Last night, we enjoyed the starry sky as you only see it this high in the mountains: the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, and the Andromeda galaxy illuminated the sky. When we fell asleep, it was calm, but halfway through the night, the storm began. Strong gusts of wind made the tent flap, but the tent itself held firm. We had driven all 15 pegs into the ground, luckily, because we wouldn’t have wanted to get out in the middle of the night to secure the tent further. This morning, the wind is still blowing, and because it will be a while before the sun rises, it’s cold. Dressed in all the clothes from our ‘wardrobe’, we venture outside. It’s just starting to get light. The sky in the east is already a beautiful blue, while in the west, above the gray mountains, it’s still dark. The wind continues to blow, almost exactly until the moment the sun rises. We’re positioned well; it shines directly on our tent, and it immediately feels wonderfully warm. Fortunately, we can change into our hiking outfit in the warm sun. During breakfast, about 7 hikers pass by, who slept in the metal refuge higher up. They’re heading towards Tuc Molières. There will surely be some hikers descending as well. Quite a few people for such a small hut. It’s cozy, but we’re glad we stayed here.
We start the descent of 7 kilometers long, descending nearly 900 meters. Up here, the landscape slowly transitions from rocks to grass. Large rock formations are interspersed with sections of path between meadows. We slept near the second lake, and now we pass by the third and the fourth. They are all darker blue than the earlier lakes we encountered, they look beautiful in this landscape. We pass below the refuge and continue to descend, facing a steep route along a maze of paths. You have to find just the right ones. Below us, we see vast grasslands with a path that looks more manageable from above. There are already quite a few people coming up; they still have some way to go… Down below, the landscape immediately becomes more picturesque. Streams flow, and there are beautiful waterfalls. We see the yellow alpine poppy blooming among the grass, and a couple of marmots lounging in the sun. They are unperturbed by our presence and remain lying down as we pass by. After the grassland, the valley becomes narrower, and we have to descend through a few gorges using ropes.
Convenient, those ropes. If they would have walked a bit further up the mountain whilst placing them, we could have pointed them to a spot where they would be even more useful ;-). But we’re grateful for them here too, and thanks to this assistance, we quickly find ourselves on another meadow. The meadow transitions into a pine forest, and not much lower, into a beech forest. Occasionally, we still descend steeply along waterfalls, but the going is smooth. At the bottom, we arrive at a larger meadow, at the end of which lies a large closed refuge, and a road leading into a tunnel. It’s the Vielha tunnel, named after the town of the same name. We need to cross it to begin the next climb, but first, we take a break in a lovely meadow by the river. We find out that we have phone reception, we haven’t had that for a while. We’ve planned the route after the upcoming climb to end up at a campsite in the village of Arties, from where we can go to Vielha for supplies for the next stages towards Andorra.
But then we would miss a beautiful stretch along the lakes high up in the mountains. We see on the internet that there’s a bus going through the tunnel directly to Vielha. If we take that, we’ll be in the right village for all our shopping and we can come back here later to walk the full stretch over the top. Win-win, and the bus leaves in half an hour. The choice is quickly made, although it does mean an abrupt end to the hiking day. We walk to the bus stop at the parking lot of refuge Conangles and see one bus after another passing by without stopping. We wait for an hour, and 3 Alsa buses pass by. Hmm, now we have only one more chance with the park bus that goes around Val de Barrevés. The momentum to continue hiking has somewhat faded, so we decide to give it a try. It doesn’t leave for another hour and a half. We’re close to the refuge, so we can wait there. We order a cup of coffee and ask if this park bus is indeed going, and fortunately, if we’re there on time, we can definitely catch it. And indeed, 1.5 hours later, we’re on the bus to Vielha, a nice town with many outdoor shops that we need for the final stages. And a large supermarket, which we haven’t come across since Pamplona 5 weeks ago. Suddenly, we’re back in civilization, in a bustling tourist village. Unexpected, but also fun for a few days. But we’re already looking forward to the mountains again; there are still a few beautiful stages ahead of us!
