) village, and given the awful weather and the fact that it was steadily getting dark by the time we turned up, there was nobody out in the streets to ask for help. There had been no phone signal anywhere for the whole day so I hadn’t been able call ahead to make inquiries or book anything and even in the village there was no mobile service whatsoever.We were turned away by all three of the places in the village itself – with no help or suggestion about where we might go and stay, despite the awful conditions.We would really have welcomed anything and considered trying to pitch our tent on one of the few flat spaces of earth above the town before it got too dark to see. We were feeling pretty hopeless, but luckily we persevered and decided to check out the fourth option. Thank goodness we did – we found a little piece of GR10 magic in the form of a charming gite d’étape, La Cavale. It was 13 euros each for a 4 person room, but seeing as there was nobody else there, we got the room to ourselves and slept on a huge double bunk bed which was very comfy and cosy indeed. There was a kitchen downstairs where we cooked ourselves a huge plate of pasta and – the very best bit – a huge log fire burning where we could warm our toes and dry our boots just like I had dreamed. Like many of the other gites, refreshments and supplies were available on an honesty box system and we honestly drank all the beer in the fridge!
The Vital Statistics:
Total hiking time: 8h53
Peak: 2384m
Total ascent: 1462m
Total decent: 1717m
Setting out over the barrage on the lake and into a Christmas tree pine forest, our boots making satisfying little crunch crunch crunch noises as we trod on frosty blades of grass, stepping occasionally on frozen puddles that cracked and shattered into crooked shards, good flat wide paths for stamping along at a good pace, a frog, a coal tit, a great tit, ski lifts and wooden chalets then down into flowery Bolquère where we finally found a good restaurant for omelettes, heading out on a warm sunny track past pretty meadows, rowan berries and rosehips galore again, through two more pretty villages, almost staying at the 2nd one but pressing on up into a lightfilled forest past another aggressive patou dog, 2 hunters with guns :( and down into a darker murky woodland with dodgy paths where the sound of some weird wailing creatures could be heard all around (we eventually worked out they were cows although they sound more like distressed hell beasts), past autumnal patchwork mountainsides down to a lovely spot by a river to camp and rest our tired selves after a long day and many kilometres.
***
We were happy to start the day in the warmth of our hotel, making the most of the serve-yourself buffet breakfast before we set off into the frosty winter wonderland that awaited us outside. Much of the morning was spent in forest, before we reached another ugly ski station: this time, Pyrenees2000. Then it was down into the pretty little town of Bolquère, which, like so many of the small mountain towns that we passed through, promised more than it delivered in the way of civilization. The local shop was very much shut and despite the fact that a local auberge was open and serving food to many customers, it was not actually open unless you had already reserved a table. Luckily, we found a second option for lunch in the way of a hotel that also had a restaurant: the Hotel Lassus. The staff were incredibly friendly and welcoming and we had an excellent lunch of omelettes and fried potatoes. Luckily I noticed a note on the menu, proudly announcing that their potatoes are so fried in duck fat (!) and therefore not veggie friendly. Yuck. Anyway, I explained that we were vegetarian and asked if we could have boiled potatoes instead and after a look of deep confusion the waitress happily suggested that we could have potatoes fried in olive oil instead. A useful reminder that it is always worth checking these things and studying the menu carefully if you want to avoid inadvertent animal products slipping into your food.
On a side note, the two men with guns that we passed in the woods later in the afternoon were further proof that the hunting season had started in earnest. It's really rather unsettling to happen upon people with guns in the middle of nowhere.
The vital statistics:
Total hiking time (including our rather long lunch): 8h47
Peak: 1994m
Total ascent: 759m
Total descent: 944m
Sleepy forest mornings, paths that went up instead of down but then zigzagged peacefully under pine trees for an hour, arriving in Fos, the village that promised much (a shop, a restaurant, a campsite, a bakers, a hotel) and delivered nothing but an eery deserted gîte d'étape where we spent a weird hour waiting; nobody came except a Belgium hiker who was equally confused so we left money for the coffee we had made and continued on to the flowery village of Melle in the sunshine and found an amazing auberge with friendly owners who fed us very well and gave us local bivouacing secrets courtesy of their collie
The vital statistics:
Time spent hiking: 5h30
Peak: 1293m
Total ascent: 314m
Total descent: 862m
