Hiking in the Pyrenees - Gavarnie-Gedre

So we travelled through the ghastly kitsch of Lourdes with its poor deluded pilgrims to enjoy some hiking in the central Pyrenees at Gavarnie (and staying in the next village along at Gedre).

Our planned hike was to climb up the mountainside and then loop round towards the highest waterfall in Europe - see below distance shot. In case you need the stats, the "Grande Cascade" is apparently 423m high.

It was a slightly awkward day weatherwise - pretty cloudy that threatened possible rain, but several sunny gaps too. Our first climb up the mountainside was aborted - it required to us to cross a gushing stream which was boarded off presumably because it was over gushing. So we had to come all the way back down to riverside and progress a bit further before making another ascent. In all this was a 13km hike with a 600m climb.

Not a lot to say other than to enjoy the pictures. It was as lovely as it looks.

Up here there are still some decent chunks of ice.

At this point I let my companions go on further to the cascade. I don't mind the climbing, but this required crossing an icefield and I really didn't want to slip on ice as I was wearing walking shoes, not boots. With another day of hiking ahead a twisted ankle would not have gone down well. So I just took a few extra photos at my leisure.

A very hairy caterpillar

And so back to our rooms in the really very pleasant La Breche de Roland Hotel. Would recommend. Lovely views!

Rather than eat at the hotel we decided to eat in the village. Probably a mistake. The main feature of our restaurant was the sheer number of flies. This seriously put off Clarissa, but I commented that I like the big flies. Because I could see them and they don't bite. Its the sneaky tiny ones that cover me in itchy bites that I hate!

A decent enough charcuterie board

Not such a great steak

And the main sight in Gedre seemed to be this statue. Doesn't it always just happen in the mountains?  You come across a naked girl feeding a sheep comes, so you might as well put up a statue - nothing dodgy about that?

Oh, and this as good a time as any to mention the beast of a SUV that we were persuaded to hire to take all our luggage. Well it was a decent size and allowed Clarissa to stretch out in the back for a snooze on Thibault's longer drives.😊