Thursday 6th July: Weather 19°C all day with high cloud and occasional sun
Luz st Sauveur to Barges: 25.8k walk: 10hrs 15mins: 7.30am to 5.45pm
Altitude Gain and Loss: Total Ascent 1523m: Total Descent 938m
Accommodation: Refuge de l’Oule
Hotel Castets d’Ayre and Phillippe
An amazing day. One of our longest walks at 25.8k and 10hrs 15 mins with a big ascent of 1523 metres. Highlight was crossing the beautiful Néouvielle Park with 70 glacial lakes above 2000 metres on the way to climbing to the Col de Madamete at 2509 metres on a picture perfect day.
Ian’s alarm is set for 6am. We know it’s a long day today, ay least 22k with a 1500m climb, and the weather forecast is storms in the afternoon. A quick chat home and a cup of tea from the jug in the lounge room opposite our bedroom and we’ve packed, picked up our bottle of ice and food bag from Philippe. We plan to have breakfast on the track after about an hour or so. It’s a pleasant 19°C at 7.30am when we say goodbye to Philipe who is a passionate amateur astronomer with 2 huge telescopes, and also an avid guitar player.
Automatic Baguette machine
On the Road to Tourmalet
Breakfast by the old Tourmalet road
Up the stream
Beautiful day
Morning tea by the lake
There's fish in the clear lakes
Cows up ahead
Pyrenees at its best, Ian on the go
More lakes
More lakes
Communication tower Tourmalet
Hard slog to Madamete
CMore lakes
Col de Madamete 2509m
More lakes on the other side
Windy at the top of Madamete
More lakes
Instant baguette for lunch with view
More lakes
Go on in it’s only 10°C
In for 2 seconds then out again
Col d;Estadou 2260m
Lac d’Oule with Refuge at end
Deviation - 45 mins extra
Work on Barrage - go around lake
But it's still open, fake warning signs
An extra 3k for nothing
This hotel was absolutely wonderful. Another 10 out of 10 on booking.com - not for its luxuriousness, but its friendliness, cleanliness and suitability for anyone, not just hikers on the GR10. We're headed up the road to the Tourmalet, another famed col of the Tour de France. We’re hoping the Boulangerie is open on the way as the Petit Casinp doesn’t open til 8.30 - if at all. No, the boulangerie is closed, looked like it’s never been open all summer, but there is an automatic baguette dispensing machine right next door. I put in one euro and out pops a hot baguette. Voila!!
4k up the road towards the Col du Tourmalet, there’s a turnoff to the Col de Mademete. But strangely the first section is the old road to Tourmalet that has since been re-routed to the other side of the valley in recent years, but the Tour de France signs are still in place. It’s a perfect morning for hiking - 19°C (by my trusty Coleman thermometer dangling from my side pocket) with high cloud and patches of blue sky.
At 9am, it’s time for breakfast perched by the old road to Tourmalet, watching the purist cyclists on the road taking the old route, while we sit against an old farmhouse having banana, yoghurt and muesli. Then comes the big climb. The sign indicates it’s 4hrs to the Col de Madamete. It will be a long haul up the valley. It starts as a gradual climb through stony countryside, and after 2 hours we reach our first of many lakes. A good spot for morning tea. There’s small fish in the lake and it’s a picturesque site with mountains all round, cattle on the hillside, and patchy blue skies above. And it's still a pleasant 19°C.
We meet a French couple on their way to the Col de Bareges. Typical French walkers don’t have a map and set out for a day's hike with the minimal of gear. I bring out my map, Ian shows them the route on his GPS, and off they go up the mountain. We continue on up a very steep bouldery path by the running stream that runs up the Vallon d’Aygues-Cluses. The mountain scenery is absolutely fantastic today with jagged mountains and many glacial lakes. In the distance we can see the Astronomical Observatory at Pic du Midi de Bigorre, a standout marker at a height of 2877m built in 1878, that we’ve seen way off for the past few days, just above the Tourmalet.
More lakes and more lakes and then the track takes a steep turn upwards and at 1pm we reach the Col de Madamete at 2509metres. It’s a perfect day and still 19°C and the view out the other side is just as amazing - more lakes and more spectacular jagged mountains. Quite windy at the top and our hats almost blow off as we ask a young kid who’s there with his grandmother, to take a photo of the two of us.
A minute at the top is enough, and we're on our way down to the deepest blue lake where someone is already having a picnic. We move on a bit further down and find a shady spot for lunch out of the wind with views across to the snow splashed mountains on the other side. Instant baguette from this morning’s vending machine, 1/4 of a tomato, 1/4 of a red capsicum with a cup of tea.
Climbing down through the boulders and past more lakes, we see lots of day trippers who have parked at the carpark near the end of the road. There’s a group of kids stripped off ready to go swimming. They hesitate until they see me with a camera beckoning them in, and one obliges. I take a quick photo as he’s in and out of the 10°C icy water in less than 2 seconds.
On past more lakes and a small descent before heading upwards again through the larch forests for an hour to the Col d’Estoudou at 2260m. The larch forests have been devastated by some virus and we saw this happen in the Alps last year with 50% of the larch trees stripped bare and looking pretty dead. The Col d'Estoudou is a grassy col and the wind rips through, forcing me to take off my hat and secure it to my back pack. From the col, we can see Lac de l’Oule a long way below - a 450 metres descent coming up. It’s a really steep track down to the lake and takes an hour of arm muscle to hold on to our trekking poles to stop us falling down.
At the bottom there’s a sign - 15 mins to the Refuge Lac de l’Oule. Good. It’s been a long day. But 5 mins down the track there’s another sign - The track over the barege (dam) is closed for safety reasons as there’s work being done on the dam and there’s a detailed map showing us the 45 min detour back around the whole lake to reach the Refuge de l’Oule at the end of the Barege. It’s already 5pm when we back track and head off in the opposite direction and at 5.45pm when we finally reach the refuge there’s people standing on the dam wall!!! How could this be?
When we order two big beers pression (draught) please from the refuge, the young assistant explains that the dam wall is closed for security reasons as there is work being done on the spillway, but the dam wall is OK if you tip toe across after 5pm or on weekends when there are no workmen. And that’s how they want it for the weekend holiday makers so they can walk around the lake and have lunch in the refuge’s restaurant.
It’s a bit of a rush to have a shower and download the photos off Ian’s camera before dinner is served at 7pm. There’s a mix of 4 people sitting at the table to the left of us, 2 belgian, 1 french, 1 japanese and us. To the right are 4 French yobboes who smell and order their beers two at a time - boys weekend out. Dinner is pea and ham soup, followed by salad, then cous cous and stuffed tomato. Dessert is a choice of tarts. We both choose blueberry tart and I save half of mine for morning tea.
Bed at 9pm in a cosy attic room just for the two of us with the shower and toilet down the hallway.