10/08/2022 - 20.71kms / 509m ascent / 1894m descent
It was a treat to wake up to a dry tent, after a having had a rain free night in a stunning location! I was fortunate to have the time to gaze at the amazing view from my tent door, content that I could watch the morning start and develop without the need to rush off! Plus I could stay warm in the sleeping bag!
My distant neighbour started packing up early, so I went over to be polite and say hello and wish him 'bonne marche'! He was a very nice young French guy doing the whole GR10 as well. We chatted about last night and he did indeed get smashed by the storm before making camp! I was lucky to arrive that hour before him. He also told me that as he passed by my tent he tried to say hello several times but to no response, so he initially worried there might be someone dead in the tent. He had therefore been relieved when I surfaced and had a look outside my tent after the storm! I had been dozing and relaxing podcast listening during the storm!
Once the young guy had departed, I had a nice and slow breaking of camp in the amazing surroundings I had been blessed to call home for the night. I find it difficult to leave camp spots like last night's but it was time to start the day's hiking. Initially there was a short, switchbacking climb out of the cliffs of Cap des Hount-Sec (2698m) which took me round onto a traverse of the cliffs of Pic de Subescale (2436m). Really impressive views down the steep sides of these mountains, giving me a view of the valley I'd crossed and climbed out of yesterday. The horizon was clear and beautiful, it was a great morning.
The path started another shortish climb up to Col de la Coume de Bourg (2272m) which was between the grassy mountains of Pic de Céciré (2403m) and Pic de Subescale (2436m). Quite soon into the descent I could see the ski resort of Superbagnères in the distance to my left. Had to be good for the morning café au lait! As I progressed into the descent the developing view behind was the highlight of the day! It was a magnificent vista of the upper reaches of the huge granite blocks of Cap des Hounts Sec (2698m), Petit Quayrat (2847m) and Grand Quayrat (3060m). Maybe even Pic de Hourgarde (2964m) was poking it's peak in there as well? Fantastic, imposing masses of rock with sheer cliff faces! It was the high terrain that last night's storm developed over. The only shame was it was behind me, but that certainly allowed for good breaks to stop and admire the view in the now very hot sun!
Superbagnères (1804m) eventually arrived after a break at a picnic table. From here my day took a turn for the worse! I was hoping for a nice attractive ski resort, with a lovely bar for a café au lait! Instead, it was a pretty ugly, small collection of big hotels! Therefore, I abandoned plans of the idyllic café au lait and carried on.
Well, I carried on to take a wrong turn as waymarkers were sparse to say the least - that was my excuse! It wouldn't have been so bad if it were flat but I descended about 100m, not a great deal but the subsequent climb back up in the boiling heat was very, very unwelcome. It was accompanied by some vigorous self deprecation with what seemed like suitable robust language at the time - I'm not sure if the dog walker understood English, I hope not! I think he gathered I wasn't happy with myself!
I don't know if it was the mistake, the most intense heat since the heatwave, the tiredness, or just me, or a combination of all factors - but the descent to Bagnères-de-Luchon (650m) was horrible. It was through forest, and possibly on another day would've been nice, but I didn't enjoy any of it. My legs felt very tired, my feet really sore, and my energy seemed to have decided not to be present or available! I can normally work through stuff like that with the mind taking over the bodily pain, like back in marathon running days, but not today it seemed!
With the nearly 1200m descent done, I stumbled into the large town of Bagnère-de-Luchon a bit broken! I headed to the main square, focused on café (either au lait or double - I didn't care by now!), but everywhere was too restauranty and fancy for a stinking trekker! It's a touristy thermal spa town!
So, I sat in the shade wondering what to do! I decided I was just going to carry on, I was too frustrated to think about other options to mitigate the heat and my tiredness! I'd been considering new shoes, as annoyingly the Addias Terrex were pretty badly worn on the soles - I'm a heavy trekker I guess, but the soles should be holding out better! However, the Intersport was shut until 15:00 and it was only 13:30! Grrrrr, more frustration!
After a brief chat with a friendly Scottish lady I stomped out of town. I bought loads of fruit and ate 2 apples walking along. Then my mind made me think that as I was entering the barren Ariège section next I should buy lots more food I didn't need! So two baguettes, a goats cheese and much more fruit later I had way too much to carry now!
But, like the good trekker I am I persevered out of town with a smile on my face and polite 'bonjours' until I found a picnic table where I smashed more fruit frustratedly into my mouth to the point of indigestion! The heat was very intense now and 500m more walking brought into view a bar/restaurant - definitely time for a double café! This should sort me out I thought!
The coffee momentarily sorted me out, maybe it was an illusion though, because as soon as I got going my thinking got stinking. I wasn't right up top.
I managed a few hundred more metres and arrived at a junction near Montauban-de-Luchon that had a sign to the campsite the nice Scottish lady had mentioned. That was it - I had let my mind get to a shit place without using any mitigating factors or using any processes I know absolutely know I can do. I stomped down the 1.5kms road to it with horrible stinking thinking. The only thing to report from the rest of the day was that I did replace the shoes with an amazing pair of Merrell Accentor Sport GORE-TEX® - the smell of new shoes was the only good thing of the evening and night, my apologies for that.
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