Lac d'Espingo - Col de la Coume de Bourg -Superbagneres - Bagnères-de-Luchon
- Distance: 21km
- Duration: (with breaks): 8h 30min
- Elevation gain/loss: 730m/1980m
I woke up in the middle of the night wondering who turned the light on. Oh wait, I’m in the middle of the mountains, wild camping next to a lake. The light? What the hell…?
Although after 9 days in a tent I’m still not super comfy about sleeping in a tent alone, I unzip the front of the door to see what’s happening. Turns out there’s a massive full moon, shining straight into my tent. That’s a lot of light.
It felt surreal to see everything around me so well: here’s Romana’s tent to the left, Nikolai’s – on the left. The horses are still there too, quietly roaming the fields nearby. Spooky and fascinating at the same time.
In the morning I woke up to the quiet whispers of Nikolai and Romana and something else. I have a strange feeling that something is VERY close to my tent. Once I unzip it and peek my head out, here it is – a horse, literally next to my tent. That’s not it though. Another one is on the other side. I’m surrounded!
Luckily they lost their interest rather fast and left my tent intact, without trying to taste it. Romana and Nikolai left soon after for an early start while I decided to savor my time in this location. Today is the last day on the trail, all of a sudden everything is special and needs to be extra enjoyed 🙂
Although it may seem that I had a lazy morning, I started at 7:30 hoping to still avoid the sun for the climb up towards Col de la Coume de Bourg, the last mountain pass of this trip. I traced back the trail and once again saw Lac d’Oô from above. Yesterday this trail was tough on me, so it was nice to actually enjoy it this morning. pictures
As I zigzagged up the slope in complete silence, I could not help but observe the caves above or below me and wonder whether there are bears inside them. Logically, the few bears that live in the Pyrenees probably would pick a tad quieter place than somewhere along a well-known hiking path such as GR10. But hey, I’m alone, it’s dead quiet around me, I have to think of all the possible ways my life might be threatened 😄
The ascent to Col de la Coume de Bourg was rather long and I was glad to have started hiking early. Without an internet connection, I didn’t even know how long it takes to get to it (~3 hours). August sun is merciless and so I was glad to reach the peak mostly in shade. As I sat on the grass to admire the views, once again I felt nostalgic. This is the last grand view on this trip. As far as I could see, there were peaks upon peaks – an endless sea of mountains.
I wondered what goes through the minds of GR10 thru-hikers (those who hike the whole GR10 trail in one go) when seeing this view? While it feels like a long journey to get here, the end (the Mediterranean sea) is nowhere in sight. It reminded me of the search for the Mediterranean sea on the GR5 when Edo and I were hoping to see the sea any day, but it just hid behind the mountains almost until the end.
While the views were fantastic, I was glad to finish the journey. Those nine days were full of personal challenges and reflections, full of me-time in the mountains and I felt as if I got what I wanted. I fell in love with the Pyrenees, but I didn’t have to hike any further, now it’s a great time to go home.
The descent was steep-ish and I met more people coming up (or snailing up), for whom I felt a bit sorry as they were battling the hill in the heat. The sun was in full swing with no place to hide. I thought that there was only descent left for me until I found out that some ups and downs still waited for me to be conquered. Classic Pyrenees.
At Superbagneres ski complex I reunited once again with Nikolai and Romana. After a lazy lunch (our little tradition), we continued the descent through a forested path until we reached Bagnères-de-Luchon.
This is it, our adventure in the Pyrenees is over. Tonight we’ll sleep at a campsite together for the last time, we’ll have a celebratory dinner (pizza! carbs!) and then each of us will move to the next adventure, wherever that is.
Day 9 tips
- If you’re hiking in August, start early. It’s a long day and the shade will hide you from the sun only when descending to Bagnères-de-Luchon, so enjoy the early morning shade as long as you can.
- Keep an eye on signs when descending from Superbagneres. We thought we followed the hiking path and then we found ourselves scrambling down a crazy steep slope as we ended up on a bike path. Who bikes there even?! Besides figuring out how not to tumble down the hill on slippery gravel, we also had to quickly move away from bikes, that came down the hill super fast.
- It is also a rather dry section. There’s a water stream close to Refuge d’Espingo, a spring-fed pipe on the descent from Col de la Coume de Bourg, and a water source in Superbagneres. Keep in mind that Superbagneres is only open in July and August, outside these months the spring-fed pipe will be your last water source before Luchon.