I met Robin at her campsite early this morning, where she had tested out her new 1 man tent the night before.
Goodbye Gavarnie
We set out to hike possibly the hardest 7 day stretch of the whole HRP! The final 3 days of this stretch are all “E” level days, meaning they are exceptional and extremely challenging for even experienced mountain walkers.
It will take all of our strength and resolve to make it through these days in tact. It will surely be an adventure and lead us to some of the most remote and untouched reaches of the whole Pyrénées mountain range.
Today’s walk was pretty straightforward: a 1,000m climb up to a pass that leads out of the Cirque de Gavarnie, and into the lesser-known Cirque de Estaube.
After that, there was about a 1,000m decent down a valley to the Barrage d’Gloriettes, a beautiful artificial lake, although the water level was quite low in late July.
Then a 5km road walk to the small hamlet of Héas, where we considered getting a repas du soir (dinner) at the Auberge, but it was €20, so we decided to save our money and make dinner ourselves.
We picked up the trail down the road and found a nice place to cook and watch the evening roll in. We thought about camping at a refuge, but I’m pretty anti-asking-permission when it comes to camping, so we decided to hike up an hour during sunset to a beautiful plateau with multiple waterfalls and great views instead.
We didn’t have to ask to camp there. And it was free! Good night!