George & Mostyn - Walking the GR10

Thursday, 19th June 2008

Mostyn:We left Lescun at about 8.30 am. Our walk commenced with a downhill section, losing about 150m, followed by a climb of about 250 m. At this point I noticed that my legs were getting tired and I had to stop more often than usual. I mentioned this to Ian, as a result of which we decided that the following day would be a rest day. We were relieved that the next section of about 5 k was a flat section. The next zig zag section appeared to be longer than we had been led to believe, until we realised that we'd missed the GR10 turn off. Had we taken the correct route it would have shortened the distance, but increased the steepness, so I suppose it was, as they say, "swings and roundabouts".

When we reached the forest we took another wrong turn. This time it was because we had confused the forestry markings with the GR markings. However, we found the route once more and met a family of about 6 or 8 people who were doing a 5-day tour, starting and finishing at Lescun. We took many stops before reaching the Col de Barranq at 1601 m. Nevertheless we reached the Col much sooner than I had expected.

The 1092 m descent was long. However after about 250 m we could hear a party going on below us. We saw that there was a group of people at the Cabane d'Udapet-de-bas. Our route didn't pass the cabane, but we were spotted and called over by one of the party. They offered us chairs and the choice of a drink from one of two bottles. One looked like Rose wine and the other was a yellow colour. I chose the wine. Ian was persuaded to try the yellow liquid, which turned out to be a homemade Calvados, which would strip the skin from the inside of your mouth. They were shepherds preparing the corrals for the forthcoming Transhumance - when the sheep and cattle are ceremoniously moved to the high pastures for the summer. It is quite an event in some villages and sometimes the entire village, led by the mayor, process to the high pastures. We stayed for about 20 minutes, talking about rugby and the weather. One of them told us that the snowy conditions were 6 weeks later than usual. We bade them farewell and left them drinking and singing.

The descent to Borce was down a very steep meadow and a number of muddy pathways. The village is at the bottom of a very steep sided valley and has a sister village, Estaut, just below it. On arrival we were directed to the bar by a little old lady who thought we were pilgrims on the route to Compostella. The bar was owned by a lady who loved to play Mark Knopfler records all day. She also owned the store at the back of the bar. It turned out that she was also part owner of the Gite as well. We booked in for two nights, bearing in mind that we were going to have a rest day the following day. There were no eating facilities in Borce, so we had to walk to Estaut for our meal.

Friday, 20th June 2008 - Rest Day

Mostyn:We had a relaxing day today. We got up late, had a leisurely breakfast and did our washing. After a picnic lunch we took some photos of the village and the surrounding area. When I went to pay for the two nights with my bankcard I found that they did not take cards for the gite, only in the bar and the shop. By this time I had run out of cash, fortunately Ian had enough to pay for both of us. The lady in the bar told me that there was a cash machine in a town 12 km away and if I waited until her husband came home I could borrow their car to get some money. This was a very kind offer, but I declined.

In the evening we had our meal in the same bar as the previous evening. They remembered that Ian was a vegetarian. On our way we met one of the shepherds from the previous day. He crossed the road, shook our hands and asked where we were going to next. We attempted to turn in early, but this time we were thwarted by a group of French guys who had just arrived. They started to prepare a meal and were the noisiest cooks I have ever heard. We had gone to bed at 9.00 pm and it was past 11.00 pm before they quietened down. The following morning they were gone before 5.00 am. We wondered why they had bothered to go to bed at all.