We awoke to glorious blue skies so packed up quickly and were soon on the road to our next destination of Luz I think only about 10kms away as the crow flies but over the other side of a few mountains so it took us about half an hour. We had to wait for reception to open to get a deposit back and unfortunately the owner was late. When the owner did arrive Tim jokingly said Bon âpres midi (good afternoon) and the look on her face was priceless! Myself and others waiting all averted our eyes and took a step back. Luckily she eventually saw the joke and smiled. We all let out a collective held breath and Tim got his deposit back. 😅 Soon we were speeding down the road off for another adventure.
Before we set up camp we had decided to hike up another mountain called Pic De Midi. This one was listed as a must do in the area so was always going to be on our list. The drive was breathtaking with the road winding around the sides of mountains perched over death defying drops to the valley floor. Add in a few cyclists, roads at times not wide enough for two cars and you have an interesting drive!
Once we hit Luz and then continued on towards Pic de Midi we really started to climb and the road got a little more precarious, mostly due to the fact that there were not any safety barriers. But we made it to the car park to start the hike and were soon off. This walk was already starting off high at 1950m so it was all rocky ridges and sharp edges without the trees and grass. No less beautiful just different. It was also bitterly cold when the wind hit you. We were prepared for the worst with our gear but were hoping we wouldn’t need it. The hike up was a pretty gradual one and soon found ourselves up 400m with another 400 to go. The view of the surrounding mountains was really starting to open up. About this point we had the pleasure of coming across a llama and her baby just casually strolling past us on the path. Quite amazing. Unfortunately the weather started to slowly turn with clouds coming in. We kept on hiking hoping it would clear. We then started to get a few smatterings of rain. We kept on hiking. The rain got worse, the path steeper and the wind colder and in hindsight we should have just cut our losses and turned around knowing that we would not be getting any views at the top so not worth doing it. But we kept on hiking. Eventually we made it to the top and it was not pleasant. Up at 2800m with zero visibility and wind howling so much we had to steady ourselves we were just looking forward to getting into the shelter/observation tower to warm up. Unfortunately we discovered they wouldn’t let you in the door unless you paid 23 euros which was the cost of the cable car decent. I didn’t mention that we could have caught a cable car up to the top and back but what would be the achievement in that! Anyway we decided to catch the cable car down instead of hiking down and paid the money and entered the oasis of warmth that was swarming with people who had caught the cable car up and were waiting for the weather to clear. The weather forecast said it might clear in another hour or two but we decided not to hang around. You win some and you lose some.
We ate our lunch and descended through the clouds to the town of La Mongie which is where the cable car went to. We then had to walk back to our car park which was only 3kms away but uphill. Anyway we set off in blistering rain and both of us were a little dejected as it wasn’t much fun! But in typical mountain weather fashion, within 20mins the sun came out and we were treated to glorious sunshine. Those who stayed up top would have been treated to amazing views. C’est la vie.
What we would have missed out on if we didn’t catch the cable car down was walking through a patch of marmot burrows and getting to see wild marmots. They are a mountain rodent, kind of like a beaver that live in interconnected burrows underground. We also got to see massive mountain eagles patrolling the slopes.
We may not have managed to see the views from the top but we got other unexpected viewing delights. There is always a silver lining in every mountain cloud. S