Jeez Louise, we’re in the Pyrenees 2.0
Apologies for the delay getting 2.0 over to you, we have been having too much of a good time and I always said from the start with the blog I didn’t want it to feel like a chore.
The Pyrenees has been amazing, better than I ever imagined and deciding to come here before the Alps was probably our best decision. We really did crave that wilderness feeling and that’s exactly what the Pyrenees national parks gave us.
We started our Pyrenees adventure in the High Pyrenees around the Neouvielle Massif Mountain range, which is where we hiked Pic Du Midi and I aIso hiked the Le Cabane trail. These blogs can be found in our previous posts on the links below:
George
George
The Pyrenees is separated in to 3 national parks on the French side, ‘Parc National des Pyrenees’, ‘Pyrenees Ariege’ and ‘Pyrenees Catalanes’ So before we moved National parks we moved mountain ranges, from Neouvielle to Garvanie, Gavarnie is famous for having some awesome climbing, The most western 3000m, Pic de Taillion. Next to Pic Taillion is the ‘Breche de Roland’ also known as the gate way to Spain, or France depending on which side you are on. We wanted to hike the trail to Breche de Roland but unfortunately weather just didn’t permit. Fortunately, next to Breche de Roland in the valley is what Gavarnie is really famous for, it’s huge glacial cirque!
Clique de Gavarnie, is a well known cirque (A cirque is a valley formed by Glacial erosion) in the Pyrenees and is pretty accessible, so we decided to go with the trail. The Trail starts in the quaint and wild-west feeling town of Gavarnie. The trail runs parallel with the river coming down from the Glacier and is a short 7km hike with about 300m of elevation, so pretty well suited to everyone. Despite the weather forecast the day turned out to be glorious, red-hot sunshine, clear blue sky’s and not a breeze to be felt.
The cirque is amazing, located at 1570m with sheer cliff faces surrounding the area, around 10 waterfalls flowing down the rock face around 200m. Although a popular tourist trail and the feelings of queues on the Llanberis path heading up Snowdon, once you reach the Glacier, it opens up and you can go off wandering the different glaciers that remain or falls away from the crowds. We had some lunch admired the view for a while and then headed down before the sun got the best of my ginger skin.
On the way down we mad a friend, a border collie, one green eye, one brown. We are not sure who his owner was, he had a collar and dogs aren’t permitted on the trail without a lead, but he just wouldn’t leave us alone. We had no interaction with him prior to heading down but his owner must also have a ginger beard because he just wouldn’t leave us. Running 20 meters in front and lying down until we get close to him and then running on another 20 meters. He was a lovely dog and very well trained, so we started to get a little worried if he was lost. So, it turns out we have a Border Collie now…no I joke, he ran into a garden about 4km down the trail and we never saw my friend ‘Gerald again.
When we got down, we treated ourselves to a beer, we stopped in a bar and restaurant called Hotel Le Marbore, where we was greated by a quirky bar manager. Once we finished our post hike treat of a beer, we headed back to the van, as we left and got 100m down the road the lady who managed the bar come running after me shouting in French at me because I left something on the table. This is where she told me ‘You have a little head’. I think she meant I am silly but Ellie is still taking it as she meant I had a pea head.
The Pyrenees is littered with Col de ‘something’ roads, which is basically a mountain road taking you high up to altitude, the Col des Tentes is the mountain road leading through Gavarnie. Taking you up to an altitude of 2200m, past ski lifts, sheep and fields of the dreaded mountains cows! Getting to the top of Col des Tentes isn’t as challenging as some of the other cols and well worth the trip. This is where you start the hike up to Breche de Roland and the views at the top are amazing! Huge cliff faces destined to be climbed, unfortunately it wasn’t to be this time! At the top of the Col there was a pretty big car park, but it felt eerie and quite scary. At the other side of the car park was a huge drop off into a cirque and it felt quite intimidating, yet there was a car park there for 50 cars+.
I have a lot of unfinished business in the Pyrenees and will be planning a trip out there with a couple climbing partners to go tick of some of the epic routes and summits the Pyrenees offers. Ellie isn’t a climber nor is she ever going to be, she is just simply terrified of heights, which is absolutely fine I will never force to do something she doesn’t want to do. Plus, It gives me an excuse to get out with my friends and have some me time, whilst Ellie can do what she wants to do and have a break from me chatting nappies.
After Gavarnie, we headed to a town where our UPS parcel was supposed to be, ‘Bagneres-de-Bigorre’. UPS had said our parcel would be delivered here the next day, so we booked on to a campsite in the town. Time for a well-earned shower, since it had been flannel washes for the past 9 days -we were due one! We had both woke up that morning abit…Pongy! Luckily a work colleague gifted me a pre-adventure goody bag with some Air fresheners in to mask the smell for a few hours for the drive over…Thanks Anna!
We stayed on a Campsite called Camping de l’Adour. It has an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, good Wi-Fi and a washing machine to get our laundry done. We had a swim in the pool, a shower, did the washing and had a few bottles of wine. It was a really nice camp site. Weird showers though, hoses dangling from the roof with a little gun on the end, with pre jail shower vibes (not that I have ever had this experience, its just what I’ve seen in the movies!)
The next day, our parcel *shock horror* hadn’t arrived even though we’d a notification saying that it had, followed by another notification saying it had in fact been delivered to La Rochelle, 600km away. This UPS ordeal was started to really get to us now, every day we have had at least 4 phone calls with the English and French UPS customer service line, which both have been useless. The French team come across as so helpful on the phone, but they actually did nothing. They should have changed the delivery for us, and they just didn’t do it. I will get to the UPS saga in another post because its worthy of a good moan of how crap they are. Spoiler alert: don’t use UPS.
Following the disappointment of no parcel again, 2 and half weeks counting now. We needed a pick me up. So we headed back to the mountains. The Mountain pass between Bigorre and Luz-st Saveur is called Col du Tourmalet. It’s a key part of the Tour de France as the top reaches 2100m. We had been up one side of it to hike up to Pic Du midi, but for some reason hadn’t been to the top.
On the other side of the Col was a ski resort town called La Mongie so we headed up the east side of the pass to the town. That day the weather was incredible, kind of moody looking skies but the clouds were high so you could still see the mountain summits and ridges, and the sun was glorious. We had a coffee and headed up the rest of the col to the top of the road - where you can clearly see it’s a key part of tour du France as the road is scattered with writing and signs, urging the riders on!
Our time in the Parc National Pyrenees was coming to end, we wanted somewhere new to explore so we headed for the central national park Pyrenees Ariege. The Ariege borders with France and Andorra and on our drive in over ANOTHER mountain pass col de port, on the top of the mountain pass was a little café, so we used the free Wi-Fi and makeshift cappuccino break to hunt for a trail to do the following day. The weather was supposedly closing in again, so we had to make the most of the good weather the next day. We found one, Pic des Trois Seigneurs with a summit at 2199m. A 15km loop with just under a 1000m of elevation. So that’s where we headed, luckily at the start of the route, Pont des Lers, there is a small car park where we could stop for the night. It was a beautiful evening, a sun set right in front of us, dropping behind the mountains with the ring of cow bells in the field next to us. Although Ellie was alarmed once she read the sign next to our van ‘Be prudent, bears in area!’ After she finally calmed down and I reassured her all was well, we headed to sleep for an early start for the hike up Pic du Trois seignuers.
Pic Du Trois Post coming very soon!