Today I experienced the great and worst of walking. Spectacular (an understatement) views, good walkable paths and clear signage. But also paths so overgrown and often muddy that one could discuss whether they can be considered paths at all, and worse, paths in the middle of nowhere that were closed – without warning and without alternative options.
The day got off to a “bad” start – baked beans for breakfast, not really me. And then I couldn’t pay, as the owners visa machine had gone on strike. But it was a fantastic place to stay and I had a great nights sleep.
Leaving the town I realised why there were so many people, Bagneres-du-Bigore is a spa town, with water coming from two sources at 50C. I left town via the pleasant “Thermal path”, a precursor for the very steep climb that was to follow, a 10% zig-zag climb over 4km, up to 950m. But the views were spectacular.
I followed a beautiful path reaching 1100m before the descent to Soulagnets and a rest outside the Saint-Vincent church with its fabulous views over the surrounding countryside.
It would have been nice to end the day here, as at times during the rest of the day, things went downhill.
Shortly after Soulagnets I could not find any signs and took a wrong turn and was soon stuck. I tried to backtrack, but couldn’t find my way back – I have a terrible sense of direction that certainly didn’t help. I ended up battling through a very dense undergrowth, fallen trees and muddy pools of water. It took me an hour to find the path again.
Two other factors added to the mess – the amount of rain has created streams that have in places washed away the top layer so at times it looks like there many possible paths when facing a decision about which direction the path is supposed to go. Secondly I lost mobile coverage – both the live map and where I had walked were not accessible. I had downloaded a map, but at times would have been good to see if a different view (e.g. satellite) would have helped.
Once back on track, part of the path was so overgrown, that there was barely a path, and at one point gave way – luckily I managed to cling onto a tree, mitigating a fall.
Back on the path, passing through the small villages of Cotdoussan and Cheust, and down to Juncalas, the paths great and the views fantastic and I made good progress. I hoped for a cafe in Juncalas, but my hopes were not met. I still had 10-12 km to go, and from here I started another climb.
I was surprised to meet a sign stating the road was blocked, but ignored it and walked another 4km, passing small farms and more views, without seeing any indication of anything being closed.
With 7km to Lourdes, walking along a main road, the path I was supposed to follow over the mountain to Lourdes was blocked with barbed wire, and with no info about alternatives. I could see that somebody had pushed it aside, and after checking with the maps and seeing that there was no alternative, I decided that I would also bypass the barbed wire. The path was blocked with barbed wire in several more places, also pushed aside. I continued, tired but a bit wary of why the path was blocked.
After a few kilometers, there were no more signs and I continued towards Lourdes. The light was beginning to fail, and it looked like rain was on its way. The last descent into Lourdes turned out to be on a professional mountain bike track – not just a track in the forest, but a professionally built track.
Finally, just out of the forest and only a couple of kilometers to the hotel, the rain started to pelt down. And did it rain! I sheltered for 10 minutes, and made a quick dash to the hotel in all my rain gear.
It has continued all night, which will undoubtedly impact my coming days walking.
All the challenges apart, it was a great days walking. Spectacular views over a green and rolling countryside – even though with the many meters elevation and an hour wasted looking for paths, I walked for 12 hours, 38kms (of which 2kms were wasted) and almost 1500m elevation.