After leaving
Bolquere following our gentle stroll among the pistes on Wednesday,
we had driven east, descending the beautiful twisting road along the
steep sided valley forged by the La Tet river all the way to the
Mediterranean sea close to Perpignan, staying overnight in the small
town of Le Boulou near the Spanish border. We knew from the weather
forecasts we had seen that winter really was now just around the
corner. After more than 6 weeks in the Pyrenees since we had made
that long drive from Agde to Luz St Saveur (expecting at any time to
find ourselves chased out of the mountains by rain, snow and
plummeting temperatures) that the weekend ahead was expected to bring
over 100mm of rain with cooler temperatures to follow even when the
rain cleared. Having unexpectedly enjoyed an incredible autumn in the
Pyrenees, tackling many amazing cycling climbs and stunning hikes, we
knew that it was now just a matter of days until we had to say
farewell and journey south for winter.
However, that
still left one reasonably mild day before the torrential rain and
storms arrived in which to give our hiking legs one more day out in
the Pyrenees. Although the peaks this close to the coast are not as
high as those in the centre of the range, reaching around 1000 –
1500m, the trails also begin much lower in altitude so there are
plenty of long challenging hikes still accessible. Also, having
passed through this same area the previous year during our trek along the Pyrenean Way it was an exciting prospect to be revisiting some of
those some peaks we had passed through on our way to the sea. Our
target for the day was the Roc de France (also called Roc de Frausa
on some maps) at 1450m right on the French-Spanish border. We hadvisited this same peak the previous year on the GR10 trail on a legbetween Arles-sur-Tech and Le Perthus. This time, however, we would
try the ascent from the town of Amelie-les-Bains-Palada where we
expected to find a motorhome aire.
Arriving in
Amelie-les-Bains we discovered that the GPS coordinates for the aire
that our guidebook contained were not quite accurate and we ended up
wasting nearly an hour of the limited daylight tracking down a good
place to park, eventually hitting the trail soon after midday (not
helped by the fact it was market day). The trails from
Amelie-les-Bains to Roc de France form an excellent but challenging
loop with the Haute Route Pyrenees (HRP) taking a more direct line to
the summit and an alternative route taking in part of the GR10
through the hamlet of Montalba for a return (time permitting of
course).
Climbing steeply
at first then settling into a gently sloping trail through wooded
hills we were soon strolling along at around 600m altitude. Every now
and then the trees would open up to reveal an amazing perspective of
the enormous Canigou massif lying further to the west. The Pic du
Canigou at 2784m is the final 2500m plus summit before the Pyrenees
reach the Mediterranean and the giant bulk of the massif stands out
above the otherwise flattening landscape around. Dusted with snow and
topped with clouds it was also the perfect opportunity for Esther to
give her new camera it's first real test since we'd picked it up in
Andorra two days beforehand.
After two hours of
hiking through the forests we reached the cluster of buildings named
Can Felix and another hour and half later arrived at the 961m high
Coll del Ric getting our first real view of the Roc de France in the
distance and a tantalising view east across the plains all the way to
the sea. Estimating that we still had more than an hour to go we knew
that our plan of completing a loop was just not going to be possible
today since it was already 3pm and it would be dark in less than 3
hours. Still, we also knew we had time to push on for another half an
hour to simply enjoy the view and the wind on our faces (which was
quite strong by now).
By the time we
turned around we had reached 1200m and although it was sad not to
have reached the summit we knew it was the safe decision. The long
walk downhill to our motorhome took three hours and we passed the
time recounting all of the wonderful memories we had from all of the
hikes and cycles we had tackled since leaving the UK 6 months
beforehand. By the time we reached our back door it was fully dark.
Driving back to our overnight resting place at Le Boulou we reflected
on what had been a wonderful day, but also an amazing autumn in the
Pyrenees and in fact an incredible adventure so far. Leaving the
Pyrenees really feels like a watershed in our adventure and the start
of a new chapter. Who knows what the winter will bring?
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