Living in the southwest of France for four years (as of September 13), the literal gateway to the Pyrenees; can you imagine it took me this long to say, ‘how about hiking the closest mountain range?’.
Maybe because I only recently found a suitable group for such a physical undertaking. The PhD Filipino scholars, also awesome new friends whom I refer to as ‘the intellectuals’: Febby and Kristine.
The team: Febby, Tin, Geoff and Meos and moi.
Meos is the only person who drives and I put Geoff in charge of organizing the car rental at a company called Ada located at Matabiau.
Where were we going exactly? To reach the campsite at Le Refuge de Etangs des Bassies and camp for a night. Initially the terrain was rocky but easy and the view was as fabulous as this.
There were a lot of hikers on this sunny weekend of August and some hiked with their dogs. This cute boy Rocket, stopped and took his sweet time to sniff my bag as I was taking a water break while his parents adamantly called for him. Such a friendly boy!
Then the path became wavy – descending and ascending.
Breathtaking view of the mountain range and the splash of yellow flowers were wonderful to the dominant green around.
We reached the hydroelectric system that channels water atop the mountain lakes to the village power systems below.
That’s Febby with her lucky slingshot-shaped stick. She was attached to it like how Tom Hanks was attached to Wilson in Cast Away.
I love a narrow path where I know I won’t fall off on either sides. It’s my security blanket.
The path became even more beautiful with lavander colored flowers sprawled around the path. I definitely need to invest on a proper hiking bag.
Do you guys see how I was ill-equipped apart from the non-hiking bag I’m carrying? I’m so happy Geoff was carrying our tent. Sorry rock gods, if I’m going to wear a Nirvana shirt next-time, it’s going to be a light-weight, quick-drying textile and not cotton. Good job girls, they were a hundred times better prepared physically and logistically.
Four hours into hiking, we arrive at the rock formation bridge which, was not easy to cross at least for me okay? I had to orally say to myself: “You’re okay Niña, you’re fine, it’s a stable bridge, you’re gonna get across.”
The terrain completely changed – it became more flat and we made it to the dam at this point. Getting closer to the refuge!
This is the barrage du pla des escales. The water was so refreshing. No we did not swim but we were envious of a family taking a dip.
Back to beautiful paths. A mysterious cave rock formation. Oooooh.
Finally, we made it to the refuge. Deliverance! We set up our tents, had snacks/dinner which was a sandwich for me, Geoff and Meos had couscous, Febby had chocolatine and shared her beef jerky while Tin had wasabi cracker nuts.
There were tables and benches outside of the refuge and that’s were we planted ourselves to catch shooting stars! The view was beyond amazing. I think I caught 12 and the girls stayed until they caught around 18. It was the best part of this adventure.
The following day, after breakfast at the refuge plus complaints from the French men that I basically made the night a living hell for them for snoring like an ogre, it was time to descend.
Lighting was awesome at 8 in the morning.
There were horses and cows with their cute little bells clanking as they grazed in packs.
It took us five hours going up and only three hours and a half to descend.
The waterfall view from the mountain and fast forward to the next pic: reaching the bottom to actually dip our exhausted feet in the cold water aka relief.
That concludes our hike and cheers to more hikes in the future hopefully with improved stamina (on my end) and equipment (that includes earplugs to distribute to the French men around).