When I peaked out of my tent it did not look good at all. Very dark clouds were hanging really low in the mountains I came from yesterday. Glad I made it out before this stuff came in.
But for me the Col de Mulleres was on the agenda which was advised to only be tried in good weather conditions. This was a bit different than good weather. Nevertheless the forecast had predicted clouds but no rain. So off I went through the first clouds.
Not nice because it was very windy with gusts surely up to 40 or 50km/h and very wet at the same time. But what really worried me was the dark stuff showing once in a while.
But the weather cleared up and only the wind stayed on the way up.
I ran into Thomas, a French hiker from the area of Bordeaux. We hiked up Col de Mulleres together and also all the way down. Thomas was a very interesting guy. Well educated engineer, fluent in French, Spanish and English and guess what – had just quit his job to go hiking for a while… I bet you can imagine we had a lot of things to talk about. Also reminded me a lot on the beginning of my journey…! A lot of memories from New Zealand came up in me. What A great day. Really enjoyed the time with Thomas since we went straight for the interesting topics and not the usual superficial crap. Talked a lot about the anxieties and questions we had before we actually cut the ropes.
Of course we also hiked. I quickly went up on the Tuc de Mulleres and with this my first real peak on this trip and also I went above the 3.000m mark by 10 meters.
As expected the way down was very steep on the other side.
Water games on the way down which was very much dominated by our chat.
In the valley Thomas and I departed into different directions. He had planned to go to the Refugio in the valley and I to do another stage. After the 1.300m this morning I had another 1.200m ahead of me. Suddenly the vegetation changed and it was a lot drier. Almost looked like the South Island of New Zealand a bit – Ork-Country🤣
The next stage was bringing up some of the most spectacular lakes. Unfortunately the air was still so wet that with the weakening sun the mist came back especially on the lakes. So all I got to see was cloud-play again…
A short moment of hope:
And here you can see the most spectacular lake in the Pyrenees – Lac de Mar! Just need a bit of imagination.
I was done anyways today. My legs are calling for a break big time. The last bit of climbing and descending was really painful. But then something magical happened. I arrived at the beach! I must have found a shortcut to Banyul!!!
But since I couldn’t see much I decided to pitch the tent and wait for tomorrow…
