The first orage

When I first arrived in Lescun on Thursday, I met an American couple outside the post office, who told me that England had drawn their third match of the World Cup and been knocked out. I don’t know whether that was an honest mistake or a wind-up, but it wasn’t until Klaas showed me the results in his paper that I discovered the truth. If I was near a bookie’s I’d bet my tent on the Germans beating us on penalties.

As well as football, Klaas’s paper had a weather forecast that mentioned storms on Saturday afternoon. I rang the mountain weather forecast yesterday to get an update and amidst lots of garbled French I picked out the word “orage” a few times again, but when I set off this morning the skies were clear.

I managed an uncharacteristically early start (leaving the campsite at 08:40) and reached the Col de Pau (on the border ridge - see photo) pretty much on schedule, just in time for lunch. Soon after that I met a French group who asked what I was doing. I explained my plan and they pointed out some of the key landmarks along the way, then wished me luck with the storm. As far as I could see it looked ok, but a lady assured me that a storm was on its way. She had a badge on her rucksack saying something about a French Mountain club, so I assumed she knew what she was talking about.

I blitzed the section from there to the day’s end, keen to avoid a repeat of last weeks’s drenching. The clouds got greyer and the thunder started rumbling as I trundled along towards Col de Saoubathou and on towards the Refuge d’Arlet. The rain began very lightly and slowly got heavier, but wasn’t too bad by the time I reached the refuge.

I’d wondered about camping near the refuge and the sun briefly shone through the clouds but, when I popped outside to check, the thunder was still rumbling and the rain carried on most of the evening.

This is the first refuge I’ve stayed in on this trip - very different to the hostels I stayed in during the last section. Whereas they were in villages and had private rooms (some even ensuite!), this refuge is over 2,000m up in the mountains and has 2 rooms - a dinning room and a single bedroom that sleeps up to 44 people. I haven’t seen a bathroom yet, but there was a guy washing in the stream when I arrived, so I suspect the facilities are limited!

There’s a strange mix of people here - I think the majority are HRP’ers, but there’s also a family and some Spanish walkers who look like they’re just doing a night up here. Amongst the HRP’ers there are huge differences in style - there are people who start early, start late, finish early, do long days, carry heavy (25kg) bags, carry light (15kg) bags…

Two of the other guys here are doing the Pyrenees in the other direction, finishing in Hendaye. I sat next to one of them at dinner (an impressive 5-course meal!) and he told me that both the main route and the variant described in my guide had sections that were unpassable last week due to snow. The blockages are in 3 day’s time, so I’m going to call a local refuge tomorrow to check if things have improved in the last few days. If not, I may have to go off-piste and come up with a lower-level alternative.