Day 56: Py to the Refuge des Cortalets

Setting off under blue skies and an autumnal wonderland, speeding up excellent hillpaths through a forest where a tiny leat ran parallel to the path, reaching a closed refuge and heading on through forest with views of mount Canigou who is already wearing his snowy winter coat at the peak, arriving at a river and meeting a lovely Polish lady who pointed out that the path crossed the river only there was no bridge or stepping stones and it was ten metres wide and quite deep so taking off our boots and wading across, the rain starting as soon as we parted ways with our new friend, turning to hail, the path getting wetter and leading us over bouldery avanlanche paths that the guide described as chaos (an apt choice of words), three isards leaping about majestically, a late lunch then absolutely storming up to one last col – our last jaunt over 2000m and thank goodness for that because it actually started snowing –, heading down past a lake to the refuge where we were "welcomed" by being put in the outhouse rather than the main bit with all the other hikers (really unsure why-official reason is because we are cooking our own food. Questionable reasoning) but actually it's better in here (albeit a bit reminiscent of Father Ted) because we have our own fire place and it is blazing. Only a few crappy photos for this update because my phone has decided to corrupt almost all the ones i took today (so many epic pics of snowy peaks, one of us taken together by the nice Polish woman and so many glorious autumn leaves. and such a cute tiny baby cow. booo hiss. Please imagine gloriousness and hope the phone gods fix things...)

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Glorious snowy Canigou

We stayed in the Refuge de Cortalets which was the worst experience of hospitality that we had along the GR10 - the gardien was downright rude, unprofessional and irresponsible. If you can avoid staying there, then I’d really advise it. 

The gardien claimed that we had to stay in the outhouse/prison because we wanted to cook with a gas cooker. This did not make sense. We could have cooked in the outhouse and stayed in the main building with everybody else. I don’t know about you, but for me the word “refuge” suggests a welcoming, friendly shelter from the elements, not a freezing cold outhouse, a rude “welcome” and basically being treated like a second-class citizen just because you’re not one of the gardien’s mates.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well… we lit a huge fire, feasted, eventually got some sleep huddled up in the weird dank building and the next day we were on our way. I hope never to return to refuge "prison"!
 

Refuge prison

The vital statistics:
Total hiking time: 9h21
Peak: 2269m
Total ascent: 1852m
Total descent: 730m

Day 55: Mantet to Py

Waking up cosy to views of autumnal hills appearing and disappearing in a cloud of rain, begrudgingly trudging out into the wet cold morning, getting instantly soaked and heading up and over a col on a path that varied betwen crappy slippery goblin tunnels and a windy D road all the way to... the next village where a lovely man opened up his shop (usually shut on Wednesdays) and interrupted his lunch to make us up a room at his B&B where it is dry and warm and cosy again. Sometimes two hour's progress is enough for one day :)

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We were so very happy to arrive in Py and find another warm and dry place to stay. We might have only spent two hours walking but it was enough to get soaked through again and all we wanted to do was get dry, get provisions and eat! The very kind owners of L’auberge de Py  were hosting a family meal on the day we arrived, but they very kindly popped out, opened up the shop for us and set up a room whilst we waited. We were so happy to spend the wet afternoon warming ourselves and drying all our possessions in a cosy room. We ate a hearty breakfast the next day up in the restaurant which involved lots of local jam and delicious bread. If you’re in need of somewhere cosy along the GR10, then I would highly recommend this place!

The vital statistics:
Time spent hiking: 1h50!
Peak: 1765m
Total ascent: 194m
Total descent: 755m

Day 54: Cabane de l'Orri to Mantet

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  

Day 52: Coma d'Anyell to Lac des Bouillouses

Last night the moon emerged from over the mountainside whilst we had our fire and it was so bright it lit the whole valley up like a magic silvery grey negative version of day; another parallel moon world. Today we woke up cosy in our new thermals despite the frost that had formed outside the tent, we set off up the valley all golden in the sunlight, with rocky peaks all around, and a wee murky lake, where vultures circled and rows of mountains stood in line on the horizon back west, reaching the Coll de Coma d'Anyell (2470m) and descending into a totally different landscape — orange grassy marshes, a huge dark grey lake and darker mountains beyond — reaching the bottom where we had lunch and the temperature dropped and up we went climbing a steep slope to the Portella de la Cerava (2426m) past pink granite mounds and the distant yip of marmots, down into yet another valley where the rocks were deep purply black and a plain stretched off into the distance, all golden grass and the deep green of pine trees, thunder clapping in the valley we had left behind and us marching onwards and downwards on pleasant paths past more hidden marmots, my ankle buckling and twisting, the path eventually turning and meeting the huge lac des Bouillouses which we walked along as rain started and turned to hail and the ground quickly saturated and the air filled with the scent of damp pine needles, reaching a huge refuge/hotel and getting a lovely snug room where I bashed my shin on the sharp bedpost (my right leg is now just one big painful bundle of silliness. I complain but its not serious) and we feasted and sheltered whilst the sky cleared and did pretty sunset things.

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It was too cold and wet to pitch Colin the tent at the end of the day (plus we had entered a national park, so there were limitations about where exactly you can pitch a tent and we wouldn't have been able to have fire), so we checked ourselves into the hotel Bones Hores, a dramatic and historic building with amazing views over the lake. We sipped americanos in the cosy bar and feasted at the restaurant, happy to be inside, our bags and clothes drying off in the cosy warmth.

By the lake, right before the hailstorm

The vital statistics:
Total hiking time: 5h45
Peak: 2468m
Total ascent: 661m
Total descent: 732m

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 29: Loudenvielle to Granges d'Astau

Waking up cosy and dry (this did not last long!), discovering exciting new jam flavours at breakfast (chestnut jam is my new favourite thing), local retirees expressing incredulous surprise that we were off hiking given the forecast, steep hills to a village called Germ where all the lampposts were bright blue and a refuge served us coffee and takeaway wine for later, finding my 3rd five-leaved clover, cows emerging from the mist one at a time until we were suddenly surrounded, the mist turning to rain which got steadily heavier until recently dryish boots were freshly saturated, heading to an unmanned refuge for shelter which took so long to find that we gave up all hope (especially when the hail started), a roof suddenly appearing in the mist, discovering a sweet young French couple inside who had just started a fire and sharing our wine with them as we warmed up, peering out the doorway to see glimpses of epic waterfalls through the cloud, adding the PHS to the table graffiti, heading back out into the rain and wading through at least 4 rivers cursing and swearing at the path, unfathomably steep, horrendous uphill paths that went on far too long up to a col, soggy marmots yipping on either side and braving the rain, patches of purple flowers, zigzags down through the wettest forest ever encountered (surprisingly pleasant given the conditions), arriving at an Auberge and contemplating camping, realising that was mad, getting a room and unpacking our bags to realise everything was drenched and going for a boozy dinner. Our wettest day of hiking yet but somehow also strangely enjoyable! We will perservere!!

The Vital statistics: 
Total hiking time: 7h45  
Peak: 2161m 
Total ascent: 1282m
Total descent: 1109m

Day 28: Vielle-Aure/St-Lary-Soulan to Loudenvielle

A late start after suggesting a nice gentle short half-day of walking just over the hill to the next village to Nick and Katie and then facing our soggiest worst weather conditions yet... climbing steep paths to a village in the clouds, pre-lunch refreshments at an auberge with happy sunflowers, emerging into gentle rain with collies to guide us on our way, seeking out a suitable spot for lunch, the rain getting heavier, deciding "suitable" meant a soggy spot under the nearest tree as the rain began to pour and the path turned into a stream, Nick uttering the words "well at least that thunderstorm in the forecast hasn't hit us yet" and seconds later boom ! Thunderbolts of lightning! Increasingly soggy feet, negotiating muddy quagmires and Gavin's boot sinking totally under the mud, cresting the col and heading down through ferny moorland, zigzag paths overlooking the village as the rain finally died down, excellent hanging baskets to cheer us up as we entered the town seeking warmth and shelter and finding a cosy B&B for the night and an excellent restaurant for dinner.

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We stayed in a lovely Chambres d’hôtes, Les Noisetiers which was warm, cosy, charming and run by a lovely couple who prepared the most amazing breakfast the next morning. There were so many kinds of jam and honey, including a chestnut one which was absolutely incredible

We ate dinner in a quirky restaurant called Le Chante-Coq They had an excellent wine list and were perfectly happy to prepare us a veggie meal even though there was nothing on the menu.



The Vital statistics:
Total hiking time: 5h51
Peak: 1608m
Total ascent: 781m
Total descent: 621m