HRP Day 31 Salardu - Estanys Rosari de Baciver

Friday 7 August 2015

Back on the trail, and a long day in prospect today. The guide says 7 1/2 hrs, which means at least 10 for me allowing for stops etc. However tomorrow's stage is much shorter.
I set off about 8.30am and started to climb. Salardu is at about 1250m and I am now at 2500m, so I have gone up 1250m during the day with some flatter bits but almost no down at all. And it has been very hot indeed, which has made me a bit sluggish. I also bought food in vielha which together with the extra water has made my pack feel rather heavy. So no speed records have been set today!

The route first takes you up the Aran valley to a beautiful old village called Bagergue. Apparently it is where the Spanish royal family stay when they come here to ski. Beyond that, at the head of the valley is the ski station itself, and the less said about that the better. After that however there is a pleasant walk up to a reservoir, and beyond that you pass a series of lakes or "estanys," which are extremely picturesque. Despite all the water around, finding drinking water was problematic. There are a lot of cows and horses hereabouts, which means all stream and lake water must be treated. I did stop and filter and treat some water from a tiny stream above the lake, trying to ignore the piles of dung everywhere around.
After passing the top lake, the route carries on straight up the mountainside. Grass at first, then rock and scree and very steep. I was just starting to plough up the rocks, when I found a source, a spring. They are easy to tell because the water is clear and icy cold. You fill a bottle and condensation forms immediately. And it tastes fantastic. So I emptied away all the water I had painstakingly filtered and treated, and rinsed and refilled all my bottles. Then I set off again, but after 100m or so I thought "Hang on, that was a Sign, wasn't it?" It was about 5pm by now, so I stopped and put my tent up there and then.
I even managed to find the source again, after a bit of casting about, and I am now sitting in my tent gazing at the truly spectacular view and listening to bonging noises coming from the horses all around. Supper was packet soup with added rice (and a stock cube for good measure) and some baguette.
Ever since Parzan, I have been travelling through gorgeous country. It has been a delight, especially with the good weather. However thunderstorms and rain are chforecast for tomorrow, but we shall see. If it's raining when I am ready to leave I shall wait it out, but I don't really want to sit in a tent all day.  

Until recent times,  this was the only road up the Aran valley to Bagergue 

Looking back down the valley. Salardu is at the bottom, with a little village called Unya next to it

a photo for Dan, taken at the ski station, which had a lot of such like that left around

emergency cooling arrangements 

the view from my tent. The fine mountains in the distance probably haven't come out in the photo. The only blot on the horizon is s radar mast, but I am wondering if that I'd the reason for my strong mobile signal here! 

The tent, with noisy horse. All her mates have turned up since. I have earplugs. .

Up those rocks I go, in the morning

HRP Day 30 - Salardu rest day

Thursday 6 August 2015

I've read that day 30 is supposed to be a low point on a long distance walk, the time when people start wondering if it's really worth it and are prone to giving up. It's not a problem for me, because I think that of all the five sections, the next one is likely to prove the biggest challenge. I also feel that once I've finished it, I shall be on the home straight. We shall see! The final section should not be dismissed, including as it does the iconic Mount Canigou (2784m) as well as an (optional) climb to the top of Pic Carlit  (2921m), the highest point in the eastern pyrenees. Poco a poco, as they say, little by little, one thing at a time. Today I must carefully plot the route for this leg. 
Salardu was once a pleasant, tiny village. It had one shop, a small supermercado, and a plaza major with three or four bars and restaurants, with narrow streets and alleys leading off it. Now, it is overlooked by modern skiing-related high-rise apartment blocks and hotels, all currently shut up. Few things look worse than a ski resort out of season. Fortunately, the nice little village is still there, if you look for it.

Having some time to spare, I was greatly daring and caught a bus down the valley to the local metropolis, Vielha. It is a fair size town, with a long high street and (today, anyhow) a bustling market. It had a supermercado grande, where I bought food - soup, biscuits, nuts, chocolate - to supplement my supplies for the next week or so. I also bought a small tub of dubbin, to give my boots a treat which after 30 days walking, is somewhat overdue perhaps. But goretex-lined boots should not be treated very often. The more supple the leather, the more stress on the goretex lining.

Thought for the day:  have you ever emptied a bag onto a candlewick bedspread, that turns out to have rather a lot of biscuit crumbs in it, and then discovered just how hard it is to brush them all off again onto the floor? 

I had dinner at "Eth Bot," which proclaims itself to be a Boteria Araneso, we being in the Aran valley. It is brim full of character, and the food is great, for not much money. Recommended. This would be a lovely area to tour around in a car. 

Updates may be a bit sporadic over the next week or so, as we approach Andorra 

Looking down towards the plaza mayor... 

... and looking up towards it. 

the Hostal deth Pais, with the flower baskets. It's a pretty building but hard to photograph as there is not much space around it. 

a typical alley or "carrer." Old salardu is small but charming. 

HRP Day 29 Refugio de Restanca - Salardu

Wednesday 5 August 2015

In the end the nice lady running the refuge found me a bed. In fact I don't think anyone had to sleep in the dining room, which does make you wonder just a bit about their arithmetic. My bed was in a room on the top floor with 12 beds, when I went to bed it was otherwise empty, but some time after 11 two Spanish families with kids turned up. They didn't turn the lights on, but there was so much noise, talking, waving torches around, loud shushing noises, cursing, dropping things etc etc that they might as well have. I have ear plugs.
I did like Restanca. There isn't really much difference between it and say,  Respomuso, except for the people - but golly what a difference that makes. They were bang full, and told me they served 70 meals during the evening, but it didn't seem to faze them at all. I noticed after our sitting was finished that they served a second lot who had arrived late, still cheerful. Good stuff, not many refuges would do that.
I woke up about 6 and got dressed in the dark, everyone else still asleep. I might have accidentally waved a torch about a bit, and let the door slam rather loudly on the way out.. so careless of me. Hope it didn't wake them up. 
Then set off for Salardu, about 7.30.. Most of the way follows the waymarked GR11, so navigation was not hard. There was quite a lot of picking your way over rocks etc., and some steep descent, but lower down it began to level out and went through some very pretty scenery,  then woodland. The biggest problem was people, I saw literally hundreds of Spanish walkers and holidaymakers, evidently this is quite a tourist area. And it is August. I stopped and had a beer at a hotel called the Banhs de Tredos, a lovely place in the forest about two hours before salardu. I quite fancied staying there, but they were full up. It looked a bit pricy, too. So I carried on to Salardu, and am now esconced in the Hostal deth Pais, a comfortable small, cheap hotel. I will be here tomorrow too, a rest day is called for as I have now completed the third of the five HRP sections. The hotel will do some washing for me, and there is a supermercado around the corner.

Woke

Looking back down at Refugio Restanca and its lake. Refugios in these parts have no truck with donkeys, they are supplied by helicopter, and you can see one landing right by it. 

same view, a bit higher. The helicopter has taken off and is starting to head away down the valley

more lakes. .

this is my french friend Arlette (I think) from Brittany.  

HRP Day 28 Refugio de Conangles - Refugio de Restanca

Tuesday 4 August 2015

A reasonably gentle day today, which I was glad of as I am still feeling under the weather. I was ready to leave by about 7.30am, but it was raining so I waited half an hour or so until it stopped. Once it did so it turned into a nice day, with sunny intervals but not too hot. There was the usual stiff climb ofabout 800m to plough up, to the Port de Rius, 2320m, and then a very pleasant walk along several lakes, and a short, stiff climb up to the Refugio Restanca.
I had been told the Refugio was full, and so it was, but they said that I could sleep in the dining room after the meal was finished, if that would be ok? Along with ten others apparently. I was not too sure about this but there is a prediction of storms again tonight, as there was last night, so in the end I agreed. We shall see, but what I would say is that the staff could not have been more helpful or friendly. Haven't I always said that, about Spanish refugios?  :-)
Dinner was excellent (no pasta!)
Tomorrow is a long day's walk to Salardu, and the end of the third section of the HRP. I think a rest day will be called for, some of my clothing is beginning to complain of neglect.

tarns, natural lakes as opposed to the embalses (reservoirs) so widespread throughout the pyrenees, are common here and they do look very pretty. 

Refugio Restanca

view from the Refugio. 

HRP Day 27 lago de Vallebierna - Refugio de Conangles

Monday 3 August 2015

Didn't wake up until 6.30am, and didn't see any exotic fauna. I cooked some chocolate porridge for breakfast and set off around 8am. Weather promising, and in fact it has been hot for most of the day. I was thinking I would have an easy day today, having done two hours worth of this leg yesterday, but it was not to be. From where I camped, there was a 200m climb to the col which was quite high at 2710m, and hence involved a lot of scrambling over rock etc. After that there was one further col but mostly there was a long descent which took me a long time as I have to pick my way and look after my knees. In the end I didn't reach the Refugio Conangles until 7.30pm, fortunately in time to book a bed and a meal. Ten minutes after I arrived the heavens opened and there was a violent storm, so I was quite pleased with the timing. The meal was fine and I found some french walkers to talk to. My new strategy of pretending to be french, when arriving at Spanish refuges, seems to be working well. The sooner we give them Gibraltar back, the better. ..

view from the tent in the morning

difficult climb up to the col

nice view when you get there. There are three rows of mountains visible

view looking back from the col

where tomorrow's walk goes

HRP Day 26 Venasque - lago de Vallebierna

Sunday 2 August 2015

I had a highly satisfactory night at the Hostal Mirabelle. It was friendly & welcoming, the food was really extremely good - €14 for three courses, with three or four choices for each course, and Vin compris. The breakfast was also top class. I had a room with shower to myself, though it did have four beds in it. Any time you are near Venasque, I highly recommend it. My Spanish friend Elisa helped me check in, and the lady in charge had a little bit of English. She very kindly produced an English translation of the menu for me, so of course I chose the creamy cauliflower (which turned out to be a lovely soup), the cordon blue chicken biscuits (chicken breasts in breadcrumbs, silly) and curd with rosemary and honey (not sure what that was, but tasted great).
So I was in a good mood as I set off this morning, and looking forward to a relaxing day as I had completed about three hours of today's leg already. The day was not quite as relaxing as it should have been as the entire route was uphill. To start with, no problemo but as I got higher I started to feel a bit sluggish. My legs were fine, but my lungs, hitherto so improved, seemed to be labouring a bit. I ploughed on, and reached the stage destination, a plateau at about 2,200m, about 2pm. After a sit, a rest and some food I felt better and decided to carry on a bit further. Tomorrow's stage is a long one and it would be good to get a bit of it out of the way today.
So now I am in my tent, at a wonderful spot above the upper of the lagos de Vallebierna. The altitude here is over 2,500m so I have climbed about 1,300m in the day, the last 200 of which was scrambling (carefully!) over boulders. So a little tiredness is understandable. I have made some good inroads into tomorrow's walk to the hospital de Vielha and I am camped in a truly idyllic spot. From my tent I can see two marmots sitting on a rock about 30m away, I only noticed them because they made their distinctive whistling warning call, so loud that I jumped a foot in the air. This is the sort of place that izard or moufflon may come to to drink. I forgot to say yesterday that I saw a moufflon. A small, sandy coloured antelope. I am not sure, but I think pyrenean moufflon were hunted to extinction, and these have been reintroduced from corsica or somewhere. You will have to google it.
Also, today I met my Dutch friend Dyse (if that's how it's spelt) who I last saw in Candanchu. Funny how these things happen. I thought he might camp here too, but no.
Buenos nochas

two days with no rain and already the streams are less strong. This one is almost vertical, more of a waterfall

north face of the Maladeta massif

near where I shall camp for tonight. Sorry about the finger! 

HRP Day 25 Refugio Viados - nr Venasque

Saturday 1 August 2015

Rereading yesterday's post, I think I was Mr Grumpy when I wrote it! I warned you about that I think, highs and lows tend to be exaggerated rather on a long walk. It was an awful day, but fortunately, the weather today has been much better. When I got up it was raining, but when I came to leave about 8.30 the rain had stopped. It was cloudy and dull but gradually this improved too and by afternoon it was sunny, and warm but not too hot. Brill, and it is supposed to stay like this for a few days at least.
Today's walk was a straightforward one, along the GR11, with the usual stiff climb and long descent to the Refugio del Esto. I kept plugging away, and reached the Refugio by about 3.30pm. I had a beer and a chat with my young Spanish friend Elisa, who I first met after the pic d'orhy and who unexpectedly turned up just as I arrived.
Rather than stay at the Refugio, I decided to walk on further, towards Venasque, and I am now in a hostel near the Venasque road. That is good progress, more than 30 miles over the past two days, and I am almost 3 hours into today's stage already. I shall have to examine the map to see if that just means a shorter stage today or if I can push on a bit further.

Beautiful glacial valley I walked down, towards Venasque. You can ser the path on the right side of the valley

Ever since I set off, I have been keeping an eye out for my favourite flower, the mountain gentian, but I haven't seen any and I think maybe it has been and gone before I got here. Then yesterday, I saw this solitary example. . Is it a true gentian?  I'm not sure it has quite the full, vibrant, deep blue colour it should have, it is very pretty nevertheless