The next morning the sun came out and the sky was perfectly blue so off we went on our first hike. While there were plenty of hikes leaving from the town some others were a short drive away leaving from a spot called the Pont d’Espagne. It doesn’t take long for us to pack up the van and drive off and soon enough we were joining the hundreds of others jostling for parking spots at the base of the hike. Luckily while there were a couple of really popular hikes which were serviced by télécabine we had planned a slightly longer one which meant that it wasn’t long before we had left the crowds behind.
Our reward was a superb hike up a valley where amazing view seemed to follow amazing view and we were both full of excitement as we headed up and up towards the refuge Wallon which was to be the end of our hike. When we arrived at the refuge neither of us was sure what to expect but it was massive and only fairly recently built. There were lots of people milling around outside filling up with food and water as well as a lot just lazing around stretching tired legs after hiking.
We should mention that the area we are in and in fact most of the Pyrenees are littered with hiking trails the biggest of which are the GR10 and the GR11 which stretch across the whole range from coast to coast. But along with these long treks there are hundreds of other treks all of varying lengths and so when we arrived at the refuge different people were all coming from different directions and heading off on others. Some like us just had day packs yet others were heavily laden and looked like they were definitely on longer multi day hikes. But everyone was certainly enjoying the spectacular surrounds and excellent weather.
For us it was time to head back down the valley. We usually try and do circular hikes in order to get different views throughout the day but this time we were rewarded just as spectacular views on the way back down.
Both exhausted we but happy we decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out and wolfed down a delicious steak and chips and a trout tartiflette. After the meal we were chatting to the owner who it turns out had spent some time in Australia and was very excited to help us out with other hikes to do in the area. We left with full bellies and ready for more hikes! T
It’s hard to believe that all the views below were from one 18 km walk
