Tuesday 31st of May Esperou to L'Hospitalet

So much for seeing Mont Blanc and Canigou from the top of Mount Aigoual today. Despite getting away early it had started to rain by the time we got to the summit and the promise of seeing both Alps and Pyrenees was thwarted. My weather track record on top of big mountains has so far not been good.


Walking up to Mt Aigoual

Frustratingly you could see enough to get a taste of what it might be like on a really good day. Layers of mountains in every direction.


Rainy views from the top

The Gite d'Etape and restaurant at the top of Mont Aigoual looked new and one option would have been to stay there instead of Esperou (although we stayed in a nice hotel) and enjoy the views over breakfast. Another time perhaps.

The first half of the walk after Mont Aigoual was along a forest trail, a nice forest trail and a good place to be in the rain, but not what I had expected walking through the Cevennes. It did mean we covered the ground quickly particularly as it was too cold to stop for long.


Forest trail descent from Mt Aigoual

As we got into the last third of the walk the steady rain turned into something a lot heavier but the scenery also opened up, really dramatic, huge views with clouds racing past. For a few miles we were following the watershed between southerly flowing rivers which drain into the Mediterranean and westerly flowing ones going into the Atlantic. A sign to the source of the Tarn to our left confirmed this.



Wet weather gear




Open country approaching L'Hospitalet

L'Hospitalet is not a village, it's just a farmstead which does bed and breakfast and has a dormitory for walkers as well. We have our own room and I think they might be milking the sheep in the room next door. I guess you would get used to the smell if you stayed here long enough but we will be on our way pretty early in the morning. Like today it is another 30 kilometre walk tomorrow but hopefully the weather will be better.

PS

Just had dinner (excellent) and have eaten them out of house and home. Salad with a jar of pork rillettes which we demolished, followed by an 8 egg onion omelette and a kilogram of sautéed potatoes, followed by a huge cheese and two yogurts washed down with a litre of wine. Seth from cold comfort farm was behind the curtain with his hat on waiting for leftovers, Seth has gone to bed hungry.

2 comments:

  1. The PS bit has got to be written by Mum??

    ReplyDelete
  2. I guess that Seth was not the only one going to bed hungry. It seems that the two of you ate the dinners of the sheep as well ... ? ;-)
    Menno

    ReplyDelete