Once again I'm sitting here and don't know what to write about the wonderful Pyrenees. I can't get a song about mountains, valleys and lakes out of my head, and it took me a while to find it -> "Mountains and Valleys" from Bender & Schillinger
But that's what the Pyrenees are for me. An unbelievable amount of mountains, passes, valleys and even more lakes. And all stunning
So I'll start with a little Wikipedia know-how:
The Pyrenees are divided into
- the eastern Pyrenees
- the High and Central Pyrenees and
- the Western/Atlantic Pyrenees
The highest mountain is the Pico de Aneto at 3404 meters, south of Vielha in Spain
I entered the Pyrénées-Orientales <as it is called in France> south of Carcassonne. There wasn't much going on until Font-Romeu.
Isolated small villages or hamlets, a few lonely farms. The gorges are narrow and not made for large vans. Some of the rock overhangs come down damn far.
In retrospect, I can only estimate how many passes I made, but it was around 5.
Up until then, Font-Romeu wasn't the first ski resort in the Pyrénées-Orientales I'd been through, but it was the biggest and I was suddenly surrounded by campers. Not that it bothered me, but I was no longer alone in the evening.
I donated a separate article to my Mountains - Borders - Surprises, so I'd rather write a little bit about the N260, because that's a Spanish national road (N) that runs through the Pyrenees <East - West>. The good thing about the N260 is that whenever you get close to a point of interest you turn off on the related C or A road like the C28 to the Val d'Aran. It´s more important for me to prioritize what I wanted to see otherwise I could have spend months in the Pyrenees.
I'm writing about Spain, but the people I dealt with spoke more Catalan than Spanish. But it took a few days before I got it.
My 2nd destination was the Parc Nacional d'Aigüestortes or as the influencer on Instagram refer to it, the Val d'Aran. Didn't actually knew that I would end up in the Val d'Aran when I turned off the N 260 onto the C28 towards Baqueira.
My hike in the park led me to the Refugio de Saboredo with gorgeous mountain ponds & lakes. I was amazed how many people go hiking here. From young to old you will find everyone here.
My tour was difficult for me, especially the last pass back to the pitch. If I had been a bit more fit and had hiked to the Tuc de Ratera, I could have seen many more mountain lakes.
Along the Garonne I went via Vielha and the Col du Portillon to France and the Lac d'Oo.
The Lac d'Oo was nice but definitely crowded and compared to the other spots before only OK'ish. Where should I go from here?
Slightly unimpressed I ended up in Loudenvielle via the Col de Peyresourde the same day. If it had been busy in the mountains before, the camp in Loudenvielle was full to the brim. I got the 2nd last pitch. How so? Loudenvielle is a meeting place for para-gliders.
They fly off from the Col d'Azet. I spent 2 hours at the Col the next day to take pictures.
Since the weather was launing, I looked for the sun and found it in a ski resort in Piau-Engaly. Check out the hike I did here. It's beautiful in a ski resort in the summer. I also met Meike and Thorsten from Zimmermitausblick.de <you can find more pictures and reports about the Pyrenees on their website>
After a few days I went back to Spain. In hindsight it was a mistake because I drove in the poor weather. I imagine the landscape around Torla-Ordesa, the Ordesa Valley and the Río Gállego to be breathtaking when the weather is nice. I had already planned hiking routes on Komoot, but postponed is not canceled.
What really made me sorry was that any kind of boondocking is strictly forbidden in the Gállego Valley and later near the pass, even in the ski resort car parks. So you meet all the vans a few kilometers later in France. Concentrated in a few places.
I only saw Mt Balaïtous from afar, what a pity!
But at the Col d'Aubisque and later at the Col de Soulor I was able to admire the mountain range from the north.
Yes, and that was the Pyrenees in fast motion. From here I went via Pau and Agen back to the Massif Central
