{"id":2393,"date":"2014-03-15T09:25:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T09:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=2393"},"modified":"2014-11-22T15:13:45","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:13:45","slug":"five-wintry-walks-in-the-french-pyrenees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2014\/03\/five-wintry-walks-in-the-french-pyrenees\/","title":{"rendered":"Five wintry walks in the French Pyrenees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, it’s the annual family journey to the French Pyrenees for some skiing. I, however, \u00a0am not really a huge fan of hurtling down a mountain at 60mph, so for me it’s snowshoes and hiking.<\/p>\n

Walk 1 – ascent of the Serre de Moncamp<\/h2>\n

We went up to Camurac our local, very unpretentious, \u00a0little ski station. \u00a0I helped the young ones into their gear and wished them well on the slopes. \u00a0With that out of the way I put on my snowshoes and headed off.<\/p>\n

Behind Camurac ski station is a hill\/mountain by the name of\u00a0Serre de Moncamp.<\/p>\n

\"Serre
Looking towards Serre de Moncamp (1774m)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I trudged through the crunchy, virgin snow in the glorious sun, stopping every-now-and-again to refresh myself with an icicle ice lolly.<\/p>\n

\"Icicles\"
Icicle ice lollies – very tasty!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I reached the summit in 90 minutes, the Pyrenees were laid out before me, I was not missing work.<\/p>\n

\"At
At the summit of Serre de moncamp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Walk 2 – to the Roc de Quercourt<\/h2>\n

Back to Camurac. \u00a0This time I decided to drop down into the valley on the other side of the ski-station and then climb up to the ridge and walk around to the high ski runs via the\u00a0Roc de Quercourt, probably 10km or so, as the bird flies.<\/span><\/p>\n

A mountain stream runs along the valley floor.<\/p>\n

\"Mountain
Mountain stream – For\u00eat d’Embournac<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trail at first showed signs of other hikers but they dropped off after a while and once again I was making tracks on my own through the snow. \u00a0There were plenty of animals tracks though, deer, wild boar, rabbits etc, not that I saw any beasts as such.<\/p>\n

\"Track
Track through the valley – For\u00eat d’Embournac<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The climb up to the ridge was exhausting. \u00a0Walking straight up a hill is tiring in any condition, in snow it’s double that. \u00a0I took it slowly, stopping frequently for a breather and chunks of spicy French sausage and what a delight that was!<\/p>\n

At the summit I started on the ridge walk. Everywhere I looked : white snow, grey clouds, black mountains. Fabulously beautiful (and ever so slightly threatening).<\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking towards the Carlit Massif<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I reached a lonely mountain crossroad and began to wonder at the risks I was taking. \u00a0Only two hours left of daylight and I wasn’t yet at the\u00a0Roc de Quercourt. \u00a0What if I didn’t reach Camurac before the last of the light? \u00a0There would be no moon or starlight and I had no torch…suddenly the perils of mountains in the winter became very, very apparent.<\/p>\n

But two hours? \u00a0Yes, I could do that without any problems! \u00a0I banished these dark thoughts, took a compass reading and continued on my way.<\/p>\n

\"Mountain
Mountain crossroads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I reached the Roc without delay and an hour later was sitting in the bar at the ski-station sipping on a bottle of Pelforth beer.<\/p>\n

(Note to self:<\/strong> Next time out on the mountains make sure you have a torch!).<\/p>\n

Walk 3 – the Quillan balcony<\/h2>\n

Below is the ridge to the south of the town of Quillan, I see this every day when I’m down in the Pyrenees, it is sooooooooo inviting, I mean, how can anyone possibly NOT want to climb up to the top of that ridge?<\/p>\n

\"The
The ridge above Quillan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So one day I obtained a shore-leave pass from the ski slopes and headed up to the top of the ridge.<\/p>\n

The day started a little drizzly but who cares? \u00a0I’m in the woods, I’m on a mountainside, I have spicy French sausage in my rucksack, so what if it rains a little!<\/p>\n

I saw an odd looking tree.<\/p>\n

\"Winter
Winter tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the ridge I saw Quillan and the Aude valley laid out before me. \u00a0I watched a family of hawks drifting lazily through the air. \u00a0I saw some great wild camp spots but I also saw wild boar activity right by those wild camp spots…I guess they have more of a right to the mountain than I.<\/p>\n

\"View
View of Quillan from the top of the ridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The descent gave some wonderful views of\u00a0Les Trois Quilles (from which Quillan takes its name).<\/p>\n

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

I passed fields with horses…<\/p>\n

\"Horse
Horse and ridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and ponies.<\/p>\n

\"Pyrenean
Pyrenean ponies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I arrived back in Quillan without having seen a single other person on the entire hike.<\/p>\n

Walk 4 – Above Puyvalador<\/h2>\n

We went to a different ski-station, this one is at\u00a0Puyvalador, further south than Camurac.<\/p>\n

As per usual I helped the youngsters into their various bits of gear and waved them off to the slopes. Duties discharged I went off to tackle the ‘Sentier Forestier Des Rhododendrons’, a waymarked trail just by the side of the ski-station.<\/p>\n

\"Hiking
Sentier Forestier Des Rhododendrons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was a beautiful hike uphill through snowy woods. \u00a0At the highest point of the trail I went off on my own following what was clearly a track though there were no footprints anywhere to be seen in the snow.<\/p>\n

\"View
Mountain view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a beautiful walk. \u00a0The untouched snow, the blue, blue sky, the mountains, the lovely, deep silence, I couldn’t help but grin as I walked along.<\/p>\n

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

The snowy path led me to a wood where I sat on a log in the sun and listened intently for the sounds of animals but they kept themselves well hidden away.<\/p>\n

While snowshoeing, I often find it hard not to stop, turn around and look back at my tracks in the snow…<\/p>\n

\"My
Tracks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every-now-and-again, the summit of the highest local mountain, Madres, popped its head through the cloud cover.<\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking towards mount Madres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was sorely tempted to continue on and on and on, the white path was so very inviting, alluring, almost hypnotic…<\/p>\n

Walk 5 – Rennes les-Bains to Sougraine and back<\/h2>\n

On our last full day in France, Jo joined me on a circular walk from Rennes les-Bains to Sougraine and back again to Rennes.<\/p>\n

The first half of the walk was mainly through woods, following the river Sals as it made its way to its source at Sougraine.<\/p>\n

At times the countryside was reminiscent of the fells of northern England.<\/p>\n

\"Countryside
Countryside near Sougraine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We arrived at Sougraine hoping to find a bar for a drink but alas the one place open appeared abandoned by its owners. We rang the on the doorbell for a while but no one answered, it’s a sleepy village.<\/p>\n

\"Sougraine\"
Sougraine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The centre of the village offered an attractive fountain but alas the water is not drinkable.<\/p>\n

\"Me
Me in Sougraine (NOTE: water not drinkable!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We crossed to the other side of the valley and started the walk back to Rennes.<\/p>\n

\"Sougraine
Sougraine pony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we climbed higher the scenery grew all the more outstanding.<\/p>\n

\"Above
Above Sougraine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We rested at the summit.<\/p>\n

\"Jo\"
Jo on the summit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And looked over westwards towards Quillan with the snow crested Pic de St-Barthelemy in the background.<\/p>\n

\"Mountain
Mountain view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A a gentle hike through the woods led us back to Rennes for a well deserved beer.<\/p>\n

\"A
A beer in Rennes Les-Baines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lovely walk.<\/p>\n

(with thanks, as ever, to Ann)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, it’s the annual family journey to the French Pyrenees for some skiing. I, however, \u00a0am not really a huge…<\/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":[107,39,140,106,76,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393"}],"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=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2439,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}