What have we done!?
Before I tell you all about days one and two of our 8 day hike in the Pyrenees, let me apologise for the two week gap between my last post and this one. I think my last one said something like, “…tomorrow we head into the mountains for eight days of backpacking.” And then, nothing.
The problem is that there is not enough signal in those pesky Pyrenees to post blogs. I managed a few instagram posts @neilpittsadventure, but no blogs.
Sorry.
But there is plenty to tell you about. So based on the premise of ‘better late than never’ let me tell you about days one and two now. Two weeks late.
We arrived early in the morning in the mountain town of Ax-les-Thermes. Fresh off the sleeper train from Paris we headed to an outdoor shop to replace the two gas cylinders that had been unceremoniously removed from our baggage in England.
Me, as yet to realise how darned heavy my bag is
Apart from that and a quick coffee, we didn’t hang around in Ax,heading instead for the mountains. Almost immediately it was steeply uphill and pretty hot.
Mrs P, pretending her bag isn’t heavy
After a couple of hours we passed our last opportunity for a non-freeze dried food where we filled up on chips (fries) and roast chicken. At least 1,000 calories heavier we once again set off. Soon we were heading very steeply up through a heavily forested mountain side.
Not long into this ascent I began to realise how overly ambitious our plans for day 1 were.
The idea had been to hike about 8-10 miles to an idyllic little spot near a lake. We had been practicing, but not with 18kg rucksacks and not up steep switchbacks for nearly a thousand metres in 30°c heat! We were going to have to find somewhere to camp. Before it got dark. Before we collapsed from exhaustion. But where? The problem with steep, densely forested mountain sides is that they are steep and densely forested. It was late afternoon, at least 2 hours from any type of flat terrain.
“The problem is…” said Mrs P, “…that this mountain is just too steep and densely forested.
Fortunately, we found a beautiful little flat spot beside a babbling brook, just big enough for our tent.
Mrs P looking for a plug for the fridge freezer she is convinced I hid in her bag.
Knackered (that’s French for tired’) we ate the first of our 8 days worth of dehydrated food and went straight to bed.
Oh, the joys of freeze dried food.
The following morning Mrs P uncovered a couple of stowaways.
From L to R: Bear Prince John of St. Jean de Luz (long name, long story), Belle and Mrs P
Day two was hard. Beautiful, but hard. Hot and steeply up for, roughly, ever! Very hot.
Is this the road to Hobbiton?
Mrs P enjoys a bit of flat before heading towards the up bit part two.
Apparently there was a view but I couldn’t see much through my sweat drenched tears.
The problem was that we had decided to hike for 8 days without resupply so were carrying 8 additional kilos of food. That’s a lot of extra weight. Yes, we would lose (eat) 1kg of that per day, but for now, unused to carrying heavy bags, we were suffering.
Lunch stop. 30 seconds before I fell asleep
We had a pass to cross. A relentlessly steep climb in the heat before a relentlessly steep descent down the other side.
Are we…
…nearly there yet!
Finally, after nearly 9 hours, we arrived at our destination. A flat bit of ground next to the Refuge d’en Beys.
Refuge d’en Beys
In the absence of freeze dried beer in our bags we partook a couple of cold ones before pitching our tent in a particularly uncomfortable, but the only available, spot.
A lovely view of the toilets over some particularly big holes (we had to move).
So, that was days one and two.
Were we having fun?
Tune in to the next blog to find out if we bailed our sorry butts out to a four star hotel and spa, or continued on our sweaty way.
Spoiler alert! We can’t afford a four star hotel and spa.
