- Distance: 13.0km (269.4km total)
- Ascent/Descent: 680m up, 1128m down
- Time: 5 hr 44 min
After a great stay and breakfast, we're off on a sunny and moderate day to Arrens.
Just like last night, the Hôtel Boule de Niege did not disappoint with breakfast--not only was there the typical baguette and jams, but there was also pancakes with maple syrup and quiche thing and such. Best breakfast yet.
Today was just hiking up and out of the bowl that Gourette sits in, over a pass, through another valley, then drop down to Arrens. Rain was forecast for the afternoon, but with 0.2mm of rain an hour we guessed it'd be more like mist.
The trail up to the col was steep and about half in the woods and half above the treeline. It's taken a few days to realize that when the GR10 is in the trees, it's gonna be a nasty steep climb, stumbling over roots and rocks, occasionally requiring a hand grab to haul my marmoty body up over some silly waist-high rocks. Once above treeline, the track calms down, yeah there are rocks but it's generally gentler. Today was just like that.
We got up high, then dropped down to the road. The delighful woman running the hotel last night warned us "take the road, it's the ancein GR10, it's so much easier" and we could see why. The road was just cut along a level contour; the trail dipped into the valley and dropped 250m, then went back up to meet the road. Do we wanna avoid 250m of climbing? Yep, same views, less effort.
It was also Saturday morning so that maybe 6 to 8m wide road had a lot of bicycle traffic. And
motorcycles, lots of R1200GS's zoom zoom, an occasional Tenere or Honda, a Harley or two. Both
the bikes and the motorbikes put a damper on traffic speeds, not that you could go very fast.
At that narrow bits even a minivan like vehicle would have to wait for oncoming traffic to pass.
Up and over a little col, then down to Arrens. We stopped for lunch at a little spot on a ridgeline, then dropped down to our "vacation village".
I was aniticpating something like those condo-like complex, with Cokes and ice cream and stuff for the kids. Maybe a pool? Nope, this were converted livestock buildings. Worse yet, we arrived at 2:40pm, and the reception was closed until 4. The rain hadn't come--instead it had inched its way up to 27C or so--and some other guest told us "oh you can wait here". Uh, where? It's a big broad field, there's shade over near a creek with some shipping pallets, so we waited there on the pallets for an hour.
This whole French thing about "oh we're just gonna shut down for two hours" in the middle of the day is exasperating. It's not too much to ask to have a staff member helping out for an hour--especially on weekend when you're expecting a couple of dozen guests. Or provide a place to sit in the shade, or even a picnic table. The whole place was disappointing and vaguely felt like a cult compound, broken light fixtures outside that have been that way for 30 years, rotting wood fascia. At least there wasn't cowshit everywhere.
Finally we were shown to our room, through a large activity room that was a final resting place for half a dozen large sofas. Our room had two bunk beds, a shared toilet in a very small closet (I couldn't turn around to close the door, which came within eight inches of the bowl), a shower.
Chris took the first shower, closed the room door--and a deadbolt locked. Uh? We couldn't get it open, so I went and took my shower through an outside door and around the building, and then found the guy who checked us in who was surprised and fiddled with the lock and he determined that the bolt sometimes didn't slide all the way back. Not exciting to be locked in that room in the grubby place, and I really didn't see the point of "don't wear your shoes in the room or take your backpacks to your room, cleanliness!" when I felt the dusty room floors.
Looking outside the window as well, I could see just crap scattered everywhere, steel trusses rusting, huge bags of builders sand and gravel for some project, a half-built wall, various structures with rebar sticking out. This felt like someone's hobby farm, not a real business.
At least we had something to do, which was get away. Chris had ordered some new hiking shorts, so we walked to town to pick up a package from Decathalon, with shorts and goodies, and walked back. Cute town, but eww I don't want to be back at the grubby place.
We were both just feeling ugh, and looking at a tough two days to Cauterets, with an overnight in a refuge, we decided we wanted an upgrade. My right knee is making that odd popping it sometimes does--this has been happening for years--but it's also a bit numb on the outside, I can't feel anything, though it did get better after dinner and was tingly at bedtime. We both feel a bit worn out, so we decided that the upgrade was a couple more rest days in Cauterets and called our luggage taxi driver, who agreed to take us to Cauterets in the morning (the refuge has no roads to it, so our heavy luggage is being sent ahead). That pleased both of us.
Dinner was actually OK--some chicken basque thing, a good cantelouipe/feta/pumpkin seed/chives salad, some blueberry yogurt thing. Room was hot (this is pretty much expected now), so I opened the exterior door and hoped the flies and dogs running around stayed out, and then bed.
Happy to be in a larger town tomorrow, and looking forward to a few days of recuperation.