Team Jeff n Rach: The Pyrenees Coast to Coast: 3. St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Lescun

St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Esterencuby

A short walk today of only 13.1km with an ascent/descent of 489/415m.

A slow start this morning after we made our reluctant departure from the lovely retreat we have been staying in. Brunch was a process of eating our leftovers, which for Rach, included a pint of Haagen Daz vanilla icecream and tortellini with tomatoe puree. I had banana with fruit yoghurt and my usual croissant with jam and a bucket of coffee.

Picked our way through the old part of town until we found ourselves in the rolling hills east of SJPP gradually approaching a moderate climb to 680m on the col overlooking the village of Esterencuby. Stopped for a break to have baguette with some pate and rocket.

Descending steeply after a rocky mountain trail, we were disappointed to find the hotel was "complet". Luckily, another trekker had a similar problem and had arranged to go to another hotel in the same Logis chain about 5km away and they sent a car to pick us up. Rach took the car and I walked. I had a bit of A Moment when I came across a hotel after about 3kms and could not find Rach. I also had not asked the name of the hotel to which we were going! Fortunately there were signs to another hotel, "le Sources de la Nive", and when I arrived I found Rach already in the shower after a hot and sweaty day.

We are now well off-piste (about 5km) here so will have to find our way back to Esterencuby tomorrow to pick up the route.

Esterencuby to Col d'Irau (camping)

The guidebook noted that the planned day's route to Col de Bargargiak involved some 1840m of ascent, broken in to 5 separate climbs. As we were not going to be able to get back on-trail early, we had no allusions about completing the 24km in a single day.

We were very fortunate to be offered a lift back to Esterencuby by an Irish lady who was on her way to a family reunion in St Sebastian. She and her friend dropped us back to our proper point of departure on the GR 10 by about 10.30 when we started immediately to climb steeply uphill to a gite and viewpoint at about 630m. The viewpoint gave stunning 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside but was only the beginning for the day. We climbed further to about 850 before descending for about 200m down a winding track across the side of the hill.

We stopped for a lunch of baguette, cheese and fruit in a lovely spot above the noisy stream below. This is were things went a bit pear-shaped. We stopped to take a picture of some extravagent fungi growing on the base of huge old oak tree and completely missed the turn to Col d'Irau.

We walked past a small farmhouse and climbed steeply up the track until it completely ran out at about 720m. We could see where we were supposed to be and briefly considered tracking off-piste across the ridge top to re-join what we thought was the trail but, common sense prevailed and we retraced our steps to the big oak where we found the turnoff.

Lesson-for-Young-Players: if you haven't found a trail marking after 200 metres, go back to the last check and start from there.

The climb up to Col d'Irau was truly spectacular. It took quite a while and by the time we topped out at the Col at over 1000m it was after 5pm. The prospect of another 3+ hours climbing and descending was not an attractive one so we decided to look for a suitable campsite.

As we walked down the road we found the fromagerie mentioned in the guidebook and after much gesticulating and laughing, managed to buy ¾ kg of delicious sheep's cheese. Wandering a bit further along, a man pulled over to ask if he could help us and offered us the most beautiful campsite below his cabin.

We spent about an hour setting up camp before settling down to a meal of sheep's cheese, day-old baguette, some nectarines and a cup of tea. See, I had told Rach the stove would be useful!

We settled in to a so-comfortable tent (including Rach's pack, which she convinced me is an "indoor pack") and were asleep not long after 8.30.

Col d'Irau to Col Bargiak

Woke up to a strong wind blowing across the top of the col. We were so glad we had not pitched our tent at the top of the saddle as we would have woken up in Paris. Our campsite was perched under a large oak clinging to the banks of the creek, with hillside falling steeply away below us. Had a cup of tea for brekkie and a bit of cheese and we were on our way.

We climbed steadily away from the col until we came on to a high plateau that we traversed for an hour or so coming eventually to the summit of Occabe at 1466m. We had a bit of fun climbing the summit rocks and generally playing silly-buggers until we continued on our way on a steep descent into Challet Pedro where a gymkhana was in progress, cutting the GR 10 in a number of places.

We could hear the motor racing long before we actually arrived in a valley full of petrol heads racing there super-modified rally cars around what looked like a 5 or 6km motocross trail. Craig and the boys would have loved it as they even had suped up quad bikes racing.

Went to one of the pavilions set up in the parking lot (AKA a sheeps paddock sans sheep) and bought a couple of hot dogs (made with the local meguese sausage), a beer and a glass of red. WRONG!
A belly-full of decomposing spiced beef sausage, sloshing around with a beer and a red wine does not make for a comfortable afternoon's walking: particularly when it is combined with a walk up a steep hill in the hot afternoon sun!

After trudging up-hill for a couple of hours and thinking we had left the howl of turbo charged motors behind, we came down the summit ridge to find half the pack of race cars lined up, motors revving for some sort of parade back down the mountain. BUGGER!

We contined over the pass for another 700m or so to the gite only to find we had to go back to where the cars were lined up to actually book in to the gite. All was forgiven however when the lad in the bar, Francois, brought out a couple of beers, a packet of smokes and lent me his bicycle to go back to make the necessary arrangements.

Meanwhile, Rach had been to the shop to buy some necessities (wine, orange juice, chips and what not) where she had met a couple of English guys, David and Oliver, who were singularly shattered. Together with their party of 6, they had just completed Esterencuby to the Col d' Buggery in a single day. We had done the same trip in 2 days! David's wife, Alice was singularly unimpressed!

After a shower and a bit of a rest at the gite, we headed back to the restaurant for dinner. David,
Oliver and their clan (Alice, Christina, Philly and Dom) were at the next table and regaled us with their travails.

Had the Menu de Randonees (walkers menu) consisting of a charcouterie platter (iberian ham, various salamis, cheese, cornichon and sweet pickled chilli), spiced minced beef with rice, basque cake (a sort of cheesecake) washed down with a carafe of red wine.

This was my first real gite and the experience was interesting. At least we had a room to ourselves but the protocols of using kitchen, bathroom and washing clothes is interesting. Great mob of people in there though and they were very forgiving of my untutored manner. Will do better next time! Did not sleep so well though as it was very warm and the plastic sheet took some getting used to.

Col de Bargiak to Logibar

Not so much climbing today (a meer 424m), but I big descent of 1376m over 16.7kms.

At one point Rach found some mistletoe. This is me trying to get my head under it for a kiss:

We set out a little after the English guys at about 8.45. We soon caught up with them and spent the day walking and chatting with them.

After a bit of a climb we found ourselves walking along a stunning ridge top with view in all directions. Once we started to descend we came across a section of trail that should not be taken during the hunting season. We now understand why. The ridgetop is strewn with a series of "hides" (timber enclosures with a shooting slit) that is used by hunters to blast away at the migrating birds that sweep across the ridgetop during the annual migration. Doubt if Rach and I would ever be mistaken for migrating pidgeons, but hey, don't want to take the chance.

After a few more hours (including a rather ignominious descent off piste in to a very muddy section of trail from which we were relieved by the superior navigating skills of the English guys - they actually stop and read THEIR maps) we found ourselves on another ridgetop about 1000m above a village called Larrau that Rach had cycled through a couple of years ago. This traverse went on for quite some and we were despairing of ever actually seeing, much less arriving at Logibar.

These concerns were put aside however when there was an enormous clap of thunder and we had a brief but soggy half hour as the sky opened.

We finally arrived at Logibar, which is not a village, but rather a gite/hotel about 45 minutes out of Larrau. Rach was particularly excited as she had stayed here a couple of years ago when she was "bagging cols" after she had finished on the Camino de Santiago.

I was again disconcerted when we were allocated two bunks in a dormitory with the English crew, some French guys and a bunch of others. After some suitable histrionics in relation to my snoring habits, we were shown to a lovely double room with a view over the river.
The meal that night consisted of poisson (fish to the unitiated) with a tomatoe salsa, roast lamb with chips and salad and the ubiquitous Basque Cake. Great feed and a fun night.

Logibar to Ste Engrace

Todays trip of 23km was to be an "longish" day of 1187m climbing and 932m descent. Phh: a meer bagatelle!

We were delighted on this morning to learn that one of the English party would not be walking that day but would be taking a taxi to Ste Engrace. They generously offered to take our packs for the day so all we (I) had to do was carry food, water and other essentials for a day-walk. What a treat!

This was one of earliest starts yet: only to be confounded by a disparity between the route description and the "official" route. We started out on what was marked as the trail, turned back to Logibar when we decided it was the alternative route which follows the gorge; only to retrace our steps back up the trail through the gorge and up to rejoin the original path at about 500m above. We had set out at about 7.30 am but did not really get started until about 8.30. Ce la vie.

We were travelling with the intrepid English crew so it was not just the Dynamic Duo who had some initial issues with the correct route. Having said all that, we decided that the route we followed should indeed be the "official" route as it is stunning.

Once we had decided we were, in fact, on-piste, we climbed up through forrest until we came to the spectacular gorge spanned by a substantial suspension bridge in the same style as commonly seen in Nepal. The French make their suspension bridges a little more substantial however with massive stone archs at either end, 5 cm steel hausers from which the footway is suspended and stainless steel mesh on other side to prevent the unwary from sliding off in to the gorge.

The trail ran up one side of the gorge for a few kms then switches back to traverse the other side of the mountain walking beneath the enormouse bluffs above. After about an hour or so we came out above these bluffs to find high pasture and a gentle trail that we followed across the Plateau d'Ardakhotchia. We continued on and climbed up to Col d'Anhaou where we stopped of lunch. The gite had made us a picnic lunch which consisted of some delicious ham and cheese baguettes, hard boiled egg, apple, chips, a piece of rock and a sweet similar to Turkish delight. Yummy but would probably go for 2 baguettes next time.

The rest of the afternoon was a fairly uneventful descent towards Ste Engrace. The trail was muddy in places over steep broken ground culminating at the river. We then had to walk up a steep, rather tedious section of road until we finally arrived in Ste Engrace.

We were greeted by a rather brusque matron who advised us that the gite was "complet", that we could set up our tent for Euro 8 per person which would entitle us to shower and use the kitchen, BUT THERE WAS NO FOOD. Bugger.

She did however ring the refuge at our next destination, Arette la Pierre St Martin, which could provide food and accommodation provided we were there by 7.30 for dinner. She also arranged for a taxi to come and pick us up at 7.00. It would be a near-run-thing. It was now 5.15! We sat down and had a couple of beers and a packet of chips. Ah, life at the top of the food chain! We were also able to return the favour to our English friends by taking their excess baggage on to our next destination, where they were due to arrive the following day to catch a bus to commence their trip back to the UK.

The rather sodden taxi driver arrived promptly at 7.15 then frightened the tripe out of us as he quickly traversed the 11km trip for the princely sum of 40 Euro (thank you VERY much).

We were greeted by a rather neurotic Fawlty Towers refuge host who officiously told us to take off our boots and sit down IMMEDIATELY for dinner.

Not the most auspicious end to the day but had a good feed of soup de jour, roast duck legs and ANOTHER BASQUE CAKE. We slept like the dead. We had decided we would walk back down to Ste Engrace tomorrow to continue our journey.

Ste Engrace to Arette la-Pierre-St-Martine

This would normally be considered a shorter day at 12.3km with a climb of 1185m and a descent of 165m. The only issue for us was, we had to do it both ways, coming and going. "Sibyl" the delightful lady of the house to the loopy Basil of the refuge, dropped us at the correct road to commence our descent to Ste Engrace. We then walked down about 5km before a lovely French lady took us the last 5km and 300m descent to "commence" our walk back up.

We had hoped for an espresso at the bar of the gite but were greeted by a bellow from the window above the gite "Non. We are closed". So holding unkind responses in check, we set out.
After a brief descent to the valley floor, we commence a climb up through forest on the other side entering a narrow gorge which we continued to climb. This, again, revealed another side to the Pyrenees that we had not previously encountered - a shrouded forest in which at any time one might expect to encounter hobbits or a troop of dwarves making their way to the Misty Mountains. This feeling was accentuated when we came across a rather Gothic water trough guarded by a gargoyle carved in stone.

We climbed up out of the forest and stopped for lunch beside the ruin of an old farmhouse. Continuing we came out on to high pasture with sheep and a group of very healthy draught horses which made their assertive way to yet another water trough, pushing the sheep aside.

We were somewhat luckier than the author of our guidebook who last crossed here in fog and mist. We were greeted by spectacular views of the valley form which we had just emerged and vistas across the surrounding countryside.

We arrived at Arette la-Pierre-St-Martine at about 3.45 hoping to be able to say goodbye to our English friends only to learn that they had left about 15 minutes before we arrived.

We set about doing some much-needed washing of clothes and general relaxing in the afternoon sun and went in for dinner with an interesting group of trekkers who had arrived that day.

Having booked the Honey Moon Suite in the refuge (double bed in a room above the dining area) we sloped off to bed and had our best night's rest in quite a few days.

Arette la-Pierre-St-Martine to Lescun

Got up early to see the sun rise (and to hang our washing out to take advantage of the morning breeze). The 3 French guys that we had encountered over the last couple of days were ready, packed and left at about 7.00. With only 15.1km, 340m of ascent and 1090m descent we were not expecting a particularly hard walk to Lescun. Little did we know......

After breakfast and finished packing we were on our way by 8.40 climbing steadily up the trails for the winter ski runs. We encountered our first difficulty with route finding after we left the ski runs and were back on the mountain trails proper. We were now close to our estimated high point of the day at 1920m with no obvious way forward and some confusing markings for the trail.

After wasting about 40 minutes we finally picked up the trail again and made our way through a scree strewn pass that seemed to go on for ever. The trail markings were "parsimonious" at best. We could only find old markings that were widely spaced and we were continuing to climb. Well above the estimated high, we had now reached 2060m before finding a clear descent route off the rubble strewn route.

Coming down a steep descent we finally arrived at the Shepherds hut where cheese is allegedly available. Not the case to day but the water fountain was flowing freely with icy cold mountain water. We stopped here for lunch and had a very nice tipple of the red wine we had been carrying. A Dutch fellow, Gert who we had met earlier came in after us. He had left an hour before us and had got way off trail. He said he was most grateful to see us in the distance on-trail and was a big spooked by the experience. The French trio took yet another route. They came in just ahead of us but had left some 2 hours before us. Their descent sounded positively hair-raising.

After lunch we descended in to the beautiful forrest which as a welcome change after so long on the rocky, scree strewn slopes. Pic d'Annie rose on right as we came down, a limestone massif that rise some 1500m above the valley floor that it dominates.

We arrived at the refuge above Lescun at about 4.00 and found wifi for the first time in about 10 days. Took the opportunity to check emails and found one from Son-and-Heir Ben that had been written on the morning we left St Jean Pied de Port.

An English couple, Jim and Jane, who we had met earlier going up to the pass came past at this stage and offered to take our packs down for us. Our packs have never travelled so well: they were loaded in to the front and rear boots of the Porsche Boxter they were driving!

We positively trotted down the hill after that, arriving in Lescun at about 6.30 to find our packs had been taken to a room in the only hotel in town. How good is that? Had a lovely dinner with Jim and Jane at the local restaurant (Rach got her beloved canard again) and fell in to bed at about 10pm. Big day but great fun.

The following day we had a lay-day in Lescun. Jim drove me down to a village in the valley to top up the Euros (do you have any idea how good a Boxter is to travel in????) and after he and Jane left, we went to the shop to buy some fruit, cheese, a bottle of burgundy and spent the rest of the day lazing in the sun and catching up on the blog. We had another meal (with more duck) at the same restaurant as last night and then off to bed at about 10.00. It has been a hard day in the office this week!