A harder than expected day of hiking – we took the wrong way up a pass. Oops.
But last night was interesting – the horrible noisy group of 8 were annoying at dinner (and of course we had to sit with them…). They complained about the food, which seems stupid to do in the middle of nowhere. We had a cream of mushroom soup, a big salad, and veggie cannelloni. The omnivores received a meaty “hotpot” sort of thing, but asked (after it had been served) to have what we were having. The cute staff lady asked them if they were vegetarian. They said no. So she said no. :)
Nice thing: before dinner we spoke – haltingly – to the quiet Spanish ladies and they taught me how to play dominoes. It seems that they are on exactly the same schedule we are, which means we’ll have “friends” in every refuge.
It was difficult to find quiet after dinner – noisy group stayed in the common room, and it had gotten far too cold and windy to go outside, even with our down jackets on. So we – and the Spanish ladies, it turned out – retreated upstairs to our dormitory, where Wil and I played Trivial Pursuit till it was time to sleep.
Didn’t sleep very well, however; there was a big storm in the night and we woke up to 1/2 inch of snow. Yikes. But we bundled up and set out around the lake from the refuge. Then up up up to the next lake and then we went astray – we followed some cairns into a boulder field and somehow missed a springy turfy switchback path. We got held up in the boulders for quite some time – only towards the end seeing the lovely path below us. A nice young group passed us and showed us where we could go straight down to the path. Afterwards we chatted with them for a while, and then continued up to the pass. At the top we saw the Spanish ladies, and rested a little. Then down the other side, on a clear path (though Very Steep).
The SL’s were ahead of us and kindly stopped to point out that they were going to summit a peat and not to follow them. :)
Then over hill and over dale, past some lovely lakes, came down to the “crossroads”, which had the route to Blanc clearly marked (you know how I feel about good signage). The nice young group were resting by the crossroads and joked that they had waited to make sure we didn’t go the wrong way. They said they were going to Mallafre (which we’ll pass tomorrow), but that Blanc was the most beautiful of the hostels.
So we set off on the little path and stopped by a pond for lunch. While there was saw a guy from Colomina who had been to Blanc and was headed for Mallafre for the night.
After lunch we continued and eventually met up with the noisy group of 8. They were nicer – I think they’d seen some real hiking – and they weren’t that far ahead of us despite their leader’s insistence that they hurry along. The blonde lady who had been so scared crossing the dam and who looked scared about the “day 2 pass” smiled at us and asked how we were feeling. We said “Great!” and asked how she was. She said “Tired… but I think we are halfway there.” We told her she was doing great and didn’t point out that she still had to cross the second-highest pass of the trek that afternoon as their schedule had them sleeping at Mallafre as well. Poor dear. They said the refuge wasn’t far – but then others contradicted them and said it was.
In a way, they were both right. Not long after leaving them, we spotted the refuge far below. Glorious! However, there was a hairy scary descent down to the lake that lasted an absurdly long tome before we got remotely close. Then across a beautiful dam and we were sure we had arrived. But, no, we had to go up and over one last hill, and then back down to the refuge. Still, glorious to arrive here.
Now we’re sitting out in the sun relaxing and I’m trying to get my knees unswollen by massaging them. My right knee especially is painful – I can no longer completely straighten it, nor can I bend it past 90 degrees. Awesome! However, I have discovered a miraculous Spanish medicine – powdered ibuprofen that you add to water and drink. It’s flavoured peppermint and isn’t half bad. And it seems to cure headaches in minutes. Will pick up a box when we get back to Vielha.
J.M. Blanc is gorgeous, and clearly a day-tripper kind of place. You can walk up from Espot or even take a 4WD Land Rover taxi. There’s a nice little restaurant (complete with espresso machine – this isn’t roughing it), 8 16-bed dorms, showers with hot water, toilets, sinks, bliss. They also knew we were vegetarian, so that’s nice.
Tomorrow’s route is interesting – there are options. Frankly, my knees could use another day of rest, with no mountain passes. So we may take the long, low route rather than go over the Monastero pass. We’ve been over several passes, and will be going over several more. So maybe we’ll continue our “rest day” by going for a long walk.
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