Day 76...The mountains of Mordor - 10th September

Up and walked into town and bought our very first… breadstick!! We were so excited, we marched around with it and took photos. Very French I’m sure! What a pair of idiots. We packed up and decided where we wanted to go in the Pyrenees. We picked a route towards Gavarnie, 52km south of Lourdes. It was the furthest point you could get to on that route – at the end of the road, and in the centre of the Pyrenees.

Driving in, the roads thinned and became windy. Huge mountains shut up and loomed above us. Gavarnie was a really cute little town, surrounded on all sides by huge peaks. There were deer in the car park too! So we picked a nice cheap place – our room had vies of the mountains. From our window we could see a huge mountainous and rocky ampitheatre, with a tall waterfall.
We had bought baguettes in Lourdes that morning, so we ate them in the sunshine on the deck of the hotel. It was nice there, so we decided we should finally drink the Moet we had bought in Champaigne. We stuck it in the hotel fridge, and set off for a hike. The trail we went on led us through the little town, down past a chuckling stream and into the Cirque de Gavernie. It is a rock ampitheatre, 1500m high and dominated by formidable peaks measuring 14km around the crest line.

We had to walk up into it…and up,….and up and up! We were shocked at how unfit we were as there were families meandering on the track, and here we were – huffing and puffing! Then we realized that everyone was dawdling up, and we were storming past and overtaking everyone. We saw the funniest typical French guy. Just after we passed a ‘no dogs, no fire, no camping’ sign, he was sitting there by the road with his dog having a cigarette. “Ze rules are stoopid! Haw Haw Haw” They just disregard the rules so much in Europe. Australia is much too uptight and well behaved!

We reached the middle of the ampitheatre which was mossy green grass, sheep with bells, and a meandering stream. All surrounded by impressive, imposing cliffs. We decided to walk up to the base of the waterfall, but once we hit a steep slope of loose shale, I began to have second thoughts. After I nearly fell over on my face for the second time, I paused, my boots half buried in shale. "This sux!" I said. I could tell Nate wanted to go on to the top. He looked longingly at it, merely to finish the walk. It was the principle of the thing really. So we continued on, and it was so tricky. for every step forward, you'd slide a half step backwards! I imagined all sorts of twisted or broken ankles. I felt like Lord of the Rings trying to get up into Mordor. Every time I slipped - "F*ck you nate!". Then we looked up and saw ominous clouds suddenly unfurling over the top of teh cliffs. There were a few water drops hitting us. "Aww f*ck you nate!" I laughed. "It's the waterfall!" Said he. At that moment - a massive thunderclap! "Aach I hate you so much right now!"

We were both laughing and proud of ourselves when we got up there. It wasn't much different, and no pretty sights beheld us, but we put our hands on the back wall of the ampitheatre and knew that was as far as we could go. And then it poured! A veritable downpour! The sheep scattered, and we could see the tiny coloured dots of people in ponchos running for cover. We protected the cameras and began the tricky task of clambouring down. We were so wet, and the shale kept giving way but we were laughing and enjoying ourselves. It actually became quite spectacular as the one waterfall was joined by dozens of little ones all around the 14km border of the ampitheatre from the rain. Our bodies were warm from the exercise, but our fingers started to freeze!

We trudged all the way back (finding all the sheep hiding under a massive boulder and looking most displeased) and into town. The rain had petered off by then. There was a stall with cheese, so I asked in French if we could have the local speciality. He laughed at my botching, but understood what I said and was pleased I tried. He gave us a massive chunk of Pyrenees cheese made from sheeps milk (prolly the ones hiding under the boulder!). We thanked him and trudged the rest of the way home for a nice hot shower! Ahhhh.

Feeling refreshed we still decided to drink our Moet, even though it was raining outside. We sat inside and drank it from water glasses, not very classy but still very tasty. We cut up the breadstick we bought from Lourdes that morning, as well as the cheese and we had a lovely afternoon. We ate and drank and figured out our route for Spain. A guy was in there with his dog - it was massive! Almost as big as a wolfhound, but alot fluffier and thicker so he looked like a big jim henson creature. And he was sleeping in one of the rooms with the guy! Amazing. I love how close the French are with their dogs. I greeted the dog (oscar) by name and the guy seemed surprised. I wasn't, as I had watched him all that afternoon and evening getting hauled along by the lead shouting "no oscar! noooo!" haha

Full of bread and cheese and wine, we went upstairs for a quick 'rest' (at my urging). I was a little tipsy and tired from my walk, so I fell asleep at about 6.30pm. Nate was full of bread and cheese and couldn't be bothered going into town for dinner so he passed out too.