Team Jeff n Rach: The Pyrenees Coast to Coast: 9. The Ariege: Aulus-les-Bains to Auzat

Aulus-les-Bains (750m) to Refuge de Bassies (1655m) via Col de Bassies (1933m)

We decided to try to get away early so ordered breakfast for 8am. We were up at 7am, packed and outside having the morning cig by 7.50.

All going well. We ate our breakfast of warm bread-cum-toast and jam relatively quickly and then spent half an hour in the garden having a post breakfast cig before heading off at 9am. We were happy we were out of the blocks in good time. However, we still needed to buy food for a dinner or two for camping and some food for lunches so the first stop was to the supermarket and the bakery-cum-tobac-cum-bolangerie. Half an hour later decions re food were made and things purchased.
On leaving Aulus we stopped at the monument dedicated to the Jewish people who were captured by the Nazis during the second world war - and French people who worked on the underground and helped them. On walking another 200m to try to find where the trail started one of us needed to ablute in the bushes. Hence, we finally ended up leaving Aulus at 10.30.

The first stage was a 650m climb up through the forest to Coumebiere (1400m).

We had no idea what a "Coumebiere" was - but it turned out to be a large open bowl surrounded by steep cliffs. We took elevenses here, at 12 o'clock, where Rachael demolished all her picnic lunch that Madame Dubois and her husband had provided.

On leaving Coumebiere we headed off-piste and thought we knew the col we were headed to, only to get cold feet half way up so returned to the markers - and then to find 2 hours later the trail we were on would have led to the same point on a much shorter and direct route.

It was a bit windy and chilly at Port de Saleix (1794m) so we pushed on to the the small lake below the col and took a break there in the sun.

From Col de Bassies we could see our end of day destination, the Refuge de Bassies, about 300 m below but it was at this point that Rachael totally ran out of steam and it took forever to get down.

We had decided to camp this night beside the refuge as we presumed water would be available there. We had read in the French guide that the refuge closed on Sept 30 - one of the disadvantages of us starting the GR10 walk so late in the season. We'd also read that this refuge was well stocked and started fantasizing that perhaps they had some vending machines outside that were still operational - and hoped the vending machines had beer, cider, wine and expresso coffee for the morning.
As we got lower we could see smoke and washing on the line. We weren't sure whether that was from other people who had also decided to camp beside the refuge, or from someone in the lodge. We were pleasantly surprised to find a research team from Toulouse dissecting fish on the picnic tables in the front of the refuge. They were apparently monitoring heavy metal levels in the local fish population in the surrounding lakes. On looking around we didn't see any tents and found out they were staying IN the refuge. We asked if they had booked the whole refuge or whether people could stay in there as well and found out the refuge was still open for another 3 days. We were in luck.
We were shown to our own room by the refuge manager, had hot showers, and then ordered a large bottle of cider which we had outside as the sun went down. Jeff was only marginally disappointed he wouldn't be cooking even though he'd already planned a sumptuous 3 course feast, however, the Maggi mushroom soup and the rissotto with chorizo would keep for another night. As it was, we were provided with a four course dinner: first course - vege soup and bread; second course - pork and beans; third course - half a brie cheese and bread; fourth course - creme brulee. All washed down with a litre of red wine. We were so tired that we forgot to order the Armangac for afters.

Refuge de Bassies (1655m) to Refuge de la Prunadiere (1614m)

We both slept really well. Jeff was especially pleased that the bed was extra long and didn't have a bed end to contend with - so he could stretch out.
The day started with a cig on our fire escape balcony to watch the sky change colour.

We then had the typical French breakfast of bread, jam and coffee in a bowl, however, didn't dip our bread and jam in the coffee as the French researchers were doing at the table beside us.

We tried again, in vain, to have an early start. We had ordered breakfast for 8am, however, this was not served till after 8.30 and then we spent some time chatting to the researchers and became fascinated watching them get all their gear ready for the helicopter which was arriving later to take them out.

So we finally got away at 9.45am, only to stop soon after for 30 minutes while Jeff took a swim in the lake and then another 30 minutes for him to dry out and wait for everything to return to its normal anatomical position. Rachael was not so silly as to venture into near freezing waters.

Jeff gashes his leg ...

...but we have the trusty first aid kit on hand.

Contemplating a swim.

The walk today was stunning. We first followed the edge of the tiered lakes and then climbed steeply down to an ancient aqueduct that we followed for a few kilometres. Since we started the GR10 this is the only significant flat we've travelled. We stopped and had lunch along the aqueduct - baguette, butter, ham, rice and tuna salad and a glass of red wine each (in our tea mugs). Along the walk today we saw many lizards and our first snake.

A good day for drying the washing.

An attempt to get some colour on my legs - I gave up on that idea though luckily.

The short descent to the village of Marc was beautiful with all the purple wild flowers in bloom along the trail.

We stopped beside the church to have a cig break and then continued the 15 minutes to Mounicou where we called into the gite to order a couple of beers and get our wine carafe refilled. We'd read in Poorly's guide book (The GR10 Trail: Coast to Coast Through the French Pyrenees by Paul Lucia - who we think describes the trail very poorly) that the woman was eccentric - but we found her very friendly - and we were very happy that even though we'd asked for 750 mls of red wine she'd filled our 800 ml wine carafe right to the brim.

The walk up from Mounicou to where the map indicated a camping spot, with water, was beautiful - all through oak, beech and then pine forest. The path was lined with many different types of mushrooms. We have often seen French people out collecting mushrooms as this is the season for them, but unfortunately we weren't sure which ones are edible. This was a shame as they would have gone well with Jeff's planned menu - the one he'd delayed from last night.

At the camping spot was an old cabin - and we checked this out to see if it was suitable to use as there wasn't a lot of flat ground for the tent. We were happy to see there was a fire place with some wood and kindling, a table and some chairs - but no wooden platform to be used as a bed in the cabin. There was the ladder leading to the attic - but I've always said I wouldn't want to sleep up there as it's dark and there's no telling what types of animals and insects are lurking. Jeff went up and called down to me that it was clean so I ventured up to have a look. The floor had indeed been swept but looking up to the rafters confirmed my fear - there were huge spiderwebs everywhere. Jeff tried to convince me of the attic's merits again saying that we could put our thermarests on the tent groundsheet and telling me the spider webs weren't that big. I wasn't having a bar of it and thought we could set up our tent outside and just use the cabin to cook and eat our dinner. Jeff, not being a pretty face, came up with the brainy idea of setting up the inner tent in the attic.
Compromise reached, Jeff went about putting up the tent while I collected 4 litres of water (the amount instructed by Jeff that we'd need for dinner and breakfast) from 'the water supply' - which consisted of a piece of hose with only a dribble of water coming out. Warm clothes donned, firewood collected and fire going we sat down to our aperitif before starting on dinner.

We ended the evening sitting by the fire, with full tummies, having a coffee and eating the last of the chocolate before we climbed the ladder and go into our tent and bed.

Refuge de la Prunadiere (1614m) to Auzat (728m)

I was so happy to have slept in our inner tent in the attic as just before going to bed a HUGE spider presented itself on the front of the iPad as I was reading. (Jeff's Note: the thorax had to be AT LEAST 2mm in diameter). I was very calm though, handed the iPad to Jeff and said something to the effect of "get it off". As there is no electricity in these cabins it's hard to tell where all the other hundreds of spiders were lurking so it was nice to get in the tent and zip it up. We had the attic window open so it was great to be able to gaze at the stars, from the tent, during the night.
We both slept well and woke after 8am. Coffees, cigs, warm baguette and goats cheese were on the menu for breakfast and we finally headed off about 11am. We are not getting any better at early morning starts as enjoy sitting over breakfast taking in the views.

We didn't have far to go this day though as it was only a couple of hours down to the village of Arties and then an hour on the road to Auzat.

Auzat isn't on the GR10 route but we had planned to go there for a couple of nights to stock up on food for the coming week as we knew we'd have 4 or 5 nights camping coming up. We also hoped to have internet so we could write some more of the blog on our rest day. Our GPS and camera also needed charging.
We arrived in Auzat about 2pm and wondered around the village to suss out our accommodation options. There was one gite and 2 B&Bs and we decided on the gite as it was cheap, brand new and more like a hotel. When we tried to check in they told us that the wifi only worked in the reception area and at first they didn't know if they had a room for us for both nights as they had a couple of big groups arriving the next day. They said to come back in an hour so we dropped out packs and headed to the bar for a couple of beers. The bar had tables in the street and we enjoyed sitting beside the river and chatting to the charming barman. Even though we didn't understand each other we've come to enjoy these funny conversations. We made it known, however, that we'd be back at 8pm for dinner. We were surprised he agreed as the man at the tourist information said the bar didn't serve food for dinner.

Back to the gite and we couldn't find anyone on reception. Scouring the place, I found the two woman working like Trojans, sweating and cleaning the rooms. They asked me to wait for 6 minutes. In that time I prowled around and found that two of only three rooms that opened onto the lawn had internet reception on their patio but they weren't cleaned yet. So back up I went asking if we could please have the "Valier" room as it had internet outside and a table which was good for us as we smoked. At first it was "not possible" because of the big groups but after a bit of a chat and smooging using a lot of sign language it seemed like it could be a possibility. I said we'd head to the next town, Vicdessos, to buy things at the supermarket and would be back in another hour or so. Vicdessos' supermarket was only 2.5 km away so off we set - me dreaming of salted caramel Haagen Dazs on the way and Jeff of beer and wine. I was only slightly disappointed that it didn't have what I wanted (I only cried on Jeff's shoulder for 5 minutes) but we did come away with Leffe (my favourite beer), red wine, Armagnac, licorise, caramel chocolate and 4 cheeses for camping, goodies for our picnic the next day and the usual dried food for camping.
Back at the gite, the Valier room was ready for us.

The photo of Mount Valier in our room. We saw this mountain a few days ago.

When you haven't had a shower for a couple of days they are like heaven and our shower here was the best one we've had since leaving Timor. The jets of water were hard and hot and we both spent too long in there, feeling slightly guilty about how much water we would have used.
We sat on our patio having beers until we needed to leave for dinner at 8pm. It's amazing how hot the days can be but as soon as the sun disappears the temp drops considerably so we both wrapped up with coats, hats and scarves and headed off. The old barman wasn't there but his equally charming son Robert, who owned the bar, was. His English was perfect and he joined us for a drink, provided a plate of home cooked ham for nibbles and regaled us with his stories of his trips to Oz. He made us laugh telling us that on his first trip, even though he thought his English was good, he couldn't understand a word of what Aussies said to him. Robert then told us that he actually wasn't open for dinner - that he was just having his friends over - but said that he would make us a memorable dinner and told us we were having cured ham for an entree, pork loin chop and veggies for main and the local cheese for dessert. After aperitifs of Ricard, two bottles of red wine and prune Eau de vie we wobbled back to the gite full to the brim. Once home we had to test the Armagnac we bought earlier and then after a glass of water hit the sack.

Robert arrives at our table with the whole cheese and says "How much do you want?"

Auzat Loop: Arties (985m) to Goulier (1110m) via Etang d'Izourt (1647m)

It must have been the water I had before going to bed! We woke feeling a bit ordinaire but were soon revived by coffee and croissants by Mons. Robert. Wonderful host that he is, Robert insisted on us coming in the bar where, despite French laws to the contrary, we smoked and drank our coffee with the assembled patronage of beret-coiffed French farmers.
We walked and hitch-hiked our way back to Arties and finally started our supposedly short, unaccompanied day (i.e. no packs) by about 10.30.

The ascent to the lake proved somewhat arduous (that bloody water) and it was not helped any by the difficult route-finding after we passed the hydro-electric plant. The trail seemed to go in all directions and we had to retrace our steps a number of times.

We finally arrived at the rather industrial site of the barrage (dam) and lake after the best part of 3 hours. This part of the walk was supposed to take about 2 hrs 30min.

Not phased, we tucked in to a welcome lunch of baguette, cheese, tomatoes and fruit.

We exchanged pleasantries with a pair of older French gentlemen who were sheltering from the wind behind the refuge. One of them was from Paris and spoke excellent English so our discussion was far more extensive than many of our chats with French people (despite our extensive joint vocabulary of 65 words). As it turned out, they were long time friends who had climbed together some 40 years ago, including ascents of many European peaks including the Matterhorn. The Parisian gent had recently developed Parkinson's Disease and while he could still move quickly on the mountains (as we were to find out when they passed an hour or so later), stopping and starting was a bit of an issue for him.
The second part of the day's trek involved a high, exposed traverse above the valley we had just climbed, passing above Arties on our way to Goulier. The walking was relatively easy with stunning views across the valley far below us. It proved somewhat hard work however as we had run out of water and were walking in the hot afternoon sun. According to the French guidebook, this section should have taken about 2hrs 45min but it was not until almost 6.30 that we finally came upon the refuge and blessed WATER about 300m above Goulier. Well over 3 hours later.

Goulier was a beautiful, ancient village set in the crux of two valleys at about 1100m. Houses and streets had dates which pre-dated the colonisation of Australia. The narrow twisted streets were a delight to walk through. It was now after 7.00 however and we still faced a 400m descent down the tortuous road to Auzat. We were most grateful when a French couple from Foix stopped and picked us up, dropping us at our Alberge 15 minutes later. Voile: the hot shower and menu de jour was most welcome! (not to mention the mandatory beer, red wine and - dare I say - armagnac!)

We had decided that the next day would be a rest day, doing domestic chores but taking time out to visit a local equestrian gymkana hosted by the brother of the woman who ran the Alberge.