Ascent / descent: 326m (55408m) / 1371m (55742m).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 1045m / 0m / 1130m.
Weather: Sunny, blue sky and nice weather.
After a night with a lot of wind and rustling from the trees outside I wake up to a clear sky. And somewhere in the back of my head there is a bell ringing saying that it's the last day on the walk, but it's still a little bit hard to understand it. It's a slightly chilly inside the cabin when we wake, so I make a small fire in the fireplace before we eat breakfast.
View back towards Tagnarède from the Spanish side of the border below Pic Néoulous.
In the hurry to get quickly back from Chalet de l'Albere yesterday I managed to forget my wind jacket there, so instead of walking in the direction of Banyuls sur Mer together with Claire I yet again go back to Col d'Ouillat. But by looking at the map I see that I can spare some time by going by Spain and not by GR10. So for the third time I arrive at the hostel at Ouillat, they're smiling a lot now. On the way back I pass a pou del glaç, a well used to store ice. Through an opening in the top of the dome that lies above the ground snow and ice was shoveled down into the well in the winter, then you could take out ice in the summer. I go into the 400 year old structure, there isn't any ice inside anymore, but it's cold.
View back towards Pic Néoulous with Canigou in the horizon.
Back at Tagnarède I pick up my backpack again, I leave the rest of the gas and what food I don't need anymore behind in the cabin. Then I'm taking my first steps on the last day of a long walk. The weather is great and it's a nice route in the beginning that first goes on a path with trees leaning over the trail. Then the trail is going over green plains with views to both sides, Spain in the south and the flat lowland in the north. Past cows totally indifferent to wanderers that has crossed the Pyrenees.
On the heights I can look back towards Pic Néoulous and Canigou, with the sea in a clear blue color in the north. Below Pic des Quattre Termes (1156m) the trail is going down a path that is not good to walk on, I look longingly at the ridge to my right. The great walk is stepwise going downwards, the high mountains in the horizon are gradually disappearing, but as a result the ocean is coming nearer. You should think that the landscape would be much milder the closer to the Mediterranean you get, but the fact is that this has been the most exciting walk landscape-wise in a long time.
The Mediterranean coming closer and closer, blue sea in the horizon.
Up at Pic de Sailfort (981m) I sit down to eat lunch. And from here I can for the first time see Banyuls sur Mer, it's a strange feeling, for 49 days ago I stood on Col d'Osin and looked down at Hendaye. Under a cliff there is a small shelter, Refuge Tomy. Next to it is a bush that looks like the head of a wolf. The trail is then going steeply down Serret de Castell Serradillou with Banyuls in sight.
Tour Madeloc is watching above me when I'm getting closer to the vineyards of Banyuls. Behind me Pic de Sailfort is hiding the rest of the Pyrenees, after Col de Fourmigou (488m) there is a ruin of a large house. At Col des Gascons (386m) I'm down at a road that the trail is then crossing several times, and in the middle of wineland. Green vines on each side of the path and blue sea in front of me, a culture landscape. A sign is announcing that it's 20 minutes left.
From Pic de Sailfort Banyuls sur Mer is appearing for the first time in the view.
Vines replaced the mountains, now the vines are replaced with houses and when I walk under the railway tracks I'm finally in Banyuls sur Mer. It felt strange to walk in the streets of Hendaye in the morning and was going to go over to the Mediterranean, now it feels strange to walk in the streets of Banyuls sur Mer. When I'm close to the beach Claire is appearing smiling, I can see the sign marking the end of my long journey. We cross the street and then it's done. At the plaque that marks the end of the GR10 I have now 49 days after I started crossed the Pyrenees and completed the GR10. There are two smiling walkers that stand outside old Hotel de Ville capturing the moment.
Through the vineyards of Banyuls.
Then it's only one thought that is in my head and that is the ocean. We go into a store and do some shopping, and then it's the Mediterranean and the sound of it that counts. While the waves are running in over the stone beach and the sounds of the waves fills the air we sit and looks out over the sea. I'm at the end of my journey, in sunshine, blue sea.
Banyuls sur Mer, at the plaque that marks the end of the GR10. I made it.
In the evening I have a small celebration at a restaurant; Claire took the bus to Collioure. There was a view of the Mediterranean from the balcony of my hotel room, so I finish the evening sitting outside and listening to the waves that rolls onto the beach. It's a lot of wind. A journey is over, another begins.
I met Claire again in Collioure the day after, where I spent two nights before I took the train back to Bordeaux. On the train I met Claire again, after she got on the train in Toulouse. We ate lunch together in Bordeaux before she continued further with another train; I spent the last night there before I returned home to Norway and Oslo.
<- Tagnarède
No comments:
Post a Comment