The Pyrenees pt3: 18/08 - 25/08

Day 26 – Saturday 25th August
Estany deth Cap deth Port - Arties
Time walking – 7 1/4 hours + breaks
Distance – 22 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 770/390 approx

We had heaps of rain overnight, but the wind managed to dry everything. I love a dry, light tent in the pack! A short morning climb led us to the boundary of the Parc Nacional de Aiguestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, which is quite a mouthful. Bridgette had visited a different section of this park during her previous visit to Spain in 2004, and was very keen to show it to me. It is a relatively small park, and can be crossed in a bit over 1 day. the section we covered would be crossed in about 1.5 hours. We left the park and headed to Refugi de Colomers, next to a large Estany and had lunch.
It was al down, down, down after that, following a long road that headed towards the town of Salardu. Many tourists were passed, including a taxi run between the town and the track head to the Refugi. It took almost 3 hours to arrive at Salardu. We had to continue onto Arties to find a campground.
Arties is a wonderfull little town in the Vall d’Aran, a valley that was disconnected from the rest of Spain until the 1950’s when the tunnel was first constructed. It has the prestige of having the only Brown bear in the Pyrenees, bit it is very bored spending it days wandering around a big cage while people take photos of it, poor thing. The campsite was quite nice and we were able to wash our closed and eat dinner at a local tapas bar in town. A great end to a long section of walking.

Day 25 – Friday 24th August
N230 Wild Camp - Estany deth Cap deth Port
Time walking – 6 1/2 hours + breaks
Distance – 20 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 900/500 approx

A good night sleep and the rain had finally stopped. We followed the river upstream until coming to the Hospital de Vielha, a huge construction are at the mouth of a major tunnel. It was quite weird to walk past heavy machinery! We had lunch at the Estany de Ruis after a long steep climb over the pass. The climb was worth it, as the landscape was quite stunning.
We descended through the valley, passing a variety of old damn infrastructure, until we met a pair of day walkers who couldn’t find the carpark. We told them that there was definitely no carpark the way we had come from, and suggested that the should try to join onto the track that continued down the valley. Hope they made it.
A short climb up to the Refugi de la Restanca, followed by another up to Estany deth Cap deth Port, our campsite for the night. We had plenty of time to relax, about 3 hours actually, because we didn’t want to set the tent until 8pm as we were only 45 minutes from the Refugi. A fantastic sunset over the lake with mountains beyond.

Day 24 – Thursday 23rd August
Lagos de Vallibierna - N230 Wild Camp
Time walking – 4 3/4 hours + breaks
Distance – 14 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 800/1400 approx

Awoke to fresh snow which was very pretty. We had a short chilly in the shade to Collado de Vallibierna, at which point the sun hot our faces and we immediately felt warmer. The walking from here was quite spectacular, passing the lakes, peaks and boulder fields of the Anglios region. We finally found a piece of track that we would consider to be “tassie-style”, steep, muddy, wet with no human intervention, as we descended into the valley.
We crossed a major road as the sky began to open. Continuing to walk through the rain for about 30 minutes we found a secluded campsite beside a river. A short day.

Day 23 – Wednesday 22nd August
Camping Aneto - Lagos de Vallibierna
Time walking – 6 1/4 hours + breaks
Distance – 19 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 970/640 approx

Camping Aneto defiantly had the best showers, that good that we both couldn’t help ourselves and had another this morning! We followed the GR11 up a long dirt road for about 3 hours, until we reached the Refugio de Coronas which also happens to double as a bus stop. I guess that since Aneto is pretty close this is used as an inroad for serious mountaineers. The track got a lot prettier from here, as we wound our way up our campsite for the night next to Lagos de Vallibierna (2484m).
The weather started to come in and we dashed to put the tent up. Bridgette cooked diner and I put the last peg in just as the ice started falling from the sky. Could be a cold night!

Day 22 – Tuesday 21st August
Vindos campsite - Camping Aneto
Time walking – 8 1/2 hours + breaks
Distance – 26 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 800/670 approx

The big decision was weather we were going to continue to follow the HRP over the 3 extreme graded days which included 4 very hard passes and 3 glaciers, or make a diversion and follow the GR11 though easier terrain but slightly less impressive areas. Thankfully we didn’t need to make the decision, the weather did it for us. We awoke to some very miserable conditions, and I was ready to stop after 1 hours of hiking though heavy drizzle, passing numerous fully gore-tex clad hikers coming in the opposite direction.
So we took the GR11 route, which we would follow for the next 3 days, which lead us to 2572m pass, Puerto de Gistain. At this point we were very happy to have taken this route as there was some pretty serious ice and sleet happening, along with settled snow in the sheltered areas. Pete almost lost it at this point of the walk. A very quick descent took us to the Refugio de Estos for lunch and a warm coffee. We continued down the valley to Camping Aneto, the Hilton of camp sites.
This was easily the best site of the entire trip, complete with vast quantities of showers, a swimming pool, restaurant, bar and a huge supermarket allowing us to purchase some real food (eggs, milk, bread and fruit). It was great to have such great facilities after a hard day of walking through pretty ordinary conditions.

Day 21 – Monday 20th August
Rio de Barrosa - Vindos campsite
Time walking – 8 hours + breaks
Distance – 24 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 1500/860 approx

Neither of us slept well, too many dreams about non-existent bears! The first hour was spent walking down through the valley which was quite nice. It gave Bridgette heaps of time to cool down after she realised that we hadn’t set the camera back to the correct ISO setting since being in the UK. 10 rolls of film, possibly stuffed, all because of 1 rolls of cheap film in the Yorkshire Dales. Lets hope they turn out ok when we get them processed.
The day was spent completely on the GR11, which equates to a very comparatively boring day of hiking. I think we are becoming very spoilt in regards to the areas that we have seen, even the remotely amazing landscapes are barely good enough now. We are landscape snobs!
The afternoon hiking was long, and all downhill until we reached our campsite for the night. At the end of a valley past a few other abandoned camp/holiday sites we found the very basic Camping Vidos, complete with generator power and marginally warm showers. At least we got one! A good nights sleep was in order as tomorrow we have to make a fairly big decision.

Day 20 – Sunday 19th August
Cabane de l’Aguila - Rio de Barrosa
Time walking – 6 3/4 hours + breaks
Distance – 19 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 1500/1600 approx

A clear night ensured that the morning mist was very think, and over breakfast we punched in the main GPS points for the first part of today’s walk. We were quite amazed to pass many French walker wearing very minimal clothes despite it being the coldest morning that we had encountered so far. A long climb over loose scree lead us to the Hourquette de Chermentas where we had lunch with a group of French walkers and a couple of vultures.
The mist continued to come and go as we got closer to the Spanish border. Amazingly, within 15 minutes of crossing the border (Port de Barroude) and starting our descent on a quite well marked track the mist cleared completely.
We were treated to a fantastic, well hidden wild camp next to a great little river in the base of the valley. The landscape here reminded us of pictures we have seen from Canada and the Rocky mountains. Let’s hope that there are no bears here!

Day 19 – Saturday 18th August
Gavarnie – Cabane de l’Aguila
Time walking – 8 hours + breaks
Distance – 24 Km approx
Ascent/Descent – 1150/1000 approx

An early rise was in order as I had to race down to the shop to purchase fresh bread and call his parents before breakfast, which was scrambled eggs and croissants. Having 10 days food in your pack makes it stupidly heavy, but we needed to make sure that we had enough food for the emergency days as well. By the time we got to the first refuge (2 hours, 700m) the day had heated up and I had to offload some of his weight to Bridgette. I think my eyes were too big for my body, and I didn’t want to give BJ any extra weight incase her knee started playing up again.
From the Refuge were were offered a stunning view of the upper section of the Cirque de Gavarnie, with a full view of the Breche de Roland. Typically the sky was now crystal clear, unlike the previous night. We had purchased some proper French mountain cheese, and it was exceptional with lunch that we ate on the pass at Hourquette D’Alans (2430m).
The descent to Heas was very easy, passing though a reserve area that had a extremely blue damn. There were plenty of tourists and day walkers as we started getting closer to a main road. The final 6 Kms down and along to Heas were all un-avoidably on tarmac road, and it seemed to take forever to reach our ice cream stop! We pressed on to complete the an extra 1:15 of walking with 400m of climbing before setting up camp in a concrete bunker cabin, which was warm and served its purpose well. We were also treated to multiple visits by the local marmot population, which must have been well in excess of 20.