03/08/2022 - 31.38kms / 1211m ascent / 1818m descent
Gavarnie was a welcome stop to rest a bit, get clothes washed and relax, however I wasn't happy with myself for my stinking thinking day yesterday. In fact I was disgusted and upset. I felt a sense of wasted and lost time, and a sadness I needed to desperately shake off. I was therefore keen to get back on the trail and get the head straight and back into this wonderful adventure! I needed a good day to remind me of all the trail recently passed, and all the 100's of kms of trail yet to come!
Once out of the busy village I climbed back up to the Chalet-Refuge La Grange de Holle to regain the GR10 and my sanity! I considered another café au lait, but I had a lot of distance to cover today so I decided to sacrifice the opportunity and plough on! I'd manage without I thought!
Obviously I didn't get my planned walk around the Cirque de Gavarnie done as intended yesterday, so I was blessed and grateful for a cracking view of it from distance on the early morning climb. The weather was clear and warm, and the lovely blue sky framed it beautifully. That was a nice treat for me from the GR10, already doing it's magic!
Once across the Gave d'Ossou, the path started an ascent of the slopes of Soum de Canaus (2279m). It leveled out on the lower slopes as it traversed along the mountain on the Plateau de Saugué at about 1630m. There were great views of the new valley I was travelling through for the day, with the Gave de Gavarnie flowing far below. The view across from the grassy traverse I was on was of a beautiful series of mountains scrolling along right to left from Piméné (2801m). Too many to mention, but it was a pleasure to be back walking amongst such majestic beauty.
I could get some fairly quick kilometres done on the flat traverse, which was good for the day's plan, but I did keep being interrupted by plenty of much smaller but equally fascinating and beautiful things. I kept having to try and capture them, to show that although the mountain majesty is primary to my trail experience, they are complimented by all that inhabits and grows on them! And I appreciate the whole ensemble!
These flowers grew just above the ground. They reminded me of sunflowers, but even I know they aren't sunflowers! Anyway, the bees love them!
The butterfly or moth conundrum continued today! They have to be butterflies I told myself! Moths come out at night and fly around lights?! So, surely these beautifully winged things are butterflies!
They didn't seem to like the 'ground' flowers, but loved the purple ones that are very common on the slopes! Maybe they are fussy for a certain type of nectar food I mused as I continued towards my first stop at the Gîte d'étape le Saugué.
The Gîte was in a lovely location, a great place for a café au lait! It wasn't a great place for service though as the wait to order it was just about as much as I could take, and I won't even comment on the wait for it to be made! However, once it came I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Café au lait eventually drank I continued down the rest of the tiny road it was until the GR10 took a detour into the valley between Soum des Canaus and Soum Haut to cross the Gave d'Aspe.
The day was hot now, and for the moment the walking was relatively flat I thought. It's always crucial not to think that on this path because as soon as you do there's a climb!
And indeed there was a climb! It wasn't too bad. It was a nice meandering route up the slopes of Soum Haut, through occasional pine trees, to head into another valley, this time between Soum Haut (2289m) and Soum de Lianne de Castillon (2110m). The walk into the valley descended through a wooded area, but gave occasional glimpses of a very impressive waterfalls across the other side tumbling down a long way from cliffs looking up towards the giant Pic d'Ardiden (2988m).
The forest descent was very pleasant, and once across the Gave de Cestrède became a really narrow, tunnel like path! Difficult to describe, but trees had kind of formed a roof over the path, which must've been an old walkway. In fact there are lots of sections which are ancient paths, walked over possibly hundreds of years, and now trudged by GR10'ers!
Once out of the valley the path continued to round the lower slopes of Soum de Lianne de Castillon, and eventually joined a small road. I upped the pace a bit along this stretch as the weather looked like it was turning and I still had around 10kms to go! Would I have to walk in rain for the first time I began to think?! Amazing that in 3 weeks I'd not had to trek in a storm, or even in significant rain!
After the small road it was a surprise to have to walk a section on the main D921 road! Must have been at least a kilometre and was pretty tricky! This is where I discovered that traffic doesn't give much leeway to walkers, buy there wasn't any pavement! So, I made haste and was relieved to get back onto the path at the hamlet of Sia.
At Sia it started to rain, and it was a strange feeling to have to try on the rain jacket for the first time! I had bought a nice mustard colour compact packable rain jacket from Trespass, very nice indeed! I also managed to remember the rain cover that 'Superpack' has, which is bright yellow! So for the climb up and over Croix de Sia I had a mustardy yellow kind of look going on!
Once over the Croix de Sia climb I was on the final descent towards Luz-Saint-Sauveur, which came into view fairly soon. I always find it funny judging how far away a village is when you're still up in the mountains, so I made no assumptions on how long it would take me to get there!
Luckily the weather didn't get bad, just a minor wetting before the sun reappeared for the trek down to Pont Napoléon (755m) where I would cross the famous single arch bridge to cross high above the Gave de Gavarnie.
Arriving at the Chapelle de Solférino I knew Luz-Saint-Sauveur was just over the brow of the hill now. A longish day to get here, but with another two night stop booked before leaving the UK I knew I had an opportunity to have a much better long stop than Gavarnie! I was relieved about this thought!
It was lovely to get set up at the campsite in the dry after the thoughts of it potentially being a soaking camp when it rained on the way over to Luz from . I was at the top of the sloped campsite and as a treat I was driven up to my spot by electric cart! After getting sorted and showered I took a stroll into the village to find the shop to get treats for dinner! The brief experience of Luz-Saint-Sauveur gave a nice impression of an old mountain village, but as I was tired and it was getting on I retired to my tent for stuffing my face time! Mmmmm mmmm! All I wanted to do after that was lay in my tent and relax, which was a pretty good job as the rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning over surrounding mountains soon hit Luz-Saint-Sauveur!
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