Hautes-Pyrénées

Chapter one: Humbled by nature
We were up at the crack of dawn and on our way up the mountain road. We parked Ivy when we arrived and got together all the things we needed for a hike up the mountain. We were going to see the biggest waterfall in France ( one of the biggest in Europe) and because it is quite a tourist attraction and a Sunday we came early to experience it without too many people around us.
As with our dawn hike to Mont St Michel it was to pay off as we were completely alone for the first few hours due to our head start.
We started off through the first area where civilisation still reigned, there were shops cafes, hotels and restaurants, all still closed of course at this hour of the day. Then we met some lovely donkeys which were used for children to get a ride up to the waterfall. We passed a field of very pretty sheep and horses and then we were on a path that followed a fast flowing river with ice blue waters, water that had come all the way down from the glaciers feeding the waterfalls. We could already see the waterfalls in the distance but they were still several km’s away. But already it was impressive beyond belief. Like something your imagination might conjure up whist reading a Tolkien book.
Unfortunately we were not going to be able to get all the way up to the waterfalls and the snow still laying in its shadow because dogs aren’t allowed past the hotel that is located perhaps some 80% of the way there. I presume that is because of the wildlife that lives there, marmots for sure inhabit the place, but we didn’t see them and neither did Bliss.
The walk up starts fairly easy, but the last hour of walking is very steep so I’m so glad we came early before it got hot. Bliss was able to cool off in the river quite a few times on the journey so she was happy.
The closer we got the more spectacular it became as it revealed more and more smaller waterfalls all across the impenetrable mountain wall, and dozens of smaller ones on the way up the trail. But the one big one was simply immense even though it was still so far away from us. I was mesmerised by the way the water fell in a slow motion effect brought about by its sheer enormity.
The arduous climb seemed to go on and on and the track deteriorated as we got higher. I couldn’t believe that there was an actual hotel up here and kept saying to Darren are you sure that there’s really a hotel? How on earth do they get stuff up here? Then a small four wheel drive jeep with oversized chunky wheels came bouncing around up the rocky pathway… so that explained that mystery.Weiterlesen