Maybe it was too much sleep. Maybe it was not enough sleep. Maybe it was too many miles yesterday. Maybe it was lack of coffee this morning. Maybe it was the late start we got (noon–I hear Pete slapping his forehead). Maybe it was the foggy day. Or, maybe it’s the extra 15 pounds of food we are carrying. Whatever it was, we couldn’t get into a hiking rhythm today.
Fred woke up at 6:30 and was eager to go. Pam feined sleep because it was still raining. I was laying under my quilt trying to upload pictures. I could tell Fred was going to get upset with us today because Pam had made the comment when we went to bed that since checkout was at noon, we weren’t starting until noon. I didn’t argue. I’m not a wise man that knows to keep his mouth shut; I’m a defeated man that knows my input is not needed with a comment like that.
We had hung all our clothes on the fence to dry last night–the rain over night kind of defeated the point. I went up to the front of the campground to see if they had any dryers. Bingo, two of them. The problem: they only operate on tokens which we can’t buy until the office opens at 9.
We dried the clothes, shopped, ate breakfast, blogged, said goodbye to a frustrated Fred and made plans to catch up at the Cabane de Sauneres before the pass. Fred has a funny quirk–he quotes the walking times in the books to us like we can match them. We just laugh and double them. He actually thinks we can keep pace with the book. I looked at the French version of the quidebook and I’ll be damned if we aren’t getting closer to the times listed.
Fred took off which freed Pam to follow her original schedule which she did. We were all packed up and headed out at 12:05. We had three villages to go to before the climbing got tough, so we were determined to find a cup of cafe-au-lait. The short answer, we didn’t.
The first town was still on the valley floor so we had no problem keeping pace with the book. The next village, Sode, was 1000′ up in just a little more than 1/2 mile of trail. The book says one hour. We shook our heads at the book and said two. We got there in one and a half. We thought the coffee there would help us get going. There wasn’t any so it didn’t help.
We took a break on a shelf over looking the valley and where we had camped last night. There weren’t nearly as many people out today. In fact, we only saw 5 other hikers all day–Elke wasn’t one of them so I had no incentive to hit the trail hard.
We got to Artigue just past 4 (twice what the guidebook said it would take us–thank you very much). We needed a break and coffee if we were going to catch up with Fred. We spent 1/2 hour walking around town looking for a cafe and bickering because we couldn’t find one and we were both weighed down by our packs. We finally just decided to eat on the side of a street at the only place we could find a seat, next to a transformer.
While we were eating our lunch and gently arguing, Fred appeared. We were shocked and relieved. If he was still here, we didn’t have to push on another 4 hours to try to catch up. He had gotten a bad headache and decided to stop after the climb up. His only concern was if he would have enough food to extend an extra day to Fos. Looked like we had a solution to both of our problems. We will be able to get some meals at gites along the way so we can share food with Fred and reduce our loads.
We went to the municipal gite where Fred was staying (just the other side of the transformer). Pam was in a hurry to get settled in since it was raining. We ended up with the third room that sleeps 10–we are the only ones in it. We played cards with Fred for a bit until we all decided to take a nap. Around 7, I got up to start supper (gourmet mac n cheese with tomato sauce) when the owner showed up to collect the fee for the night; 12 euros per person–we’re talking Spain prices now.
It was still raining when we went to bed. Hopefully the fog will lift and the rain will stop tomorrow, but I’m not real hopeful according to what the guardian at the Refuge d’Espingo told us a couple days ago. Looks like we are going to have to face the rain. At least our packs are starting to get lighter.
