Saturday, September 17, 2005
Landed part 1
Right, time for a little write up of my recent trip to the Pyrenees with a few mates from Uni. Don't worry, there are pictures too.....
It all started on 31st August when 4 of us met up at Stansted Airport for our early afternoon flight to Perpignan, on the Mediterranean Coast of France. The 3 others were:
Ben, GK and Lozza.
When we arrived in Perpignan (after what can only be described as an "interesting" landing) we were picked up by the Northern Irishman who owned the hostel we were staying in. Due to a bit of a mix-up in booking, we ended up with 2 double beds. After managing to find a spare single bed that could be popped into one of the rooms, we were left with only one double to sort out. A game of high card decided that GK and Lozza would be the lucky couple who got to share the bed and don't they look lovely together.
After a night in the nearby (3km walk away) town of Estagel, which included a musical and dance ensemble performing a huge and seemingly never-ending number of cartoon theme tunes as part of the town festival, we tried to make the 9:50am bus to Perpignan. We missed it by 3 minutes. Surprisingly there were few recriminations about this, despite the fact we faced a 3 hour wait for the next bus. In terms of the long-term hiking plans though, missing that bus proved to be pretty vital.
We had a pretty uneventful trip to Perpignan and got the train to a town called Villefranche, from which we were to start our walk to the house we'd booked for the week starting on the Saturday 3rd September. The first part of the walk was a nasty introduction to hiking with a 20kg bag. It was a relatively steep climb up to about 800 metres. The view from the top wasn't bad though.
Our time problems started to become more obvious here. It was 6pm by the time we reached the top (it had taken us about 75mins to do the initial steep climb) and we were never going to reach our desired port of call for the night, a village called Mantet. We covered a decent amount of terrain to get to a campsite at the bottom of the 1200m climb to Mantet (500m up to a 1760m pass) before nightfall and set up camp.
We set off the next morning at about 8am. While not as early as some well Lozza) would have liked, the sun didn't get over the hills until shortly before then so it was plenty early enough.
We stopped for provisions at the local bakery and spirits were high. We really should have looked more closely at those contours.....
The climb we were faced with was the longest most of us had ever done in terms of height-gain. 1200m is much more than you can do in the UK. Over 10km we rose from 500m to 1760m. The first 6km was relatively gentle and we made good time up to a village called Py. From there, we joined the GR10 route up the Col de Mantet. It was this bit that did for GK's back (he was left with a raw patch caused by a combination of his rucksack and shirt) and for my stamina and belief that we could make it to the house in time. In fact the only person who felt that they would make it was Lozza. Some pictures from the climb:
The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed a car at the top of the col. There was indeed a car park up there, which was slightly depressing. The road leads to Mantet - a tiny village with one road in and out. When we reached the col, 3 of us (Ben, GK and myself) decided to call it quits in terms of getting to the house by 5pm on the Saturday (or at all given the state of GK's back). Lozza refused to give up and pressed on on his own. This was something the rest of us weren't comfortable with, but he would not be dissuaded and carried on regardless.
The 3 of us left behind did the short walk down the road to Mantet to find a bed and a way of getting back to Villefranche. We struck gold to be fair. A great hostel, with an excellent kitchen and sitting room, and the owner offering us a lift (for less than a taxi would have been). The best bit though was his comment: "The kitchen's upstairs. I'll put some beers in the fridge for you." Now they weren't free, but at 1.50 euros, they weren't bad and tasted damn good. Beer always seems to be nicer when you feel you've earnt it. A few pics of the scenery around Mantet.
The next day, the 3 quitters were driven on a slighty unnerving drive back to Villefranche to catch "Le Petit Train Jaune", or little yellow train to you an me, up to Mont Louis. (For some info on the train (in English) click here)
We arrived at the house on Saturday 3rd September at about 5pm after a short taxi ride from Mont Louis to the tiny village of Sauto, perched on the valley side 1500m above sea level.
To be continued........
It all started on 31st August when 4 of us met up at Stansted Airport for our early afternoon flight to Perpignan, on the Mediterranean Coast of France. The 3 others were:
Ben, GK and Lozza.
When we arrived in Perpignan (after what can only be described as an "interesting" landing) we were picked up by the Northern Irishman who owned the hostel we were staying in. Due to a bit of a mix-up in booking, we ended up with 2 double beds. After managing to find a spare single bed that could be popped into one of the rooms, we were left with only one double to sort out. A game of high card decided that GK and Lozza would be the lucky couple who got to share the bed and don't they look lovely together.
After a night in the nearby (3km walk away) town of Estagel, which included a musical and dance ensemble performing a huge and seemingly never-ending number of cartoon theme tunes as part of the town festival, we tried to make the 9:50am bus to Perpignan. We missed it by 3 minutes. Surprisingly there were few recriminations about this, despite the fact we faced a 3 hour wait for the next bus. In terms of the long-term hiking plans though, missing that bus proved to be pretty vital.
We had a pretty uneventful trip to Perpignan and got the train to a town called Villefranche, from which we were to start our walk to the house we'd booked for the week starting on the Saturday 3rd September. The first part of the walk was a nasty introduction to hiking with a 20kg bag. It was a relatively steep climb up to about 800 metres. The view from the top wasn't bad though.
Our time problems started to become more obvious here. It was 6pm by the time we reached the top (it had taken us about 75mins to do the initial steep climb) and we were never going to reach our desired port of call for the night, a village called Mantet. We covered a decent amount of terrain to get to a campsite at the bottom of the 1200m climb to Mantet (500m up to a 1760m pass) before nightfall and set up camp.
We set off the next morning at about 8am. While not as early as some well Lozza) would have liked, the sun didn't get over the hills until shortly before then so it was plenty early enough.
We stopped for provisions at the local bakery and spirits were high. We really should have looked more closely at those contours.....
The climb we were faced with was the longest most of us had ever done in terms of height-gain. 1200m is much more than you can do in the UK. Over 10km we rose from 500m to 1760m. The first 6km was relatively gentle and we made good time up to a village called Py. From there, we joined the GR10 route up the Col de Mantet. It was this bit that did for GK's back (he was left with a raw patch caused by a combination of his rucksack and shirt) and for my stamina and belief that we could make it to the house in time. In fact the only person who felt that they would make it was Lozza. Some pictures from the climb:
The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed a car at the top of the col. There was indeed a car park up there, which was slightly depressing. The road leads to Mantet - a tiny village with one road in and out. When we reached the col, 3 of us (Ben, GK and myself) decided to call it quits in terms of getting to the house by 5pm on the Saturday (or at all given the state of GK's back). Lozza refused to give up and pressed on on his own. This was something the rest of us weren't comfortable with, but he would not be dissuaded and carried on regardless.
The 3 of us left behind did the short walk down the road to Mantet to find a bed and a way of getting back to Villefranche. We struck gold to be fair. A great hostel, with an excellent kitchen and sitting room, and the owner offering us a lift (for less than a taxi would have been). The best bit though was his comment: "The kitchen's upstairs. I'll put some beers in the fridge for you." Now they weren't free, but at 1.50 euros, they weren't bad and tasted damn good. Beer always seems to be nicer when you feel you've earnt it. A few pics of the scenery around Mantet.
The next day, the 3 quitters were driven on a slighty unnerving drive back to Villefranche to catch "Le Petit Train Jaune", or little yellow train to you an me, up to Mont Louis. (For some info on the train (in English) click here)
We arrived at the house on Saturday 3rd September at about 5pm after a short taxi ride from Mont Louis to the tiny village of Sauto, perched on the valley side 1500m above sea level.
To be continued........
