{"id":239,"date":"2012-02-25T19:49:36","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T19:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2013-03-02T08:00:29","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T08:00:29","slug":"pyrenees-walk-1-quillan-belvianes-et-cavirac-quillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2012\/02\/pyrenees-walk-1-quillan-belvianes-et-cavirac-quillan\/","title":{"rendered":"Pyrenees walk 1: Quillan – Belvianes-et-Cavirac – Quillan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Quillan<\/a>
Quillan – Belvianes – Quillan (click for Google map)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In\u00a0February\u00a0we went to stay in the Pyrenean\u00a0town of Quillan<\/a> for a week. \u00a0The holiday was primarily aimed at improving the\u00a0skiing\u00a0skills of younger members of our extended family. \u00a0I’m not really much of a skier,\u00a0preferring\u00a0to walk up a mountains rather than hurtle down down them at breakneck speeds.<\/p>\n

However, I can see the appeal and it was great to watch the kids having so much fearless fun on the slopes.<\/p>\n

I did manage to sneak off for a couple of days walking.<\/p>\n

The first walk was local and circular. \u00a0The weather was near-perfect, the sun was out with my big jumper staying in my rucksack the\u00a0entire\u00a0hike despite snow on the higher ground.<\/p>\n

I started out from Quillan\u00a0and climbed to the ridge of the first of three hills, ‘Les Trois Quilles’, from which the town derives\u00a0its name.\u00a0There are some wonderful views of Quillan \u00a0from the ridge. \u00a0The hills in the photo are the ones I’d be traversing on the return walk.<\/p>\n

\"
Quillan from Les Trois Quilles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time I reached the third peak I could see\u00a0Belvianes-et-Cavirac below me and this is where I began my ascent to \u00a0the river Aude at Cavirac.<\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking down towards Belvianes-et-Cavirac<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the way to\u00a0Belvianes-et-Cavirac I passed the ruin of a cottage, I expect some ex-pat will buy it up to convert into a yoga centre or somesuch.<\/p>\n

\"Abandoned
Abandoned cottage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I ate lunch outside the church in\u00a0Belvianes-et-Cavirac<\/a> and set off on the second half of the hike.<\/p>\n

My next destination was Belv\u00e9d\u00e8re du Diable, a viewpoint overlooking the Gorges de Pierre-Lys,\u00a0carved out by the Aude as it makes its way downstream from the high\u00a0Pyrenees.<\/p>\n

\"belv\u00e9d\u00e8re
belv\u00e9d\u00e8re du diable<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00a0admired\u00a0the view and tried to scout out a track that might follow the entire length of the gorge but couldn’t see anything.<\/p>\n

I then headed further uphill. \u00a0The higher I walked the more the paths became covered in snow.<\/p>\n

\"Snowy
Snowy paths<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was fun walking in the snow, it wasn’t deep enough at this height to need snow shoes.<\/p>\n

Looking across the\u00a0valley\u00a0I could see the ridge I had traversed earlier on.<\/p>\n

\"The
The view across the valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally I began my ascent. I took a steep path down the hill, the snow\u00a0quickly\u00a0became quite deep, coming up to my knees at some points.<\/p>\n

After wading downhill through the snow I took a break at the\u00a0Chalet de Carach.<\/p>\n

\"Chalet
Chalet de Carach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And an hour later a final break at the Palace bar in Quillan.<\/p>\n

\"A
A very cold beer at the Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The perfect end to a fine day’s walk (with many thanks and love to Anne for providing me with the opportunity to enjoy and explore this beautiful region of the world).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0February\u00a0we went to stay in the Pyrenean\u00a0town of Quillan for a week. \u00a0The holiday was primarily aimed at improving the\u00a0skiing\u00a0skills…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,15],"tags":[39,32,140,76,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}