Day 19, Jul 2, 2024
From Cauterets to Luz Saint Sauveur)
22 km hiked, 35.0% complete

The hotel we stayed in last night provided a good breakfast and it was worth waiting til 8 to eat before leaving. We quickly found the route out of town and started the climb. It took us on a more gradual ascent than we have been used to and we enjoyed the cool shade of the conifer forest. When we finally progressed to open farmland, we were disappointed to find that we were once again in mist and cloud. This continued until we reached the top of the Col after completing our 3 hour climb. Fortunately we had some short periods of sun and blue sky.

Further on from our summit was, on one side, the top of a ski lift, and on the other, the ruined walls of a stone building.

After a small snack, we cruised on down the grassy slope, and then continued down tracks, sometimes roads, sometimes steep rocky paths, sometimes muddy animal tracks and occasionally narrow paths almost completely lost in tall grasses. At the foot of the ski slopes we stopped to photograph a family of marmots that popped out of their holes to say hello.

Near the end of today’s journey, we passed through 2 small hamlets with quaint buildings and cobblestone streets.

We have ended at a further town (Luz Saint Sauveur) where we are camped in a private campground with good clean facilities. We have a short walk in to town for shopping and dinner. We need to restock our food supplies as we expect to camp again on the next 2 nights from here.