Day 9 - Refugio de Belagua to Lescun

I've got a long day today if I want to get home tonight. According to the guidebook it's a little over 7 hrs to Lescun; but then I've got over 2 hours hiking to the station at Bedous to get the train back to Pau. Of course, there's also the possibility of getting a lift from Lescun to Bedous…

Pleasant hiking in the beech forest

I get away just after 8.30 and the route goes through a shady beech forest - very pleasant hiking. It's a gradual but steady climb but as I gain altitude the scenery becomes more rock and less vegetation. The rock in this part of the Pyrénées is limestone and it gives a crazy 'karst' landscape. I experienced it when I climbed the nearby Pic d'Anie and found it a little scary. Rock features like crevasses, little cliffs and pinnacles form a maze, just like a glacier, and getting to a point just 100 m away can involve lots of back-tracking and detours. You can waste a lot of time! 

A maze of limestone

Here, though, the HRP coincides with a Spanish GR and that means red and white stripes. This made a big difference and things weren't anything like as bad as I experienced on the Pic d'Anie. After about 4 hours I arrived at the Col d'Anaye on the border and descended into France to the source of the Marmitou where I stopped for lunch and filled up my hydration system. By now it's obvious I'll get home tonight, it's just a question of when.

At the Col d'Anaye, looking down into France; Lescun is under the clouds

There followed some long but very simple walking downhill to Lescun under the clouds. I'd never been into the village before and took some time to explore it. At this point I started walking to the station, hoping to hitch a lift - but there were no cars! I'd covered a couple of kilometers before the first car arrived, I stuck out my thumb and ….  it stopped for me!

Arriving in Lescun

The driver turns out to be the gardienne at the Refuge de l'Abérouat, a refuge near Lescun on the GR10. She tells me she's got to do some shopping at the local supermarket but then she'll drop me off at the station. I do a quick calculation and it means I can get the train at 5.30 pm. And that's how it works out - I'm back in Pau just after 7 pm and home just after 7.30. 

The train back to Pau

I've finally got the HRP started!