Off the bike and pick up the hiking poles

As we've progressed along our Pyrenean journey, we've noticed the valleys getting longer and steeper. No more so than the valley that stretches up to the massive peak of Vignemale, with it's glacier at its feet. The town of Cauterets was our base the night before our 9hr hike to the foot of the glacier and back down. Cauterets is a pleasant, touristy town with a great adventure sports atmosphere. The gondolas from the town centre seem to continuously ferry hikers and downhill mountain bikers in their droves up to the ski slopes. The trail head for our hike began about a 15min drive further up the valley at the Port de Espagne where massive amounts of water cascade over impressive waterfalls from the incredibly steep and rugged slopes of the valley. The fist short section of the hike is to a beautiful lake so that families of very young, old or unfit can also get to it in a short gondola ride. What struck us about this first section were the beautiful waterfalls, steep ascent and the very strange looking Fir trees with their random, stunted form and their rust colored bark. After the lake the climb got a lot tougher, yet more and more beautiful in that the rugged steps up from one plateau in the valley to the next brought the towering peak of Vignemale and the glacier closer and closer. The path made its way through skree slopes and morain, big slabs of rock that had in some time or other come crashing down from above. One felt very vulnerable in this Rugged landscape. By lunch we Made it to a point about a kilometer from The glacier AND it proved to be' a good spot for our picnic lunch. Not only was it understandably cooler up there but a cool breeze began to pick up and the clouds started to rise up the alley towards us. We made our way down again, appreciating the views from the return angle, and finally the rain hit us only 15 min from the end. We'd loved to have got to know Caurterets better but time didn't allow it. Oh, one comment from Gus, as he looked up at the mountains on exiting from the supermache before leaving the town was, “Wo, how's that for a view from ones local supermarket. We are certain he's appreciating the beauty of the place!


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