Day 39: Fermes les Bouries to Wild Camp after Col d'Escots on slopes of Pic de Cerda

I woke up at about 5AM for a cheeky wee not too far from my tent. I couldn't face the walk down to the loo! It turned out to be a wee with a view as I was treated to an amazing moon and star sky. The moon looked just under half, really bright! There were all the classic stars, including the one with 3 in a straight line, and the cooking pan one! But to add to it all that white belt was visible, almost cloud like! Astronomy isn't one of my strong points! Anyway, my bleary 5AM eyes and empty bladder were satisfied to get some more sleep after such a spectacle.

Despite a rain free night the tent was really wet this morning! Without any prospect of direct sun soon it was also going to be futile to wait for it to dry! Therefore I put my big boy pants on and braved the chilly air like a trooper! Actually, once out of the sleeping bag and breaking camp, it wasn't too bad! 

From Ferme des Bouries there was a bit of road to the village of Couflens (698m). There was nothing more than a bus stop here so I kept moving as I had to get up to the Gîtes at Ferme Rouze for a telephone appointment, I just hoped there'd be signal as Fermes des Bouries was devoid of all signals! I'd had a digital detox!

The path up to Ferme de Rouze was fairly steep up an old rocky walkway. The farm and Gîtes was in a beautiful setting, a collection of farm buildings surrounded by organic vegetable plots, a small self service cheese shop and a great Gîtes building where self service coffee was available! And signal! A perfect start to the day.

Telephone appointment done, and feeling really good for the trekking ahead, I left Rouze and started up the rest of the climb. What a great Gites that was! I don't like the idea of the dorms at the Gites as I don't sleep well in them, but some of the locations and set-ups are awesome. I left with some chocolate which I paid over the odds for in the honesty box as I'd taken good advantage of the free coffee!

The path climbed steeply past many old abandoned farm buildings, or possibly it was an old village that has had it's time in it's old format?

A couple of buildings were being renovated by some lucky person or people. It would be a difficult home to get to and from, but an awesome spot to live. I can certainly picture myself somewhere similar. I think I'd be content with life with such a project to work on!

The GR10 continued to climb through forest up towards Col de la Serre de Cot (1546m). It was apparant that this was definitely going to be a hot day!

The Col was very wide and open and views either side stretched a long way to the horizon. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and from my vantage point I could see Mont Valier and it's friends in the distance. I couldn't stop my mind wondering with slight jealousy how awesome the Estours valley and Refuge d'Aula area must be on a day like this! All that wild camping gold with perfectly clear skies and warmth!

I didn't spend too long thinking like that though as the views I had here soon brought me back into the moment I was in!

After a lovely and very warm break on the Col the GR10 started a long descent through forest towards Saint-Lizier d'Ustou (740m). The shade provided by the canopy of the forest was very welcome! It was a long switchback descent, followed by a few kilometres of track into the village. Lovely and peaceful.

On arrival at Saint-Lizier d'Ustou, the GR10 travelled straight down the main, actually the only street in Saint Lizier! I checked out the Gîtes d'étape which had a lovely little self-service organic shop. There was also a restaurant and little general shop a bit further on, which had some nice outdoor seating, so this was ideal for my lunch stop.

I had a confused wander through the tiny shop that seemed to have a great array of choice. It's difficult to make the right selection when really hungry! I plumped for Bio Sesame biscuits, tomatoes and local Goats cheese! Mmmmm, mmmm!

I sat outside in the shade to enjoy my lunch and was joined by a young lady who had sat for a bit with me back at the Rouze Gîtes. Instead of me using my broken French as I did at Rouze, she spoke her near perfect English this time! It was over this lunch that for the 2nd time I was embarrassed by the knife I was using, compared to the knife someone else was using! My friend with the ankle problem, and my friend today, both had these Opinel knives, really sharp and well made in Savoie! I had a little 3 piece cutlery set that looked like it was from a toy shop! Hmmmm, I might have to do something about this I thought as I tried to look relatively calm attempting to slice a tomato with my blunt toy knife!

Armed with information about the new knife I wanted, and quite frankly needed to restore my dignity, I headed out of Saint Lizier. I was a touch regretful I wasn't staying there as it was really attractive, but it would've been a very hot afternoon there at the campsite, and I'm sure there would be a nice wild camp somewhere up high!

The path started a long ascent as soon as it left Saint-Lizier d'Ustou that would initially take me up to Col de Fitte (1387m). Again I was very grateful for the shade of forest, and was also grateful as I got higher up for the views from below the trees that the steep sided valley provided.

Villages soon appeared tiny below but there was still a long way to climb. It's fascinating how quickly things appear so far away when the path climbs steeply.

The terrain opened up from the woodland after Col de Fitte. View on this clear hot day were beautiful.

Across the valley from me was Pic de Couret (1411m), and with the quite attractive ski resort of Guzet -Neige on the other side of me there was a nice feeling of getting up high into the mountains again.

The mind was feeling light and peaceful, and thoughts had turned to where to camp and water sources.

I had an initial plan to trek up and over Col d'Escots (1618m), hopefully get water at the ski lift restaurant there, and then look for camping on the following section of the trail.

There was a brief section of the path that ascended a high speed downhill mountain bike track! I did try to keep to one side as my pondering went towards images of being taken out by a mountain biker! That was definitely not how I wanted my trek to end!

After surviving the mountain bike track gauntlet, the path narrowed significantly and cut across and round a Pic de La Mire (1741m) with stunning views around peaks and down into valleys.

I could see the ski lift restaurant building and hoped that an outside tap was available as I was just about out of water and it looked like it was closed.

The restaurant was indeed closed and despite two circuits of it I couldn't locate an outdoor tap. I investigated what I presume was an intricate cattle and sheep water source, and kind of modern small pump system feeding a container. After imagining what it would be like getting out the tent every half an hour overnight if the water wasn't too healthy for my system I decided to persevere a bit thirsty to streams I knew would be reliable!

So, once round Col d'Escots the sense of remoteness was full on. A beautiful vista lay ahead, and I the excitement of the wild camp started to build.

Sometimes I've wondered where all that lightning lands from the storms I've experienced, maybe this is the result of one bolt I thought! Don't rate my tent standing up to a hit!

It was a fairly flat route into this section of the day's trek, and the only complaint I could have was the building number of flies that seemed to want to follow me along as I walked, occasionally landing in an ear, or up a nostril, or on a bead of sweat!

I was fairly calm at first, but by the time I was near where I thought a camp would be possible I was raging like a little child at these 'disgusting' insects. I felt the more I insulted them with robust language the more they would listen and have a think about their behaviour! My favourite (minus the robust language) was to remind them how much other space around us there was for them to go away and do their fly stuff elsewhere! I pleaded for them to answer that with with all this space available to them why did they choose me to annoy?!

They didn't listen! Arseholes! Anyhow, I had some restbite from them when I reached the stream where I could relieve my thirst. Lovely mountain stream water!

Close by was an area of ground above the path that looked great for wild camping, however I had planned to wild camp a bit further on in a valley where the Ruisseau de Fouillet flowed down a waterfall in a spectacular narrow valley, so I carried on. When I arrived there was a young lady setting up in the best spot - I nodded and said hello but she seemed either shy or non-plus at my pleasantries, or possibly she saw me ranting at flies like a madman?! Either way, the other areas were a bit too pastoral with a lot of sheep turd covering potential camping spots, and I felt a bit intrusive to her wild camp, so I pretended to scout out all areas proding the ground with my boot and looking not happy, before walking back past her and saying bye!

Once out of sight after my random foray into the valley, and my cool exit without too much embarrassment, I stormed back up the path I'd just descended to set up camp where I'd first considered setting up camp! It was a great spot, with fantastic views, nothing could spoil it! Nothing but another army of flies that's sole purpose in life seemed to be dedication to annoying me! Same army, different army? All I knew was that they were incessant whilst I set up and they still wouldn't listen to my swearing at them to stop picking on me and to go eat the multitude of animal poos they could be feasting on! Bizarrely, but to my massive relief, when I'd finished setting up, they seemed to have finally got the message and they left me in peace! Hooray! See we came to an amicable solution after about an hour of arguing!