Pyrenean hike

We choose to leave the van for one night and headed for an adventure in the Pyrenees. We loaded our packs with food, clothing, and a sleeping bag and trekked off into the wilderness. The Pyrenees are particularly beautiful at this time of year, with the many wild flowers blooming and most peaks still capped with the winters snow. Another advantage of hiking in May is it is still very quiet – we saw only a handful of people. One disadvantage is that the snow is still lingering on the Cols and we had to do some creative side-stepping to avoid the deep, wet snow.

When passing one lake we met two French guys, they were particularly friendly and offered us an aperitif! We don’t normally drink on a hike, but thought it rude to decline! We joined them and they poured a generous helping of Pastise and took a ‘Sigg’ bottle to add some water. A red liquid poured into the Pastise and the French guy looked particularly embarrassed. He’d mistaken his bottles and poured red wine into the Pastise. We hurriedly tossed the mixture aside and we were soon drinking Pastise with water. We chatted in broken ‘Franglais’ for half and hour and continued our hike.

We arrived at the refuge early afternoon and made ourselves at home in the great (free) ‘winter’ room. The ‘winter’ room consisted of three rooms: one for storing shoes and packs; one for cooking; and a bedroom with room for twelve on bunks equipped with mattresses and blankets. In the summer the refuges are fully open and serve food and drink and have many more rooms available (this isn’t free!). We were joined by two other German guys. They were friendly, but one of them snored loudly!

We left early (8.30am) the next morning to avoid the impending afternoon storms. The hike back went smoothly, but we didn’t meet any friendly French guys, but we did meet a marmot!