Today went really well.
I woke up at my campsite at 2,300m to a great sunrise over the Mediterranean sea.
There was an 8km stretch of trail on the almost-level Tour du Canigo trail, which rode around the Canigou massif to its easternmost point, where I joined another trail for 16km along a ridge line going down towards the town of Amelie-les-bains.
On the way down, I watched a massive thunderstorm form in the mountains I had just left. I thought I might stay just on the outskirts of it, but it grew towards me and ended up raining all the way down to town.
I’ll take the rain over heat anyday. These last few days are supposed to be brutally hot due to the low elevation and the location. If I can have comfortable temperatures but get a little wet for one of the days, I’m all about it.
When I made it into town, I immediately hit a little convenience store and got a days worth of provisions, plus some comfort foods (beer, OJ, yogurt, coke, sausage) which I finished off in town, while saving the beer and sausage for dinner.
Then I hung out around the office of tourism for an hour waiting for the rain to end. They had wifi, so I was able to catch up on life while there.
Around 5pm, I headed out of town, happy to make use of the overcast skies and nice hiking temperatures. It wasn’t raining anymore, but with the humidity, it might as well have been!
The trail slowly climbed through a beautiful forest wilderness, riding a ridge up towards the Rock of France, a 1,450m high rock with nice views all around.
I stopped around 1,000m elevation at about 8:30. Having made 33km and seeing the rain moving in for another blow, I thought it a fine time to pitch the tent. I found a nice clearing up on the ridge with views of the sunset, of the Canigou massif, and of the Mediterranean coast down below.
The sausage and beer was a real treat! Yum! I happily enjoyed it inside my nice dry tent as the rain began again.
Just another couple of days to the end point of the HRP, so exciting! Can’t wait to have this adventure in the bag and be on to the next one. What a journey it has been!
Good night!