GR10 Days 13-16: Photos

Day 13:

Enough pretty outdoors photos! Let’s have some indoors ones. This set are from our one-star hotel in Cauterets, which, contrary to my first negative impressions, actually met our needs perfectly. If you can overlook the unmade bed and the kit lying around (I must have taken it upon departure), you’ll see that the main room was a bit spartan:

The second room was huge – you can just about see a table and one of the chairs over on the right, in front of the big window:

Whilst the whole place was very dated, I’m glad that the bedrooms didn’t boast the same flooring as all of the stairs and corridors:

Talking of dated, this was the fire notice on the back of the door (dated October 1973). I particularly liked the ‘Be sure to tell the floor attendant about the fire’. I suspect it has been many years (decades?) since this hotel last saw a floor attendant! They obviously have very good cleaners, though, as our room was spotless.

Day 15:

This one is purely for my sister. Turning off the road over the Col de Tourmalet, I couldn’t resist a photo of a Tin Tray:

The walk up to the Col de Madamete (the highest Col on the route if sticking to the Cicerone guide) was spectacular:

That shown above was a bouldery bit, but after every few hundred yards of climbing we generally came across lovely flat grassy meadows, as you can see in this snap:

We had a few very good pitches, but this one must just have sneaked the prize for the most spectacular location (by Cabane d’Aygues Cluses, below the Col du Madamete):

Day 16:

6am in the most spectacular camping location, there’s a glow in the distant sky and a blanket of cloud in the valley below us (the grey in the bottom right corner is a bit of fly sheet, again denoting that this was a ‘from my bed’ shot):

Alas, by the time we set off, that cloud had come up to meet us and we set out walking on a compass bearing, but by the time we reached the pass we were up above it again:

Stunning spot for second breakfast, was that pass. Alas, we soon descended back into the cloud and stayed in it for much of the day…

… but not all of the day, as there was an interlude of excellent visibility around lunchtime…

…before it the cloud came back in again, as we walked along a newly made path on a walk that the Cicerone guide compared with the Lake District. We have no idea on what basis that comparison was made, as we didn’t see very much:

We did see a very large flock of sheep, though, which were imaginatively decorated. If you look beyond the three bearing ‘LS’ on their buttocks, the ones in front have love hearts. Others had clover leaves.

They also had been shorn with the exception of varying amounts of fleece left on their backs. There’s one in this shot that has a big nobble of fleece on its shoulders, which had been painted bright green and yellow: