Yay. We've replanned. No Refuge Espingo today, and the 1600m climb to get there.
Instead we're a bit relieved, and nowhere near as grumpy as we were yesterday. We'll be taking the luggage taxi up and over the hill to Luchon, arriving a day early, spending two nights... then taking an early morning train to Toulouse and picking up a rental car for two weeks. Since our lodging's already paid for, we'll drive around from place to place, and we won't have to walk for hours in the heat (by the way, here's the hourly forecast from meteo.fr for Luchon.
Meanwhile, we're in Germ, and I'm typing this out on my third coffee and we're both replanning things. A waterfall? Sure. How about an animal park? Maybe. For the four or five refuge nights, far away from roads, can we park and walk? Yes, and each refuge has a website that generally lists the parking options and a trail description. This won't be terribly difficult.
It's good as well--I'm starting to develop shin splints, which is a bit surprising, as it's been over a month of walking, so why are they starting up now. Nothing severe, as the doctor would ask "it's a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10". I had them a fair bit when I ran cross-country and played soccer in high school, but that's getting to be awhile ago, going on half century to the era of Watergate.
The taxivan arrives at 11 and we scoot up a hill--lots and lots of bicyclists--across some already hot and dry upland pastures. I realize that we're prime taxi customers around here, some amateur sports enthusiasts, because what else can you do if you're out on a 80km bike ride and the bike breaks down, or you twist your ankle and have to walk back an hour to a road? He's very chill.
The chambres d'hôtes we have is great--le Patio de Luchon--and there's even a fan in the room for once, not that there's any climtasation. Nap, dinner a block away on the main drag, and bed. It's good to not have to march and march and march.
