GR10 Pyrenees days 8 and 9, to Logibar and Ste. Engrâce

It was raining hard the morning of day 8 and very misty. I took the short route, mainly by the road, to Logibar. It was down, down, down, 1000m descent through a pretty green valley. Logibar isn’t really a town, just an isolated gîte/auberge. However, it was comfortable and the food was good. No wifi.

Today, day 9, was long, about 8 hours at a good pace. 1200m climb and about 27km in distance. Again, in an isolated gîte but this one, surprisingly, has good wifi. Mist, lots of mud and a bit too much road walking, but no rain and overall a good day. I got here at 3:00. It is 5:30 now and the last of our little group just staggered in, moaning a little, but saying they enjoyed the day as they savoured cold beer.

This area has deep river gorges, as much as 300m deep in spots. The trail crossed a suspension foot bridge 150m above a river today. Very spectacular.

We’ve become a fun little group. The French can be reserved but after a few days I’ve been accepted; people who might have been embarrassed to use their imperfect English when we first met (the French are particular about language) now speak a bit of English to me and work to understand my poor French. Except Alan who I met at the start; he speaks no English but is very friendly and loves to talk. He knows my French is limited but continues to talk to me in rapid colloquial French. If I say I don’t understand (in French of course), he repeats himself just as fast. He is very enthusiastic and I like him.

We had another English speaker turn up yesterday. He’s from England but lives and works in Amsterdam. He speaks Dutch, but very little French. He was doing the haute route (higher and harder than the GR10) but decided to take the GR10 as the weather has been bad. He seems to have hit it off very well with Charlotte, a young French woman who speaks excellent English. Cute to watch.