24.07.08 Thursday.

Cauterets to Pont d’Espagne. And back.

A brief thunderstorm with about 10mins rain last night just shows how unpredictable Pyrenean weather can be. A gentle day today, we walked up the GR10 trans Pyrenees route from Cauterets to Pont d’Espagne. Neither of us could remember doing the part from Cauterets to La Raillerie, (a classic tourist place where cuddly marmots whistle from shop fronts). The walk started with a steep pull up out of Cauterets from behind the thermes (the natural hot water baths) and then continued on a more or less level angle up the valley before finally dropping down to La Raillerie. The walk from here to Pont d’Espagne is a classic one past multiple waterfalls through woods with springs rising at the side of the path to rush to join the main torrent.
There was low cloud in Cauterets at the start but we quickly climbed above it out of the town and then just stayed ahead as it advanced and retreated up the valley. We seem to be making good use of our few days stop in the mountains and reaccustomising our legs to up and down instead of flat level walking.. Today we walked 13 miles with 600m of ascent and descent, a reasonable rest day!
We had considered today climbing up Pic De Peguere. It was fortunate that we hadn’t attempted this route as it turned out that the old mule path had collapsed in places and thus the route was impassable.
On our return the low cloud threatened to turn to rain, so an early evening meal and the purchase of a large tarpaulin, for use as a cooking shelter or as emergency shelter for the next few days in the Haute Pyrenees.
The bridge at Pont d’Espagne, which neither of us recognised, is slightly above the car park for the Lac de Gaube the lake up under the Vignemale Glacier (or what remnants of it remain) and when our families did this part of the GR 10 we may have been too anxious to descend to the purchase of marmots, and ice cream, and hence missed it. It is a classic walk and reputedly beloved of the Romantic Poets and others of that age.

JD & BD note that photographic evidence from our last visit suggests the Vignemale glacier may not have shrunk very much (as yet).