Merens-les-Vals (1050m) to Refuge des Besines (2104m) via Porteille des Besines (2333m)
We loved our little hotel room and balcony in Ax-les-Thermes - it would have been perfect if it had wifi in the room though. Not many of our hotel rooms have and the gites often don't have wifi at all. It seems strange as many other countries, even developing countries, have wife readily available.
The day started with having a couple of coffees in a cafe. We tried a different one from yesterday morning. In the cafe yesterday and today the locals seem to buy their croissants at one of the bakeries and then eat them at the cafe - so we did the same. French eating-out etiquette requires that you don't bring the whole croissant or piece of bread to your mouth - instead you break off a bit to eat. Jeff and I are more successful at following this 'rule' than we are at keeping our hands on the table.
Back at the hotel room we packed and then sat on the balcony and shared the last beer we had left over from the six-pack yesterday. Well we weren't going to waste it even if it was only 10am (and it felt more like 11am to us seeing as the clocks had been turned back on Saturday night).
Speaking of clocks being turned back - we realise we really need to start walking a bit earlier seeing as it's going to be dark by 6.15pm. Tomorrow we are going to try to leave by 8am. I, for one, won't be holding my breath for this start time.
By 10.40am we were paying our hotel bill and walking up the street to find a good spot to hitchhike from. We needed to get back to Merens-les-Vals to continue on the GR10 from our finish point of the other day. We waited less than 5 minutes before a lovely woman stopped to pick us up. She is half German and half French, lives in Perpignon and has a holiday home in Merens. She said she never gets much opportunity to speak English. We chatted a lot - mainly about Patty Smith - who she loves and has seen in concert many times. Jeff had seen Patty Smith in concert in Oz in the 90s when she was touring with Bob Dylan. She insisted on taking us up the road in Merens to where the path starts from the road. We passed the gite (which she confirmed was lovely and where the food was very good - as all the guide books say), passed the Roman church which had been destroyed during the Napoleanic wars between the French and Spanish in the 1800s and she told us about a hot thermal pool about 20 minutes into our walk.
Ideally we would have liked to have walked from the main road in Merens so that we had not missed walking any of the GR10 but she was so kind and insisted on taking us up the road - so we gladly accepted.
We stopped at the thermal pools which were lovely and warm.
We didn't have time for a bath as we had 5.5 hours of walking ahead of us and it was already midday. Most of the days walk today was uphill. The first three hours was a relatively easy climb and when we got to a river with a perfect picnic rock - we decided it was lunchtime. Jeff had made baguettes in the morning with pate and butter - and we had a bag of roquet to put on as well. We also had a jar of mussels that we hadn't eaten the day before.
As we were packing up from lunch the sun went behind a mountain and the temperature plummetted. Jeff donned his jacket and beanie but I toughed it out knowing that the climb was going to get steep for the next couple of hours and I'd just end up needing to stop again to take the jacket off after I started sweating too much.
The walk was beautiful up to the Porteille (whatever that means). When we looked up we presumed we would be walking across bolders but the path was a good one going between them.
We passed a group of horses - and these ones were not intimidating like our last ones were when camping a couple of nights ago.
It was a 45 minute walk to the refuge - mostly down with a bit of an up at the end. We had planned to camp beside the refuge, knowing it was closed at the end of September, and presuming there would be water available for cooking - but there was no water and Jeff had to return to the stream to collect some in our Camelbaks - but we were pleasantly surprised that one of the doors was open to a room with bunks, a couple of tables and chairs and candles.
Refuge des Besines (2104m) to Barrage des Bouillouses (2020m)
Woke early this morning after a comfortable nights sleep. We were most appreciative of the refuge as the night was, literally, freezing.
We were determined to get an early start, so packed quickly and could have been on-trail by 7.30. In the event, we had a cup of coffee and the obligatory morning smoke, while we contemplated the rather brisk morning.
We left the refuge at 8.00 and spent a few minutes getting en-piste as the trail was not quite clear. Finally pointing in the right direction i.e. down then up, we crunched our way over the frosty grass heading towards Col de Coma at 2470m. This was a pleasant climb varying between well-trodden (if icey) paths and rock-hopping across huge sections of broken rock finally emerging in the sunshine at the top of the col.
As it was decidely cold on the col, even with the sun beaming down on us, we commenced the decent to Etang de Laroux.
We commenced our decent without pause as the French family had taken up residence on the pass and soon found ourselves walking down a wide glacial valley with a small river running through the middle.
After about half an hour, we decided to stop for lunch and fed lavishly on goats cheese, saucisson, Swedish bread crackers followed by semi-dried apricots, dried banana and almonds. Life here is tough, but hey, somebody has to do it!
After about 40 minutes we continued on down the valley being entertained by a large military helicopter making noisy passage up and down the valley. We assumed they were on a training flight as they did not shoot at us, nor the two rather middle eastern bearded lads that walked past us as we came to the head of the Lac des Bouillouses.
The lake was quite beautiful, reminding Rach of similar places in Canada, however the final 3 or 4km to the barrage (AKA dam wall) seemed to take a long time as the barrage didn't seem to get any closer.
We finally arrived at a little after 4.00 and after checking out the rather revolting Hotel Refuge des Bone Hores (classic '60s chic, built to accommodate the French Olympic team in the early '60s - no wonder the poor buggers did not do too well that year!)
After finding this closed we crossed the wall of the dam to the somewhat quaint, but very welcome, Auberge de Carlit where we sat down and had a most welcome beer.
There were no double rooms available in the hotel part but we were able to secure the 8 room dormitory, with working heater, in the gite building, for our personal use. Fantastic.
After a most welcome hot shower, not to mention internet session, we came over for an apres-trekking litre of vin rouge and dinner.
Barrage des Bouillouses (2020m) to Mount Louis (above La Cabanasse at 1507m)
The staff at Auberge de Carlit were all lovely. I'd asked on check in if we could order off the a la carte menu for dinner as often the menu of the day has a lot of meat and starch but no salad or veges so they said they'd include that for us which they did. Our entre was a lovely big salad and the main of very tender pork had ratatouille and salad with it. For dessert I had creme brulee and Jeff apple tart followed by coffee and armagnac. We slept very well in our warm dorm room.
After breakfast of cereal and the ubiquitous bread, toast and jam we packed up and headed out at 9.30 but after 5 minutes of walking, nature called and we returned to the gite to use their ammenities. We left again at 10.
It was a pleasant stroll on the frosty track along a lake and down through forest that showed clear signs of montain bike activity. Jeff thought that these bikers must have good dentists as trails like these would loosen anybody's fillings.
I'd been up late last night doing some flight and accommodation bookings, and was finding the walking tiring today, so we decided to make it a short day and thought we'd stay in the town of Bolquere but it was yukky - a cross between a housing estate and construction site so we kept on. The next village at Col de la Perche was even less appealing - lying on a main road and in any case the two hotels were closed. Usually the GR10 passes through quaint villages so we were surprised and disappointed by these ones.
We knew the next village La Cabanasse didn't have any hotels so we headed up to the walled city of Mount Louis where we found a good 2 star hotel, lovely room with balcony in the sun overlooking the valley, bath and BBC but run by the snottiest women you can imagine. We thought she just didn't take a shine to us or walkers - but at least she was consistent as we noticed she was ascerbic to all her guests in the restaurant that night.
After settling in and having some Leffe beer on our balcony, I settled into the bath with red wine, apple and gorgonzola cheese and Jeff headed out to explore the walled city. He came back with some goodies from the epicerie, including 1.5 litres of red wine for only 4 euros. We thought it would be a bit rough but in fact was quite quaffable.
About 5.30pm the mist rolled up the valley below the hotel - but then rolled out just as quickly an hour or so later.
We ordered off the menu that night. Jeff had been hanging out for an entrecote steak. I had a starter of a big salad which came with hot pork belly. That was a meal in itself and I shared that with Jeff. For the main I had a whole trout with veges and salad. Dessert for me was creme brulee and Jeff had a black forest cake. We've had red wine the whole trip but they had a bottle of Catalan chardonnay on the wine list so we tried this tonight.
Mount Louis (above La Cabanasse at 1507m) to Ras de la Caranca (1831m)
I was up early to give some input to a couple of documents from the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education but even though my body was warm sitting on the balcony, my fingers were freezing typing, so I retreated back into the hotel room to do this while Jeff slept.
We headed out from the hotel at 11am and we were back on our starting point of the GR10 about 20 minutes later.
Our first destination was the village of Planes where, we had originally thought we'd end up last night. Every week when we have our rest days we do a tentative plan of where we might end up and then, if it falls on a Friday or Saturday night we sometimes book in. I'd tried to book into the B&B/chambre d'hote in Planes by phoning them on Skype. The first time I called a woman who spoke no English answered and then hang up when I tried to use my best French to make a reservation. I phoned again and she called out to a man to come to the phone. He also hung up on me - saying in perfect English "I do not understand you. Goodbye". It peeved me that he did not even try to understand me as whenever I've booked before, even with people with no English, we muddle through and have success after I say something like "Bonjour. Sea vous play, reservasaun, der personas" and then give the date. Not this place in Planes though, so I'd already decided I didn't want to stay in their home. There was also an eco lodge in Planes but we decided, when doing our planning, that this might be a bit wholesome for us and imagined hot showers would be limited to 1 minute and we'd be frowned upon for our smoking and drinking too much :)
It was midday as we strolled through Planes, first taking an incorrect path.
Poorly, the English guide book, said that from Planes to Ras de la Caranca was a 5 hour 15 minute walk so we figured we had enough time to have a leisurely lunch and get to our destination (where we knew there would be a refuge that was kept unlocked during the off season) before dark. However, when we checked with our French guidebook it said the walking time to Ras de la Caranca was 6 hours and 25 minutes. As it's pitch dark at about 6.15 now we knew we'd not make it. We were in a dilemma then as our only options were to not stop for lunch and try to walk faster than the French times so that we made it just on or before dark or stop for the day at about 3 - 4pm before the big trek up to Col Mitja (as we knew that, even if there was space on the col to set up our tent, at 2367m it could be freezing to sleep up there). We decided to see what time it was when we reached the cabin just before the steep climb began and if it was before 3pm we could keep going and if it was after 3 we'd stay in the cabin or set up our tent.
The walk up from Planes to the Pla de Cedeilles at 1911m was pleasant and only took an hour - half an hour quicker than the French estimated time and 15 minutes shorter than Poorly's. This made us happy and we relaxed figuring that we'd definitely get to Ras de la Caranca now. We stopped for a short break at the Pla (a grassy open area) and had a pomelo, dried fruit and nuts and a cig.
The next stage, however, to the Refuge de l'Orry took us 15 minutes more than Poorly's time and 5 minutes more than the French guide's time.
It would have been a bit difficult for us getting in this cabin.
With the added time we'd taken for our break we were back to wondering if it was possible we could make it to the refuge before dark - so we put on our skates and got to the cabin just before the big climb at 2.55 with 5 minutes to spare for our own cut off time. Just as well as the cabin was not one we would ever sleep in and it was not a scenic spot for setting up camp.
We headed on up in the heat of the sun. I was running on adrenalin and had a lot of energy but Jeff was finding it a slow slog with the heavy pack and heat. When we reached a grassy point we stopped for a quick break. I didn't want to stop long as knew we were cutting things very fine - but Jeff needed one. It's amazing what a cig can do - after that he was rejuvinated and ready to press on again (and maybe the water and nuts contributed slightly as well).
We'd been moaning about the heat on the first section of uphill but after our break the temperatures dropped and Jeff put on his coat and beanie for the next part of the climb. This was much easier but sections of the path, that had water running down it, were frozen and slippery.
We started losing light at 6pm and at 6.15 it was dark. We got out our head lamps (sorry, Jeff has corrected me, I got out my head lamp and Jeff used his night vision - and promplty almost fell flat on his face).
We were at the refuge just after 6.30 and looked forward to getting inside to the warm but the door was locked. We found another door and that was also locked. We groaned not looking forward to setting up camp and cooking in the dark - but brainy us then went to what was the front of the refuge and this door was unlocked.
The refuge was warm - the down stairs room had a fireplace and two big tables and benches. We went up the stairs to the dorm room and there were dry mattresses and it was a great set up as we could make a double bed.
We knew we were a bit dehydrated so promised ourselves we'd have a cuppa tea before tucking into the full carafe of wine - which we did. We then had very yummy gourmet mushroom soup with the fresh baguette we'd bought in the morning from the bakery - followed by tom yum flavoured noodles, a bag of sweets and a hot chocolate.
Ras de la Caranca (1831m) to Mantet (1550m)
We both slept really well and woke to the lovely view of the trees, hills and sunshine from our bed at 8am.
Jeff was keen to try out the outhouse this morning as we'd read about it in the Hairy Hikers book (a book about 2 English guys trip coast to coast on the GR10). They said you had to peddle while on the loo which propelled a conveyor belt to move your business along. Unfortunately, the outhouse was locked so it was back to the woods with the proverbial bear.
Right now we are sitting in the sun on the picnic table outside the refuge - drinking cups of tea and having our breakfast, thinking that we should think about moving as it's now 10.25am. "Just one more cig" Jeff's just declared, "and anyway, we still have 7 hours till sunset."
We finally left the lovely setting at about 11am and headed up through the forest for only 100 vertical metres and then down for 80m.
We next had to drop down to 1466m before the last little climb of nearly 100m to Mantet. The after lunch walk took us longer than expected as it was quite steep and rocky for the beginning section.
The second half was much nicer as it was on grass and a well formed path.
We arrived at Mantet about 5pm and sat on the balcony, of the chambre d'hote Chez Richard's we were staying at, drinking beers and orange juices.
We had a bedroom and our own bathroom and an area with a table - and a seat outside for having our cigs. We were pleased as it was completely separate from the main house.
We had dinner in their house though. We had pumpkin soup, bread, spaghetti cabonara and then an apple tart and dinner included a carafe of red wine. I was craving salad and veges but unfortunately there was none with the dinner. My craving wasn't helped when Richard and Angeline had their dinner at the table next to us and they had a salad with their starter and main meal - and then had fruit for dessert. I guess they figure that walkers want/need lots of carbs.
We tried our best to chat with the couple but it was difficult with the language barrier. Richard can speak French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese - but unfortunately not Kiwi or Aussie.
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