George & Mostyn - Walking the GR10

Tuesday, 17th June 2008

George:It was still raining in the morning. I swapped a few supplies with Mostyn, taking back things he no longer needed and leaving him with some of the more essential things I was carrying. The owner of the gîte phoned for a taxi for me and while I was waiting for it I had a look round the interesting Romanesqu church at St-Engrace. When the taxi arrived I bad goodbye and good luck to Mostyn and Ian and started on a very frustrating journey home. The SNCF trains were on strike so I had to spend an extra night in Oleron Ste Marie.

Mostyn:Ian and I started walking soon after George left. It was raining again. Steady at first, but then it became heavier. The first part of the walk was through a gorge for about 45 minutes and then up into a forest. As we left the forest the rain stopped for about 30 minutes, after that it became heavy for the rest of the day.

When we reached the Col de la Pierre-St-Martin we had difficulty finding the route, so Ian disappeared into the mist to the right and I went to the left. After about 100 m I found the GR sign and called Ian. We set off down a "zig-zag" route. We were both very tired and eager to reach the Refuge, so we decided to cut off the bends. This was a mistake as the GR track left the road on one of the bends, so we missed the route. We eventually reached a ski resort and asked a lorry driver for directions to the Refuge Jeandel. By a stroke of luck it was only 300 m away. Today's walk was short, but very steep. It only took us 5 hours, but we were very tired and wet.

On arrival at the Refuge, I opened the door, only to be confronted by the Patron who told us to take off our boots before entering. There appeared to be no heating on, so when we saw an electric heater in the dormitory I switched it on. Within a few seconds the patron came in and turned it off, saying that this was a refuge and they couldn't afford to run heaters. He did however light a fire so that we could dry our gear. I asked if I could wash a few things. I was informed that I must do it in a bucket outside - IN THE RAIN! The system was to fill the bucket, take it outside, do the washing, empty the bucket down the toilet, then refill the bucket, take it outside, rinse the washing and empty the bucket down the toilet.

It was this day when my mobile phone began to make a rather strange buzzing noise. When I took it out of my pocket I couldn't turn it off, so I took the battery out. It was soaked, never to work again. Have you ever noticed that when you have a mobile phone in another country you get a message that welcomes you to the country? Well, one thing I won't miss are the welcoming messages. As we walked in the high mountains the phone was sometimes served by a French radio mast and sometimes by a Spanish one - each time we changed range, the phone beeped with a message, it was very irritating. I will miss my phone, but not the messages. I told the lady at the Refuge that I needed to call my wife, so she and the patron had a discussion, the outcome of which was that, as the call was internal within France, it would be OK so long as it only lasted for a couple of minutes.

Despite draconian regulations we had an excellent meal with a pichet of wine. As the patron was on the computer for most of the time that we were there I asked him what the weather was going to be like the following day. He said that it was guaranteed to be a sunny day - I decided to believe that when I saw it.