Ascent / descent: 1567m (24692m) / 1011m (23457m).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 948m / 1504m / 2131m.
Weather: Sunny.
After a nice stay at the gîte in Adervielle there are about 3-4 kilometers to Loudenvielle and GR10. Outside is yesterdays tristesse forgotten. It's a clear blue sky and todays walk goes to one of the places that originally led me to choose to do the trail, Lac d'Oo. I'm excited to get to see the lake that is lying like it almost has been sunk among the steep mountain sides.
Paragliders coming in to land at a meadow next to Lac de Génos Loudenvielle, which may be a possible reason why there are so many people here in the village. It appears that there are good conditions for paragliding in the area.
Back in Loudenvielle I wave to the nice women at the office of tourism when I pass by yet another time. On the way to the village there weren't few paragliders that was flying over the landscape and going in for landing at a meadow next to Lac de Génos Loudenvielle. I start walking upwards again, this time for good.
Up at Germ (1339m) it gets clear that I would probably have managed to get some food there, but that is forgotten now. After Germ we leave the civilization behind for a while and venture into and up the mountains. Couret de Latuhe can now be seen clearly on the other side of the valley, with a collection of paraglider-chutes lying on one of the cols behind. The trail is then going high up in the green dominion of the Aube valley.
View up towards Pas de Couret d'Esquierry, a walk through a green valley.
Cabane d'Ourtiga.
At Cabane d'Ourtiga (1600m) a large group of walkers are on a daytrip up to the cabin, which is quite cozy inside. I can look up to the Pas de Couret d'Esquierry, a steep and verdant pass 500 meters higher up. On the way up the view is getting better and better the higher I get.
Then the waymarking is getting a little bit diffused, and something tells me that I'm going the wrong way. From the valley below there is a lot of shouting which calm down when I turn and continue in the correct direction. On the way I take a close look at the landscape that I got lost in yesterday. Seen from here it's quite difficult to understand that it's possible to get lost there. Yesterday would have been a nice walk in good weather.
View back from the climb up to Pas de Couret d'Esquierry, with Couret de Latuhe in the horizon.
At the top of Pas de Couret d'Esquierry (2131m) it's time for a break. A family is relaxing in the sun while they're drying their tent. On the way down a marmot is looking at us curiously, for not to forget all the cows. And it's steep down to the Astau valley. But it isn't the steepness that takes my breath away, but the sight of all the cars at the parking place next to Auberge d'Astau. I see for myself an ocean of people up at Lac d'Oo.
Pas de Couret d'Esquierry.
I take a break down by the hostel (1139m) together with all the day trippers. Pancakes are always a safe bet. Luckily I go towards the stream and the ocean of people on the way up. Up at the lake there is a great sight awaited me, Lac d'Oo (1504m) with Cascade d'Oo in the background. The waterfall is known since the Victorian times.
Lac d'Oo wit Cascade d'Oo at the end of the lake.
It becomes a nice evening at the Refuge du Lac d'Oo, which are nicer in the inside than on the outside. I eat dinner together with the family I passed on the top of Pas de Couret d'Esquierry, which is a Polish family doing a part of the GR10. In addition to Evelyne who appeared just at the start of the meal. She'd gone the wrong way on the same spot as I did, but unlike me continued further on in that direction and ended up out of course. It was apparently quite typical of her. Evelyne had also started from Hendaye, but had taken some short cuts along the way. In the evening me and Evelyne are reading in the lights of our headlamps in the darkness at the dormitory. On the other side of Lac d'Oo the water is flowing unceasingly down from the waterfall.
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