Monday 26th June: Weather 14°C to 19°C Cool, overcast and slightly cloudy
Refuge d’Ayous to Gabbas: 10.5k walk: 3hrs 30mins: 8.45am to 12.15pm
Altitude Gain and Loss: Total Ascent 1043m: Total Descent 100m
Accommodation: Hotel Vignau Gabas
Descending from Refuge d'Ayous
Highlight today was the first 5 minutes of leaving the Refuge d’Ayous, with full view of the Pic du Midi d’Ossau still dominating the skyline. And then walking down the forested track towards Gabas to finds hundreds of day trippers walking up to the Refuge just to see this famous icon of the Pyrenees at 2884m.
Not the usual morning - no WiFi in this mountain refuge. Our bunks were comfy and the room was warm with 8 bodies in it side by side. Breakfast is a simple hot cup of tea with cake, bread and jam. We collect our gear from our dorm in the plastic bucket and go down to re-pack our back packs. It’s been raining through the night and it’s cold outside.
The rain has stopped but its still overcast and only 14°C. We leave at 8.45am with an extra layer on. It’s still a most spectacular moment looking across to the Pic du Midi d’Ossau standing high above the lake as we leave the Refuge. Definitely the highlight of today too. Our GR10 is downhill all the way to Gabas today and we pass hundreds of day trippers of all ages, pensioner groups, school children and trail runners all heading up towards the Refuge to see the magnificent Pic du Midi d’Ossau, clearly a tourist hotspot.
Waterfalls after last nights rain
Dark clouds looming
Mending the Pont de Bious
Burbling streams through forest
Down to Lac de Bious-Artigues
Coffee by Lac de Bious-Artigues
Down the road through the forest
Lunch on deck of Hotel Vignau
Drying clothes inside lounge room
Through the forrest and down down down - we have 1000m to descend today. It’s a very pretty forest walk with tumbling waterfalls and secluded creeks burbling quietly over rocks. When we come to a clearing half way down, there’s dark clouds forming above the Pyrenees but no rain yet. At 10.30am we arrive at Lac de Bious-Artigues, a large lake with a Barrage (dam) across the bottom end. A beautiful spot for a coffee. The car park here is full, clearly all our day trippers have driven to this spot. Amazing that it’s full on a Monday, and the French holidays haven’t started yet. The GR10 mostly follows the road and the Gave de Bious (River Bious) down to Gabas through dense forest. It’s chilly and spitting to rain when we arrive in the small village of Gabas (1027m) at 12.15pm. Our Hotel Vignau is easy to find - there’s only 7 buildings in the village but we’re a bit early, and Viviane tells us to come back at 2pm.
A good time for lunch at the table and chairs on the deck of the hotel. Our baguette is supplemented by a slice of cheese I bought from the small stall across the road. We’ve no sooner started lunch than someone comes to tell us our room is ready. The first thing we do is have a shower then do a load of washing in the wash basin, but by the time Ian goes to hang it out, it’s started raining, so we string it around the chairs in a small lounge area separate to our room, where we chat to Bill and Joan who have arrived not long after us and are staying at the same hotel. They’ve done many similar walks and it’s nice to chat about where they’ve been and what they’ve done - no politics.
An hour later, the rain has stopped and the washing goes outside on the Hotel’s clothes line. It’s very cool and still humid and we’re not optimistic that much of it will dry.