Ascent / descent: 1434m (23125m) / 2654m (22446m).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 1856m / 948m / 2260m.
Weather: Sun in the morning, fog and rain the rest of the day.
Today my plan was to go to Loudenvielle, but it's a long walk there. And since I'm currently located about 400 meters below the route I will have to start the day with a tough climb up again. In the evening before I discussed some alternatives (like following the road up back to Lac d'Aumar) with the host of Chalet-Hôtel d'Oredon, which in turn ended up by him offering to drive me up to the lake. A kind offer which I accepted. So I don't have to do the steep climb up in the beginning, but I will have to do the part between Lac d'Aumar and Col d'Estodou again.
Lac d'Oule, the mist is rising up from the valley below and floats over the water.
The weather is very nice in the beginning, but down in the valleys the clouds are lurking. At the end of Lac d'Oule the morning mist is rising up from the valley below and is floating over the water, fingers of fog strokes the mountain sides around the water. It isn't water I'm looking down at when I walk on the trail beneath Crete de Graouès-Blanques, but a sea of fog.
Lac d'Oule and the valley are covered by fog below Crete de Graouès-Blanques.
It's a pleasant walk in a green landscape to Col de Portet, behind me the path from Col d'Estodou is disappearing down into the clouds with Pic de Néouvielle still looming in the background. The sky has been blue all the time so far, but when I sit down on the top of Col de Portet (2215m) to put on some sun creme the clouds are coming rolling in. The rest of the day was to be a walk in fog and rain.
I get lost in the fog around La Serre (2004m). The fog is so dense that I can't see that many meters in front of me, at a waymark it's no longer possible to see clearly where the trail is going. The only thing I can see is a faint outline in the grass, which I follow further into the fog. Soon the outline disappears as well. I walk a little bit further before I come to a junction of three paths, but none of them is marked with the GR-waymark (one white and one red line). In the end I'm deep in the land of fog without clearly knowing where I am.
Green and pleasant hills before Col de Portet.
Take a breather and breathe out, reset my sense of direction again. Turn and think back. I turn and walk back in the direction I came from, but on the way back I have to climb up a small mountain side. I didn't climb down one. But the direction is good and I find the route again. I continue walking towards Vielle-Aure slightly upset, but relieved.
Dense fog after Col de Portet, here a car is wrapped in by the grey veil.
The first of two steep and hard descents of the day take me down to Vielle-Aure (800m), where I get to order some lunch despite that the food serving has closed. I must have been looking quite frustrated. Then it goes upwards again and at Azet (1168m) it starts to pour down.
Dense fog, rain and a muddy trail before I yet again is entering Tour de France-land at Couret de Latuhe (1586m). Warnings were given that it was difficult finding the correct route down from the pass, but I don't have any problems here. I arrive very tired at Loudenvielle, after the second of two steep and hard descents of the day, to the realization that there isn't any place available to stay here.
Farm in the mist and rain between Vielle-Aure and Loudenvielle.
Clearly tired, frustrated and low on blood sugar am I starting walking further on the trail towards Germ, but half-way up I find out that it's really a bad idea. I don't know if I will be able to get food there and in my frustration I forgot to think about buying food in Loudenvielle. So I turn and walk down again. My plan now is to see if I can find a place at the camping site instead (though I really don't like camping sites).
Back in Loudenvielle I walk past the office of tourism, which now as opposed to earlier is almost empty of people. I ask if they know about any places available to stay. There isn't, but they know about a gîte that is located a little bit outside of the village that should have available spaces. They even offer to drive me out there when they close. I accept that kind offer as well, before I walk down to the supermarket to buy some food. Apparently another trekker also arrived here and found herself in the same situation as me, Evelyne from Poland, so we're two persons being driven out to Adervielle.
Loudenvielle beneath the thick and grey layer of clouds.
After such a hard and arduous day it feels extremely good to come to a nice gîte where we receive a warm welcome by the hostess. And by that the day isn't that bad in the end. I got a hot shower, changed into dry clothes and made myself dinner before a nice evening. Again I think about how lucky I was with the choice of going to Bareges the other day, if not I would have walked yesterdays fantastic stage in the bad weather of today.
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