Ascent / descent: 1621m (49334m) / 1734m (48550m).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 1831m / 1718m / 2300m.
Weather: Sunny and nice weather.
A long walk today, but the weather gods rewarded me with good weather after the previous days of partly miserably weather. In the Cicerone guidebook the suggested walk today is Mantet, but today I'm of the opinion that four hours is too short of a walk. I want to start early since I have a long way to go, but the guardian is oversleeping. So together with a lot of other hungry walkers there is some waiting here in the morning. Unfortunately a small misunderstanding makes the guardian think I'm angry at him, which I wasn't, so I leave Refuge de Ras de la Carança with a little bit of bad conscience.
View back towards Coll Mitja.
There is frost on the ground on the way up to Coll del Pal; it must have been a lot colder than expected here during the night. It's crystal clear weather and I can see Coll Mitja in an altogether different light than yesterday. Ruins of old farms and inside the forest there are some other wanderers that are camping. After a while I can see the roof of Refuge de Ras de la Carança far below.
Coll del Pal, an amazing view of the Canigou massif.
Up at Coll del Pal (2294m) the backpack is going off and the view is to be enjoyed. In the horizon the Canigou massif is dominating the scene and the summit is towering blue against a blue sky, it would have been perfect to be on the summit today. With the mythical mountain in the corner of my eye I walk on a nice path over to La Serre de Caret (2300m). The trail is going down from here and to Mantet I walk through a nice valley.
Mantet with the pass of the same name above.
Mantet (1535m) is a small and nice village with houses of stone that is well worth a visit. I walk a little bit around between the houses before I sit down to have lunch at La Bouftiq, a three course meal at the menu. When I walk up towards Col de Mantet (1761m) Claire is appearing behind me and we walk together up to the top of the pass, but there are our ways separating again. Her camera is broken and she is travelling down to a larger town (Prades) to get it fixed.
Py with the only restaurant at the place with a tiny shop in the ground floor.
Down to Py the walk is less exciting, the trail is crossing and passing the road several times. On the way I pass the Green Meridian (La Méridienne Verte) that marks the tree-planting effort along the meridian through Paris in 2000. Py (1023m) is also a small and cozy village; where I buy some provisions in a tiny shop. The trail is then going through the small hamlet of La Farga, which largely isn't much other than a small cluster of houses.
The trail is following a watercourse up through the Bois de Manailles.
At Col de Jou (1125m) I start to feel tired in my feet. There is a tower now far away, Tour de Goa, that I probably would have walked up to had it been earlier on the GR10. But not now. From here and up to Refuge de Mariailles the trail is becoming steeper. A section of rocks are inviting some view of the Canigou. After a while the route is following a watercourse that runs down next to the trail, a nice walk for tired legs.
Refuge de Mariailles.
I've been out walking for quite a while when I arrive at Mariailles (1718m), so it feels good to relax at the veranda afterwards with a view out over the valley below. The dinner in the evening is very good and on the walls there are hanging some very nice pictures of the farmer from Esbints. Darkness descends on the summit above, a long day goes to its end and the view of Canigou is coming with me into the kingdom of the sandman.
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