Day 10: Larrau to 1 hour past St Engrâce on climb of Soum de Lèche

I packed up nice and early from the campsite and set off down the road to Auberge Logibar having a little smile about the shuttle I could have got up 2 days ago! I had a quick café au lait at Logibar and set off nice a fresh to see what the misty day held in store for me. The GR10 restarted climbing up the attractive Gorges d'Holzarté with the Ruisseau de Olhadubi flowing initially beside the trail but then far below as the path climbed.

After about 45 minutes I turned a corner to start seeing the impressive 70m suspension bridge 150m above the Ruisseau de Olhadubi. It's highly modernised now but was built in 1920 by Italian engineers to access wood from the Holzarté forest that I was about to trek through.

Despite the mist the forest climbing was pleasant and eventually reached a flat track and then narrow path that traversed the lower slopes of Negümendi (1307m). Once out of the forest the mist was thick and created atmospheric trekking, but it was a shame not to be able to see the views I knew were above and below me! I had started to concentrate on the smaller, often missed things when in mountain beauty. Flora, fauna, bugs, slugs and spiders! Really interesting, particularly the amount of these intricate and seemingly large spiders webs constructed over ferns, bracken and sundry other plants. In the damp, misty air they capture a lot of water. Do spiders drink water my mind was asking? That private school education shining through again!

Once the flat traverse came to an end the path turned onto a steep climb of a ridge of Negümendi, and then kept climbing towards Sarimendi (1484m). In the mist navigation was a little bit tricky, but it just required care to keep an eye on waymarkers through fern and grass terrain, oh and an effort with my easily wandering mind, concentrate Craig! A final climb of the ridge over inordinate amounts of sheep turds brought me to a farm at Abarrakia (980m).

From here there was a long stretch of farm track traversing the side of Sarimendi (1484m) and Izeyto (1464m) which I'm sure would've given great views but I was staring into white mist, cloud, fog or whatever it was .. my new term was going to be damn brouillard! Think that means fog, but at least I don't have to classify it in English now, and to me it sounded a much better word to utter with annoyance!

The GR10 left the nice flat track to ascend up a narrow path with some nice wooded areas to Col d'Anhaou (1383m) which was on the slopes of Izeyto (1464m). Now, I had planned to maybe camp up here as I thought it would be lovely. I'm sure the views were but this was also a sheep toileting area as there was more sheep turd than grass! Plus the BROUILLARD was thick! So, I started on the long descent towards Sainte-Engrâce which was for a long stretch on a road for access to the many farms up here.

The GR10 eventually veered off the road down a very narrow path through woods and then into more open ground until it popped out into relative civilisation of a few houses! A road took me down to the bottom of the valley and then a steep path up to the Gorges de Kakouéta. This gorge complex is renowned for being spectacular but post Covid it remains closed in an opportunity for much needed restoration it seems. It was a very heavily visited tourist spot, it seemed good it was being conserved for the future.

There had been zero camping opportunities and the weather was a concern, there was a light rain in the BROUILLARD which was OK but I didn't want to pitch in heavier rain. So I continued on to the tiny and picturesque Sainte-Engrâce (630m) where you can camp at Gites Burguburu.

The lady at the Gîte was apologetic and it's amazing how my mindset was fine with the situation. I'd hoped for a camp there, but it's full, I couldn't change that. The weather and time weren't on my side, so I had to get a move on and find somewhere for the night! There is a way of living I have had to adopt recently to stay well day by day and I try my best to incorporate into my daily life, I can't always manage it but at this point the days I can adopt it are outnumbered by the days I can't! Progress not perfection! It is summed up by working to have serenity about the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference! I've also learned a way to develop trust in decisions I'm not sure about being OK - this one would be more wierd to explain so I'll just leave it at that!

So, the Gîte lady had said camping by the river just out of St Engrâce was possible but these spots were pretty bad. I decided to push on for about an hour where my guidebook described a grassy switchback which could be used to camp?! I'll check that out I thought! It was a nice gentle climb up a very narrow ravine (Ravin d'Arpedia) but I couldn't stop to admire as had to go quickly through it due to time and weather. There was a steady light rain falling, but I was concerned it could worsen. At the end of the ravine the climbing steepness increased as the start of the steep ascent of Soum de Lèche (1839m) commenced.

However, I only needed to do a bit of this before I reached this grassy switchback. OK, I'll give it switchback status, but grass to camp on was a no! All was OK though, there was a roped off flat patch of really rough sort of grassy terrain, recently mown down it seemed. It was late, and I knew on the long steep climb ahead there was zero camping possibility, so this was home for the night! Setting up the tent was awful, the ground was a strange rough grass and cut back shrub mixture, not campsite material. But, got it done and managed to get organised and comfortable and clean in my tent. I bought this Lifeventure Dry Wash stuff to pack before I left, two bottles of course in the just in case packing mode I had! I thought it was a body wash, but it's actually and hand washing gel ... I beg to differ, I've started to use it to refresh the parts other gels cannot reach! It's great to clean feet and well, you know, other parts of the body!!