Saturday 24th June: Weather 16°C to 20°C Misty with glimpses of sun
Lescun to Borce: 15.5k walk: 6hrs from 9am to 3pm
Altitude Gain and Loss: Total Ascent 962m: Total Descent 1220m
Accommodation: Maison Bergoun
Goodbye Cirque du Lescun
Leaving Hotel Pic d'Anie
Through the misty forest to Lhers
Coffee break on logs at Lhers
Didn’t see the table and chairs
Up through misty bracken
Col de Berrancq at 1601m
Beware of sheep dogs
Lunch under the mist
Borce and Estaut in the valley below
Highlight today was climbing up 700 metres through the eerily misty forest to the Col de Berrancq at 1601 metres, with not another soul in sight - just us.
The usual 6am start with emails and catching up with home. Breakfast at 7.30am is the same French Petit déjeuner of bread, jam, yoghurt and hot tea. The mist is heavy and damp with 10 metres of visibility as we leave the hotel at 9am, and call in at the small epicerie to buy fruit and butter - we figure it’s cool enough to carry butter today, to go with our fresh baguette I had ordered from Marlene. No cheese - most cheese in the Pyrenees is strong smelling from sheep and/or goats and is sometimes a mixture from sheep, goats and cows and the smell seems to permeate our back packs.
It’s a cool 16°C as we walk down the road past many deserted houses - there’s only a permanent population in Lescun of 170 people, but twice that many houses. It’s 1k down to the River Lescun and up the other side into the forest. The Pyrenees mist dominates the forest and its eerie when we see no other hikers. After one and s half hours, we’re at the village of Lhers and with the mist hanging like a cloud above our heads, we find a spot on some felled logs for a cup of coffee. No sooner had we unpacked everything, than we spy a table and chairs just 100 metres away over by the creek - too late to shift - we’ll remember this for next time.
The track climbs steeply through more misty forest, and we reach the Col de Barrancq (1601m) at 11.30am. We’ve made good time at the rate of 400 metres height gained per hour. Too early for lunch so just a short break for a swig of water and a jucy peach. There’s a sign pinned to a pine tree warning us of sheep dogs in the area - we’ve experienced them before and know that they viciously guard their flock of sheep. Only 5 minutes down the other side of the col, and we hear dogs barking. Walking quickly past a flock of about 50 sheep with a large white dog howling at us as we walk past, I try to catch up to Ian to get him to take a photo. But he’s gone, so I have to settle for the sheep dog sign for my blog.
The track passes through grass lands with obvious signs of sheep, before descending through more misty forest. By 1.45pm, we’ve descended 600 metres and need a break from the relentless pounding down hill as there’s still another 400 metres to go. There’s an open spot overlooking the two villages of Borce and Etsaut, where we sit on some stones to share a fresh baguette with slabs of butter and thin slices of tomato. The mist still hangs above us. At least it has been a cool day with the temperature only rising to 20°C, that’s 15°C cooler than earlier in the week.
Down through the bracken, slowly inching our way down to the villages of Borce and Etsaut. At 3pm we arrive at the first village of Borce and quickly check out the little shop attached to the Communal Gite, before walking another 200 metres down to our Chambre d’Hote Maison Bergoun courtesy of booking.com.
We’re welcomed by Marcella who shows us to our room in the oldest part of the building - 1000 years old - the “new” part is only 200 years old. Once we realise she speaks perfect English (and French, Spanish and Dutch) we ask her to make a phone call to book a room for us at Lac d’Estaing on June 29th - something I had been unable to do as there was no email and no one answered the phone when I rang several times both in oz and in Pau - I speak enough French to make a reservation but I’m buggered if they reply in French with anything other than “oui". There’s still no answer, so Marcella rings a nearby farm, and finds out that the Hotel Lac d'Estaing is closed. So that explains my unanswered phone calls! The only alternative is the Gite Viellette and Marcella rings them and books a double room for us, demi pension. Marcella’s son also speaks perfect French, Spanish, English and Dutch and he’s 6 years old! I wish. I’ll keep using google translation.
Our bedroom in the “old” part has 3 foot (90cm) wide walls and 1 foot (30cm) wide timber beams and the floor is icy cold - cold enough to keep our butter rock solid. With a change in the weather, we relish a hot shower when I discover I’ve picked up a tick from the overgrown bracken - I thought it was a thorn stuck behind my right knee - until I look closer and pull it out with my tweezers. Then I climb into bed to blog. We’ve booked dinner tonight with Marcella for 7.30pm - hours away - time for a wine that Ian buys at the little Gite Communal up the road and a baguette with vegemite in a tube from oz. And time to chat about the walk so far.
One thing we’ve learned on this GR10 is that this walk is not a “Hilary Sharp” walk. Three years ago when we hiked the Tour de Monte Rosa, a fantastic circuit around the Monte Rosa in Switzerland/Italy starting and ending in Zermatt, we followed a Cicerone guide book by Hillary Sharp. It could have been a disaster because her distances were all out by 50%, so a 16k walk turned into a 24k walk - a big difference especially when there was a 1500m climb in the middle, and we often arrived exhausted at our destination at 7.30pm. This year, the GR10 book by Brian Johnson, is spot on. All the GR10 distances we walked both yesterday and today have been within 1k of the designated distances in the book - very reassuring when we know we have 25k days ahead that we don't want to turn into 37k days.
Dinner at 7.l30pm is very homestyle. Marcella’s husband is dutch, and he has been to Spain (15k away) to do the shopping. We meet a dutch couple Elsie and ?? who are cycling the St James way. Entre is a platter of melon, dried jambon, tomatoes and lettuce. Main is baked pork fillet with a mix of vegetables and dessert is fruit and cheese, washed down with a wine from Chile. It’s cold here tonight - 13°C already. Tomorrow is a 1500m climb to the Refuge d’Ayous - no showers.